Utah coach Kyle Whittingham says Tyler Huntley’s time on the field — and off — against Cal was beneficial

Utah Utes quarterback Tyler Huntley (1) passes during the game against the California Golden Bears at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Senior quarterback showing his toughness as the ninth-ranked Utes gear up for Washington trip

SALT LAKE CITY — Tyler Huntley doesn’t mess around when it comes to getting back on the field. The Utah quarterback, who was hobbled in games against USC and Arizona State, bounced back the following week in both instances — starting and leading the Utes to victories.

Such was the case in Saturday’s 35-0 win over California. Huntley directed three touchdown drives during the first two quarters. He wound up completing 11 of 17 passes for 214 yards before giving way to Jason Shelley and Drew Lisk in the second half.

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said the Cal game was beneficial for Huntley on two fronts — getting him some action instead of a week off before this Saturday’s game at Washington, and enabling him to take the second half off to heal up a bit.

”I thought coach (Andy) Ludwig did an outstanding job of tailoring the offense to his state of physical wellness. There were some things we took off his plate and supplemented that with Jason Shelley,” Whittingham said. “I thought that was a good plan of attack. Andy needs to be commended for that.”

Whittingham confirmed the decision to rest Huntley in the second half was based on getting a stop to open the third quarter. That led to Shelley and Lisk finishing things off.

Huntley is now 19-8 as Utah’s starter, ranking as the fourth-highest win total in team history. The senior is in the midst of his most productive season with the Utes. He tops the Pac-12 in completion percentage (.731), pass efficiency (181.0 rating) and yards per pass (10.65). His ESPN “Total QBR” of 87.9 is the fifth-best in the nation.

After the win over Cal, Whittingham said Huntley’s availability wasn’t certain until pregame warmups.

“He was pretty dicey all week long, he didn’t practice much early in the week. As the week progressed, he practiced a little more, but you can see he still wasn’t 100 percent,” Whittingham said. “But he wanted to go, and I thought we did a great job of scheming things to help him with his lack of his mobility to take some of the ‘need to move around’ off of him.”

Whittingham added that Huntley played a solid first half. He provided inspiration for his teammates.

“Yeah, it makes you want to go harder because the guy is a warrior,” said senior running back Zack Moss. “I didn’t really doubt him missing this game, he prepared his tail off each and every day — late nights just working and trying to get himself ready to go for this game. I know we all wanted to go hard for him and the O-line did a great job protecting him.”

When asked about Huntley’s “inner toughness,” Moss had plenty of praise for his former Florida high school teammate.

“That’s just how he grew up. Just fighting the tougher battles in life and things like that,” Moss said. “So when something like this happens to him he just will man up and take it down like he did tonight.”

Earlier in the week, when rumors were swirling about his status for Cal, Huntley didn’t mince any words when asked about it.

“I’m playing,” he said.

Entering this weekend’s game at Washington, Huntley leads the No. 9-ranked Utes with 1,778 yards passing. He’s also rushed for 229 yards.

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Utes on the air

No. 9/10 Utah (7-1, 3-1) at Washington (5-3, 2-3)

Husky Stadium — Seattle

Saturday, 2 p.m. (Mountain)

TV: FOX

Radio: ESPN 700 AM

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