JUST IN : Safety TAO Johnson claims the squad needs the ….. to the bye.
Safety Tao Johnson gives an update on how the Utes bye week went and preparation for Arizona State
The No. 16 ranked Utah football team is ready to get back on the field after not only suffering a bad loss but then going into a bye week. Safety Tao Johnson feels that how Utah entered the bye week was rough but good.
“It sucks because the bye week could go one or two ways. It could be a good little recovery week where you can just really focus on a lot of things or you could be like we had to do, really buckle down and work on things we need to work on this,” Johnson said. “So it’s good for us. And you know, it may be a little tiresome or suck a little bit, but it’s good for us and what we needed.”
Given that extra time, Johnson feels that the team is more acutely aware of what they need to do better as the season goes on.
“Eliminating personal errors and, our own little things that keep all 11 people from working together. Like staying over the top for myself, D lineman doing their thing, keeping quarterbacks contained, and just getting to the ball,” Johnson said.
He added that they have a good knowledge of what can make this week’s game better compared to two weeks ago.
“We know that, coming up this week we have another physical game, Arizona they ran the ball a lot, this is a team that prides themselves on running the ball, both the running back and the quarterback and so we’re gonna have to play physical, buckle down, play our normal game and get back to who we are and I think we will be fine,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s on-field partner, Alaka’i Gilman has been quickly improving in this Utah defense, and his nickname from his peers showcases that.
“We call him The Professor because he’s picked up the playbook really fast. He understands our defense really well. He makes great reads and pre-snap reads, and so he’s able to make a lot of plays with his mind first, and he flies around. He’s fast, he’s physical and smart guy, a vet for sure,” Johnson said.
With the continued uncertainty at the quarterback position, Johnson knows that the defense has been in the position before where sometimes the outcome of the game is going to depend on them but it’s nothing new for them.
“This is a situation we’ve been in before. We spent a long time in this situation. So, as a defense, we know what it’s like to have to go out there and try to get a stop every single drive, or try to be the ones who put points on the scoreboard,” Johnson said. “So we don’t mind the challenge. It’s a team effort, you know? And so it’s not offense lacking, it’s not defense lacking. It takes all 22 people to really come out with the dub.”