The 14th-ranked Utah Utes dominated Colorado from start to finish Saturday to claim their ninth win of the year and secure a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game for the fourth time in five seasons (with some help from Washington). After the game, coach Kyle Whittingham met with reporters to break things down.

Here’s everything he said:

Opening statement:

“Really dominating performance by our guys, very proud of the way they came out and played. Really good teams finish things the right way and we definitely finished the regular season the right way. A lot of outstanding performances. Ja’Quinden Jackson outstanding, 100 plus yards rushing. Cam Rising who didn’t take a snap in the second half was lights out in the first half. Darn near 90% Completion and 200 plus yards. Great job by the line tonight. Blocking things up in the run game. We ended up with 383 yards rushing. Defense played outstanding. Was good to get the twos and the threes in there. The second half they played the vast majority of the second half on both sides of the ball, the 2s and 3s. Special teams were solid. So, all around a good way to put kind of an exclamation mark on the regular season. At the end, obviously with what’s transpired we’re in the hunt. We’ll see what happens, three things have happened, four had to happen. We got one to go tonight and we’ll be rooting hard for the Huskies and see where it takes us. Huskies win, we’ll gear up for the game next weekend. If not, then we’ll figure out what’s next. But regardless, we’re very proud of our guys very proud of this football team.”

On what worked

“The physicality in the run game. We ran the football with a lot of purpose and violence and anger. The backs were really hitting it up in there. Third downs were really good. We made it tough on both sides of the ball. Defensively, I think they were one of 13 on third down. So really good third-down production, really good job running the football, we threw the ball efficiently. You have to look really hard at it to find a negative.”

On whether or not they knew the outcome of the Oregon-Oregon State game

“Not until the very end. I saw the score flash up like everyone else did periodically, but not until deep into the fourth quarter was I getting some feedback from my guy on the sidelines.”

On QB Cam Rising

“He’s our leader. There’s no question about that. I’ve said that all season long over and over again. As Cam goes, so goes the offense. He was 17 of 19. I mean, he was extremely sharp in that first half. He did a great job taking care of the football. We put a lot on his plate as far as on the line of scrimmage checks getting us in and out of the right plays depending on the defensive looks. So he’s got a lot on his plate as far as decision-making pre-snap and he does an outstanding job with it.”

On RB Ja’Quinden Jackson

“Big 225-pound back that can run. You saw him break away on that one long one, he’s got great speed and it’s really a huge positive for us to have him emerging like he is.”

On playing Colorado

“They’re dangerous, every team can be dangerous. You never know what’s gonna ignite a team on Senior Day. Momentum is a funny thing too. If all of a sudden, they make a few plays early and get momentum, we were not taking them for granted and we prepared the right way. We practice hard, and didn’t cut back on any of our preparation. We did it exactly how we do it week in and week out. That was our approach. I can’t speak for them but that’s how we handled it.”

On RB Tavion Thomas

“He was not able to practice last week and I think Tavion’s made the correct decision and we support him 100%. We are hoping that he can get completely healthy for this East-West game. He should be able to, and then hopefully have an opportunity in the National Football League to see what he can do.”

“He decided that because this thing might be a while, his ligament, his toe, or whatever is going on there. It’s an honest decision. Like I said, We support it. I just listen to him and he’s got some people back home that are advisors for him, high school coaches and staff that know him very well. They just all were in the same camp and that was the direction they wanted to go. We gave him our vote of confidence on it. Hopefully, it’ll be alright. It’s too early to tell. So far, all the diagnoses and things they’ve done don’t reveal anything that appears to be serious but again, something like this you’ve got to wait a few days and see where it goes.”

On reps for 2s and 3s in the game

“That’s always important. Fortunately, we’ve had some success through the years where we’ve been comfortably ahead in fourth quarters and able to get the twos and threes reps quite often. That really pays dividends down the road and gets them that much closer to being ready to be regular guys in the frontline. That’s who’s going to be the frontline guys eventually when these guys graduate and go move on, those are the guys that end up stepping forward. To get them as many reps and as much experience as we can is always a very positive thing.”

On going 9-3

“They’re all big. Every one is big and to get our ninth win of the season and finish 7-2 in league play, I’m very proud of these guys. Like I said, the bar is set pretty high here now, and that should not be taken for granted. That’s a really good season our guys put together.”