Utah handled its business Saturday night, even amidst some continued adversity, and rolled past Arizona 45-20 to move to 7-2 on the year and 5-1 in Pac-12 play. The Utes ran for north of 300 yards as a team and led by as many as 35 points throughout.

After the game, coach Kyle Whittingham met with reporters to recap how it played out and offer some updates on the various injuries Utah is battling through on offense.

Here’s everything he said, with video of the press conference below.

Opening statement

“Good effort from our guys again tonight. We had some really good performances from guys filling in for our other guys. Thomas Yassmin played solid and blocked very well, I know he had the one fumble, but he did some really good things. Nate Johnson, our freshman quarterback, came in and gave us a little bit of a Wildcat package that was productive and scored a couple of touchdowns. Defense, I thought, played well for the entire night, created takeaways, and was good on third down.

“The real story of the game was our offense’s ability to run the football, 300-plus yards rushing and anytime you do that, you are going to control the game, which happened tonight.

“Cam (Rising), great to have him back. Wasn’t as sharp as he usually is, but that’ll come. He’s still not completely 100% but he’s very close and it was great to have him back in the lineup tonight.

“Special teams, we had the big play on the muffed punt where we recovered down there. Of course, we muffed one of our own at the end there, but the game was no longer in the balance at that point. That was a big play when we were able to recover the punt they mishandled.

“Overall another step in the right direction for us. This thing’s winding down, we are right in the thick of it still. We’re hopefully going to get some guys back this next week that we were missing today, but we’ll see.”

On whether he considered a package for Nate Johnson prior to the week, and what went into the decision to have one now

“We were low on running backs, as far as healthy running backs. We were down Dalton (Kincaid). Just looking for a way to provide some more creative ways to provide a spark, and he sure did that. You saw how fast he is. He is the fastest kid on the team. You saw what he did on the track when he was in high school. He’s got blazing speed, and I think you saw that manifest tonight.”

On whether Johnson will factor into the offense more down the stretch

“We will see what happens going forward and what Andy comes up with. That was all Coach Ludwig’s brainchild and implementation, and so if it looks like it’s going to be something we can hang onto and continue to get mileage out of it, we will do that.”

On the key to the run game

“The offensive line. The offensive line was doing a great job of blocking things up and re-establishing the line of scrimmage and getting knock-off on the line of scrimmage. The running backs ran hard, and they did some good things on their own, but nobody rushes for over 300 yards without the offensive line controlling the line of scrimmage.”

On Johnson’s potential

“Nate’s got a ton of potential. He’s got a very high ceiling. He also throws the ball very well. We see it in practice every day, you guys haven’t seen that yet, but he has got a very high ceiling.”

On whether RB Tavion Thomas is making progress

“We think so. We hope so. He’s in a good situation right now and so we hope we can continue to keep him integrated and contributing.”

On Jaylon Glover and Ja’Quinden Jackson’s status

“We’ll find out more tomorrow. I know it was upper body with JJ and lower body with Jaylon. That’s all we can say right now. We’ll see how serious they are. We’ll get a lot better read on that tomorrow and Monday.”

On CB Zemaiah Vaughn

“That was probably his… well, I don’t think probably, that was absolutely his best game as a Ute. He was making play after play. He’s a very talented kid. He’s got great speed. He’s a 4.4, 4.35 guy. He’s a little on the lean side, we keep trying to put weight on him. He’s up to about 185 so that’s a good thing. For a former quarterback that’s only been playing corner for a couple of years now, he’s doing a nice job.”

On Ja’Quinden Jackson

“He continues to make strides every week, feeling more comfortable every week in his role and in the entirety of the scope of the position, with blitz pickups and the route-running. The ball-carrying came naturally to him because he had a lot of experience as a running back growing up and also was a quarterback in the shotgun. He did a lot of quarterback run game, but he’s getting a good feel and a lot of confidence in the pass-pro and the routes.”

On DE Jonah Elliss

“Jonah was all over the place. He is a terrific athlete, and I’m convinced that if we decided to do that, he could be a great middle linebacker. That’s how athletic, fast, and agile he is, but right now he is doing a great job on the edge for us. He’s really a valuable commodity for our defense.”

On whether Rising’s performance was about rust or the weather or something else

“Probably a little of everything. He’s still not 100%. We expect that hopefully to be there by next week. Ball was a little slick at times but I don’t know if that had a big deal (with it). He was just missing some throws, throws he usually makes 10 out of 10 times.”

On the secondary

“I thought they played very well. That quarterback was real elusive. We had to cover for five, six seconds at a time on occasion. That’s not a knock on our defensive line because he’s done that to every single team he’s played this year. I thought relative to the circumstances, the secondary played very well and did some good things.”

On OL Johnny Maea filling in for Paul Maile

“Looked like it was very solid. Didn’t notice him making any mistakes. We’ve got to grade the film obviously to get the details of it, but watching the game as it was in progress, he was doing a phenomenal job in pass protection and run-blocking. He’s a good player.”