One thing Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham won’t tolerate in his program is soft.

And that’s exactly what he saw from the defense when it opened the season against Florida this past Saturday. The 13th-ranked Utes lost 29-26 after giving up nearly 300 rushing yards. The per-play efficiency Florida enjoyed on the ground was the best by a Utah opponent this century. Whittingham called the run defense soft, sloppy, abysmal, and a whole bunch else at his Monday press conference.

So, on Tuesday, practice was particularly brutal.

“If Saturday wasn’t a gut check,” safety RJ Hubert said, per ESPN’s Porter Larsen, “today certainly was.”

Every Tuesday, Utah conducts what it reportedly calls “Bloody Tuesday.”

The intention is to simulate a game. It’s the hardest Utah will practice during the week, designed to test and stress players in the same way they will be on gameday.

“Coach makes certain that everybody feels it — from the warmup, from the time that we come out and don’t stretch but you’re running wind sprints, to the live tackling sessions, to the repeated long special teams, to extended periods,” coach Sharrieff Shah told reporters, according to The Salt Lake Tribune’s Alex Vejar. “Oh yeah, you feel it.”

Players and coaches describe the day as violent. Players get chippy. Is there actual blood? Maybe not, but there will for sure be hitting.

“Continue to work hard,” Whittingham said Monday when asked how they keep an opening loss from affecting the rest of the season. “Not ever change your work habits based on the opponent. You’ve got to work at a high level. You’ve got to prepare the right way. Everybody’s gotta get better.”

The Utes play at home for the first time this season on Saturday when they host Southern Utah at 10:30 a.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network.