Hard work is the antidote for the Utah Utes after Florida

Question: Kyle talked about the defense is a little soft, that they didn't live up to kind of what you guys were hoping for. What's kind of your general assessment of the defense?

Sharrieff Shah: "Exactly what Coach Whitt said, that we didn't make plays that we should have, that we were unreasonably soft, should have played tougher, made more tackles. The plays were there to be made and we didn't make them. And so I agree with exactly what Coach Whitt said."

Question: When you see some of that stuff on film, and you know, you guys couldn't get off the field on third down, there was a critical fourth down late in the game. How frustrating is it from that standpoint that you guys were one play away from still getting it done?

Sharrieff Shah: "It reaffirms a few things. One, at least you know, that you're putting your boys in the right position, right? You're being put in those critical plays, that require somebody to just stand up and make a play. So that's good. Now, you just want somebody to make the play. You don't want guys to uniformly wilt in those moments. So that's probably equally frustrating to be in those particular junctures and time and time again in that game, and not have enough people who stand up and make plays. And that was just, felt like the worst dream ever. And I couldn't wake up from. It was very frustrating."

Question: Where do you go from here for that?

Sharrieff Shah: "Work. Work. Just come back and do exactly what we did today. Have a hard practice, tackle better, practice live tackling, have better man coverage. Work on the things that we saw were glaring negatives, especially from my room. Thought we didn't fit properly blocks on the edge. We allowed runs that should have been minimized to have huge gains because receivers were blocking us and we should have gotten off and shedding. So you come in, you correct those things and you get ready for the next opponent because the next opponent could care less about how close you were to Florida. And they're ready to come in here and try to you know, kick you in the face. So you come back and you just work."

Question: For "Bloody Tuesday" (longest, hardest practice) is it common practice to make Tuesday that day?

Sharrieff Shah: "I mean for us it is, it has been forever. Bloody Tuesday has been the moniker of this practice forever. Coach Whitt makes certain that everybody feels it from warm up, 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. Oh you feel it, you feel exactly what Bloody Tuesday feels like. And after you walk off the field and if you've committed yourself to this practice, you feel good. You feel like, 'Okay, I can begin to exercise some of the demons that plagued me on Saturday, and begin to get ready to put an absolutely wonderful performance on film on Saturday.' But it takes this level of work and grinding in order to get the results that you want on Saturday."

Question: How different is the vibe on a Tuesday after a loss than a win?

Sharrieff Shah: "Much more of a concerted effort for physicality. People are chippy. It's you know, bad attitudes and I love it. I love it. I love the violence. I love people on edge, that extra level of physicality, because that's what was missing on Saturday. So that's good. You want these practices to again, begin to mimic some of the things that you hope will show up on the Saturday that's coming."

Question: What did you like from the corners this past Saturday?

Sharrieff Shah: "Our response a few times to the screen game was really good. JaTravis, Clark. I mean, I thought JT did a really nice job working. Both he and Clark did a good job of responding. Screen game is just how bad do you want to make a play on the ball and beat one man? It's one on one. And it's just a physical play. And so I love our response in that play. That was really good to me."

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