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SALT LAKE CITY — R.J. Hubert got a smirk on his face when he was asked about it — almost like there was some hidden and secret meaning behind it, but not quite of the sinister type.
It reality, though, it was just a stat — a measurement of success — for how well Utah's defense has come together since a Week 1 outing against Florida that head coach Kyle Whittingham described as "soft."
Three weeks after allowing Anthony Richardson and the Gators to run all over them, Utah's defense gave up only 6 rushing yards to Arizona State.
Even if the lost yardage due to Utah's five sacks on the night is taken out, Arizona State only managed 53 rushing yards — and that included bottling up the NCAA's leading active career rusher, Xazavian Valladay, to only 31 yards in a 35-13 win to open up conference play.
"We hang our hat on that," Hubert said, addressing the smirk on his face meant to indicate the pride the defense feels in a limited run game. "When we didn't hold teams to that few yards, like when they were getting 200-something on us, it was very disheartening and we had to kind of look at ourselves in the mirror and say, 'OK, what are we doing wrong? How do I improve?'
"We cleaned those things up, and that is, I guess, the culmination of all that work that we've put in these last couple weeks."
The about-face to what Utah's defense trotted out onto the field in Gainesville, Florida, on Sept. 3 has been noticeable — even to the untrained eye. There's been a better emphasis to contain the run, better all-around coverage, better communication on the field, and overall success limiting teams to low total yardage and points.
In the three games since Florida, Utah has given up just 27 points collectively (7 points came in garbage time against Arizona State), which is still lower than any of Utah's final scores in each of the three games since. Additionally, in those three games, Utah's averages on total defense (175.0 yards/gm), rushing defense (54.0 yards/gm), and passing defense (121.0 yards/gm) would rank first or second in the country.
While the totality of the season must be factored into the stats, as well as Utah's opponents, it's a clear signal that Utah's defense is improving as the season develops. From top to bottom — the coaches and players — attribute their recent success to better "fundamentals," "technique," and "mentality."
"The fundamentals and the technique have been getting better and better, and really the front has gotten better since the first game," Whittingham said. "The first game, as we mentioned, was just an aberration, I guess you could say — it was not good.
"But that's been the biggest key is those (defensive) tackles have settled in and really are doing a great job with their gap control, which lets the linebackers fit and flow. The defensive ends have been pretty solid all year controlling the edges, but the improved play of the D tackles has been the biggest difference."
One of those defensive tackles, sophomore Junior Tafuna, attributed the recent success to having a better "mindset" about the games and what the teams' purpose is each week, in particular on the defensive side of the ball. He said the Week 1 game was "just a lot of noise" and a "lot of expectations" to be good that Utah kind of lost itself.
Since then and the "learning experience" the team went through, the defense has been much improved.
"The first week isn't how we wanted it," Tafuna said. "I think since we've bounced back from that first week, it's just been like our main focus of where we want to go and where we want to be. So it's kind of just a realization and bringing back that swagger and confidence to our minds. I'd say it's been helping us, been helping me, and helping all the boys on the line."
Added Hubert: "We've always had the talent to do it, it's just we didn't do it and we weren't committed to doing the right technique and using the right fundamentals. And once we got back to that and polished those things up, the score and the stats really started to show that."
It's a gradual process, especially as the team returns several veteran players but has several underclassmen filling in roles in key positions, like at the edge position opposite Van Fillinger or at linebacker. It's a group that is coming together and learning to communicate and understand each other's tendencies to put out a better product on the field.
But it's not a finished product just yet.
"I definitely don't think we've hit our best," Tafuna said. "But I know every week we're getting better, and so every week is always gonna be our best just because of the practice we put in and the film and hard work we put in.
"We're all playing in unison right now, and that's probably been the best thing, because we're out there having fun together; you'll see us celebrating together. And that's been the biggest thing. That's making us play loose out there as a defense playing together instead of just one guy making a play — he's celebrating — but we're all there."
Oregon State will be the stiffest test to date to see how much Utah's defense has improved, especially after the Beavers held a high-powered offense in USC to a low-scoring affair. But the same fundamentals and practices remain: Utah's defense takes pride in stopping the run before anything else — even before havoc plays like sacks or tackles for loss.
Stop the run, turn the ball over, and Utah likes its chances in any game — at least with its defensive performance. And with Oregon State being somewhat of a "revenge game" after the Beavers gave Utah its sole conference loss of the season last year, the stakes remain high for the defense to showcase its improvement over the last three weeks.
"It was for sure a game that we can't forget," defensive linemen coach Lewis Powell said. "There's some guys that were younger that were freshmen, including our two defensive tackles that game, that are excited for facing these guys again and hopefully get some payback."
"This is very important for a lot of us, because a lot of us did play in that game, and it's very personal," Tafuna said. "Just because going down there, I mean, yeah, we got ran all over the place, but it just brings in a whole deeper meaning of why coming to Rice-Eccles and why we need to step up our game and just perform and execute our technique to be able to come back and win."
