- Utah QB Devon Dampier played against Texas Tech despite an ankle injury.
- Coach Whittingham confirmed Dampier's limited practice impacted his performance Saturday.
- Dampier threw for 162 yards with two interceptions and rushed for 27 yards.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah starting quarterback Devon Dampier wasn't fully healthy coming into Saturday's tilt with Texas Tech, head coach Kyle Whittingham confirmed Monday.
There was never a question Dampier would play Saturday, but a nagging ankle injury sustained a week earlier against Wyoming limited his role in the week of practice before Saturday's game.
"He's doing the best he could," Whittingham said. "Wasn't able to practice Tuesday or Wednesday, a little bit Thursday. I'm going to tell you that it definitely impacted Devon. But if you're out there, you've got to get it done, so we never use that as an excuse."
Dampier, though, never showed up on the Big 12's mandated availability report at any point in the week; he was always planning on playing.
The New Mexico transfer looked limited at times against Texas Tech, with a notable miss on a wide-open pass to Tobias Merriweather, and finished the game throwing for 162 yards and two interceptions on 25-of-38 passing. He added 27 yards on the ground on 11 rush attempts.
Texas Tech is deservedly credited for stopping Dampier and the offense — the team's problem was more than just an injury — but the injury did impact the team's starter and how he operates as a dual-threat weapon.
In terms of whether the injury is long-term, Whittingham said "we hope not," but added "we'll just have to see how it goes."
"I think he's in a better place — well, I know he's in a better place right now on Monday than he was last Monday, so that bodes well," he said.
To Whittingham, it was one bad performance — the offense as a whole included — and they haven't lost faith in their starting quarterback.
"We believe in him completely, and he's without a doubt our quarterback," Whittingham said. "You can't panic off one game that was not up to par. And, again, we already talked about another reason why that may have been.
"But he's a guy that really is tuned in, he's got a great awareness, he understands that Utah football's got a pretty good reputation here in this town, and we get great support from our community, and that's a motivating factor to lay it on the line for him and play aggressive football. But I don't think one sub par game is fair to judge him off that. The first three games, he is pretty darn good."
Dampier credited Texas Tech after the loss, but said after the game the team made more mistakes than what the Red Raiders did against Utah.
"We put ourselves in some tough situations," Dampier said. "You try to minimize the self mistakes — we consider those more self mistakes than them making plays. So, that's just something we want to control a lot better going into these next following weeks."
Utah will look to rebound in an East coast road trip against West Virginia on Saturday (1:30 p.m. MDT, FOX).
