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EUGENE, ORE. -- The Oregon Duck's Chip Kelly doesn't mince words when he speaks about No. 16 University of Utah (2-0) and he doesn't buy the talk that they look to be struggling. [CLICK HERE to watch Chip Kelly press conference]
"They have a 16-game winning streak, the longest in the nation. They've got a lot of proven players back on both sides of the ball who have been a huge part of that [success]," Kelly says straight faced, almost like he's reading from a paper. "They play very, very hard. You really enjoy watching them on tape just how hard they play."
Kelly, who is in his first year as the Ducks' (1-1) head coach, says Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham has done a great job with the Ute program and establishing a consistency of success.
"They're sound both offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. There's really not a weakness on the team. The one thing that's fortunate is that we get them at home. We expect a heck of a battle."
Utah last won in Autzen Stadium in 1994. It trails the series 17-8, but beat the Ducks in their last meeting in Salt Lake City in 2003.
Kelly admits he's got concerns with his football team. First, the "inconsistent" effort from his players so far this season. Despite a win against Purdue last week, Kelly hopes that game was the worst he'll see from some of his players.
He also doesn't like the high number of penalties (nine overall; five on special teams) his team suffered against the Boilermakers.
"We gave away 68 yards in returns Saturday night and can't do that on a consistent basis and expect to win; especially against the team we got coming up and the rest of the PAC-10. We're just hurting ourselves in those situations."
And Kelly specifically mentioned he sees the kicking game as "a huge factor against Utah."
He continued, "We don't care about yardage, statistics, any of those things. Our goals on offense very simply are: win is number one and score points is number two. You don't get any awards for setting school records or any of those other things. We never talk about it, we don't care about it. All we care about is how productive is this group right now against Utah. That's it."
Kelly couldn't hold back a smile when he was asked about Utah's early season schedule and lack of a "big game."
"Utah played in the Sugar Bowl, so I think they've played in some big games," Kelly said smirking. "So I don't think because of their first two openers that won't affect them. The core of their players played in that game. So, no I don't think this is going to be their first rodeo. We're not counting on that as an advantage."
