SUGAR BOWL: Sunday press conferences

NEW ORLEANS — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham and Alabama coach Nick Saban were the lone speakers at Sunday morning’s Sugar Bowl press conferences.

Here are their opening statements:

WHITTINGHAM
“I am excited to be and our football team is excited to be here. What a great venue, the Sugar Bowl, the 75th anniversary, its steeped in tradition. I want to thank the Sugar Bowl Committee that invited us; there are a lot of good football teams that could have been in this situation.

“We are elated that we are here. We have a great opponent in Alabama, obviously another program that is steeped in tradition, 70 plus bowl games, 13th trip to the Sugar Bowl if what I read is correct. It just a great opportunity for our players and they deserve it. They’ve (the Utes) played their tails off this season worked hard from way back in spring ball and this is the payoff for a lot of hard work.”

SABAN
“I would like to reiterate once again that we are certainly pleased and happy as an organization and a group of players and coaches and the University of Alabama football family to be part of the Sugar Bowl. CEO Paul Hoolahan and President Ronnie Burns put on an outstanding event as well as the Sugar Bowl committee here.

“It’s great to be part of the 75th anniversary of this great event. Tremendous tradition here, a lot of great football games and players, the game is really about the players. It was great to get back to practice yesterday after three days off, pretty good carryover in what we are trying to do. Anytime you have a few days off players have to get back into it, but I think the players responded extremely well.

“It’s a great opportunity for our players to accomplish something significant in terms of their legacy as a team after having an outstanding year. It’s an opportunity to win 13 games, certainly something special to be in BCS bowl game and have an opportunity to win such a game and that’s something you will remember for a lifetime. This is an outstanding team that we are playing in Utah, this is probably the only undefeated team left in the country now, which is a significant accomplishment in and of itself and is a very, very difficult thing to do in this day and age in terms of the consistency you have to play with, the quality of performance you have to have week in and week out, and I think that is a tribute to their head coach Kyle Whittingham and their staff.

“They have won seven straight bowl games which is also something that is difficult to accomplish. They are a very good defensive team, ranked in the top 15 in the country. They are great in turnover margin which is always an important factor in winning and losing. They are one of the most productive offensive teams that we have played, their quarterback, Brian Johnson, does a great job of directing their offense, very accurate. They have a good scheme they are hard to defend and they utilize the personnel they have on offense extremely well.

“They are very athletic on defense they rush well, they rush and affect the quarterback, create a lot of things on loose play downs. It will be a challenging game for us and we understand that. I think we will focus on what we can control which is to play our best football.”