What Utah players said following landslide win over Colorado

It was the burning question on everyone's mind going into Saturday: who was Utah going to start under center for its bout against Colorado?

Despite Devon Dampier's progression throughout the week after hobbling in the loss to BYU, his "probable" status on Friday's availability report didn't rule out the possibility that the Utes could turn to backup Byrd Ficklin for their Week 9 contest at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

An answer wouldn't present itself until the final moments before kickoff between the Utes and Buffaloes, as both signal-callers went through pregame warm-ups without much indication that one was playing in front of the other on the depth chart.

But once it became clear that Ficklin was the guy for the night, the true freshman from Muskogee, Oklahoma, took full control of the offense and never looked back, guiding Utah to a wire-to-wire victory over Colorado in a dominant performance in all three phases of the game for the Utes.

Ficklin led the way during a historic night for the program on the ground, racking up 151 of his team's 422 rushing yards — the second-most in the Kyle Whittingham — while tossing 2 touchdown passes in Utah's 53-7 victory over Colorado.

Here's what Ficklin, as well as linebacker Johnathan Hall and running back Wayshawn Parker, had to say after the game.

Ficklin on what led to Utah's success on the ground

"It was mainly just trusting the guys up front; trusting them to make their blocks, and going out there having fun. Like I told them before the game: we go out here, have fun and play our game, we're gonna do something great. And that's what we did, and we had something to prove."

Ficklin when he found out he was starting and his thoughts on his performance

"It was mainly just a game-time decision. [Dampier and I had] been taking reps all week, throughout practice, and it was just a game-time decision."

"I think I threw the ball pretty well; some things I wish I had back from the game, but I told everybody, leave it all on the field. And I feel like I left it all on the field, so, I don't really harp on the past, just move on to the future."

Hall on how the defense was able to shut down Colorado

"The main thing this week was playing with passion and playing with emotion. Our D-line, man, we got some guys on the D-line. They give us their all, man. All 11, we played good today."

Hall and Parker on what they saw in Ficklin's preparation process

Hall: "From his first day on campus he's been a dog, and we all knew he's been a dog, and his opportunity came today and he shined."

Parker: "Practicing with him since day one, I felt like I had the trust in him. Knowing that he was gonna go out there and ball out, I told him, just go out there, do your thing, let the game come to you. Don't rush it. And the preparation that he had, fantastic."

Parker on what was going through his head during 58-yard touchdown run

"The thing that was going through my mind was just, I need to get to this zone. One, I've been failing Utah; I haven't touched 100 yards, so I had to touch 100 yards this game. And I promise that's not gonna be the last game. But what was going through my mind was that OK, like, one-on-one, I take myself 100%, 10 out of 10 chance. So I just made that cut back and I trust myself about out-running the cornerback, or whoever that was chasing me."