With No. 8 Oregon (6-1) coming off of a 38-24 win over Washington State on Saturday, head coach Dan Lanning addressed the media Monday evening as his team began to turn its attention to a new opponent. Lanning talked about the importance of the Ducks upcoming game against No. 13 Utah. While he tends to talk about each imminent matchup as the most important one, this one in fact is with both teams vying for a spot in the Pac-12 Championship, and the winner having the inside track to appearing in that game.

Here’s what we took away from Lanning’s press conference:

Unknowns regarding starting quarterback Cameron Rising’s health followed the Utes into the start of the season. Rising was ruled out for the remainder of the year this past week, and the team has also suffered subsequent injuries.

It forced Whittingham to get creative.

“Everyone’s always known that he’s a great coach,” Lanning said. “They’re utilizing guys in different ways than they anticipated when the year started.”