Ratliff looking for redemption

Brett Ratliff had trouble getting away from his performance in Saturday's 36-3 loss to Boise State.

After throwing three interceptions and completing just 5-of-21 passes for 30 yards in the setback, Utah's starting quarterback joined his family for a postgame dinner at a Salt Lake restaurant. Shortly thereafter, Ratliff's statistics were flashed across a television screen.

"It was ugly," said Ratliff. "I saw it on TV and it was just like 'Wow.' It was definitely frustrating for me and it was definitely frustrating for the team to see their starting quarterback and captain of the team do so poorly."

Ratliff acknowledged being pretty upset about it Saturday night. On Monday, his focus had turned to the upcoming game against TCU.

"That's what football is all about — win some, lose some. It's all about how you react afterwards," said Ratliff, who is spending extra time studying film on the Horned Frogs. "I want to improve on my own mistakes and just get better."

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham isn't surprised. He expects the quarterback to be ready to go and not dwell on the past.

"Brett Ratliff is a confident individual. We've got faith in Brett. He had a bad game. What more can you say? He was not sharp," said Whittingham. "If there's one guy that has no lack of confidence, it's Brett Ratliff. And so we anticipate him preparing that much harder this week and getting himself ready to go in a short period of time."

Ratliff will make his eighth consecutive start for Utah in Thursday night's Mountain West Conference game against TCU.

"Rat's the guy," said offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, who acknowledged the Utes need to do a much better job moving the ball.

"We've got lots of room for improvement. Our job is to evaluate where we are, and obviously we're not even close," he explained. "So we've got to keep working to get better."

Whittingham said Utah's passing woes aren't limited to ineffectiveness by Ratliff or backup Tommy Grady. He noted the importance of receivers being crisp, running the routes and reading coverages properly.

"It's a team effort and we've got to get better as a team," said Ratliff, who felt a little better about his performance after reviewing game film.