Colorado-UCLA Quotes
vs
Wyoming
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre
General
“I thought UCLA is extremely talented and I think their quarterback is going to be really good. He is getting better and better. I thought our defensive staff did a good job of putting pressure on him tonight. I thought in the second half, the offense and the defense really made just good adjustments at half time. I saw some things they were doing a little different in a week off and corrected and did an excellent job. Hats go off to our coaching staff. I thought our kids came out in the second half and kept playing and playing. This group of young men, they have done it twice now. They just don’t really blink. They are really calm. They keep playing. They are a physical group. They believe in each other. Hopefully we’ll keep doing that down the road.”
On Defensive Adjustments
“Defensively we were doing a little bit of stunting from some stuff they had done before. We didn’t get over in a gap one time and a guy broke loose. In the secondary, we were able to change up a few things they were doing and our kids kind of camouflaged it a little bit. They understood it. I thought [Defensive Coordinator/OLB] D.J. (Eliot) did a good job if mixing up his pressures. We pressured a little bit more which I thought was good. Those were some of the changes we made. Then he just made a few different calls than we were thinking going in because they had changed a little bit. So he changed up a few of his calls which helped us.”
On Halftime Adjustments Being More Effective This Season
“In the spring and in fall camp, I pushed us to do our whole offense and our whole defense quickly; and do it over, and over, and over. We kind of overload the kids early in camp. Then we just keep doing it and doing it. We try to take everything to the game. There are certain things we want to call and work on. But we are taking our whole package to the game. Therefore, when we get in a situation and they change some things, we can go to it because we’ve practiced it and done it enough. I think that’s helped us have a little bit more in our arsenal. We are little bit concerned about doing that sometimes. With a new defensive staff last year, we kind of backed it down and tried to add some things and we just couldn’t go back to them as much. This year, we accelerated that and pushed that hard. We really took advantage of our ability to meet with our kids in the offseason. We really pushed meeting, watching it, putting it in, installing it. Our kids have really been able to handle that. Our coaching staff has done a good job of being able to teach that and understand that. That, to me, has helped us.”
On OLBs Drew Lewis and Davion Taylor
“I think he is getting comfortable out there now with an extra week of practice. We brought him some more with some of the things they were doing. He’s mad at himself because he should’ve had a third sack. He should’ve had three in a row. The quarterback is a great athlete and got outside of him one time. [OLB] Drew (Lewis) is doing really well. [Buff] Davion (Taylor) is starting to really flash. Those two guys can really run and I think you’ll kind of keep seeing that. They are starting to really get comfortable, see things, and understand things. Drew can fly. He is a 4.4 guy. Davion is a 4.4 guy. They are 225 pounds. They are athletic. They are really starting to understand it. As the season goes on, I think they will make more and more plays.”
On WR Laviska Shenault Jr.
“We’re doing a good job with it. There will be some games and there were some things that happened tonight, where they were doubling him and Steven (QB Steven Montez) saw it and went other places. It also opened up some things for us in the run game. Steven is able to see it. Chev (Co-Offensive Coordinator Darrin Chiaverini) and they are able to see it upstairs, then we were able to execute some things that helped us. When teams do that, we’ll take advantage of it in other ways.”
On Impact Of Penalties On Both Sides
“Those are big situations. We had one right there at the end of the half, we would have been on the 10-yard line. Those are things that we have to control. It was a physical football game. I thought both sides played physical. We don’t that (penalties) to happen. We’ll look at it on tape and see exactly what happen. Those are things that we’ll try to correct for sure.”
On Slowing Down UCLA RB Joshua Kelley
“Early in the game we did a stunt and didn’t get across. He kind of ran through an arm tackle and took off. Then in the first part of the second half, we fit a run wrong. We kind of settled in, kids understood what was going on, that’s really what happened. He’s a good, hard runner. He hit downhill quick, if you’re not right there he can pop one.”
On QB Steven Montez
“His work ethic is there. He’s seeing everything now. Kurt (QB Coach Kurt Roper) has done a great job with him on that. He’s always been extremely accurate. He’s stepping up in the pocket and throwing the ball instead of moving out and trying to make a play every time. He’s going to make a bunch of big plays anyway. I’ve been very pleased with that. Our receivers are also catching the football when he throws it to them, that’s a big part of his [completion] percentage. They’re making really good catches and pulling balls in. I’m pleased with Steven, he just has to keep doing it.”
On WR Jay MacIntyre’s Pass
“He doesn’t lobby for it, but they know he can throw. We’ve had him throw some other ones before. He made a heck of a throw and Kyle (TB Kyle Evans) made a heck of a catch. That was a big play in the game and got some momentum going, so that was fun to see.”
On This Year’s Group
“Their brotherhood. Their closeness. That’s not just something (I’ve noticed), I’m having parents tell me about it, kids tell me about it, auxiliary people tell me about throughout the building. Their mental toughness. A lot of that I credit to our coaching staff and our captains and [Director of Football Strength and Conditioning] Drew Wilson and the strength staff for holding them accountable, and the culture of our program in going to class, all of that matters. I thought we were physically tough tonight. That’s what we need to do in the Pac-12, that’s another dimension we need to keep getting better at and I thought we did. The main thing I’ve seen though is just their brotherhood. It’s really unique. Nobody’s getting on each other (in a bad way), everybody is helping each other. Nobody is panicking, everybody is just playing. Same thing with the coaching staff, everybody is under control, everybody is working well. It’s a unique thing to see. We’ll have some hard situations ahead of us, but hopefully we’ll be able to fight through those and do the same thing again.”
On Trick Plays
“We practice trick plays all the time. I have a ‘gadget’ period that we do every day. We’re going to keep doing them. We’ll see things that teams are doing and work it. We kind of have an arsenal. We see things that look good for that game or what they’re doing during the game and Chev (Co-Offensive Coordinator Darrin Chiaverini) calls it and runs with it. I let him call it and look at it where he feels like it’s best to do it. He’ll see stuff and he has a good feel for that.”
On The Colorado Rockies Making The Playoffs
“I almost forgot to say something about the Rockies. How ‘bout those Rockies?”
“I thought UCLA is extremely talented and I think their quarterback is going to be really good. He is getting better and better. I thought our defensive staff did a good job of putting pressure on him tonight. I thought in the second half, the offense and the defense really made just good adjustments at half time. I saw some things they were doing a little different in a week off and corrected and did an excellent job. Hats go off to our coaching staff. I thought our kids came out in the second half and kept playing and playing. This group of young men, they have done it twice now. They just don’t really blink. They are really calm. They keep playing. They are a physical group. They believe in each other. Hopefully we’ll keep doing that down the road.”
On Defensive Adjustments
“Defensively we were doing a little bit of stunting from some stuff they had done before. We didn’t get over in a gap one time and a guy broke loose. In the secondary, we were able to change up a few things they were doing and our kids kind of camouflaged it a little bit. They understood it. I thought [Defensive Coordinator/OLB] D.J. (Eliot) did a good job if mixing up his pressures. We pressured a little bit more which I thought was good. Those were some of the changes we made. Then he just made a few different calls than we were thinking going in because they had changed a little bit. So he changed up a few of his calls which helped us.”
On Halftime Adjustments Being More Effective This Season
“In the spring and in fall camp, I pushed us to do our whole offense and our whole defense quickly; and do it over, and over, and over. We kind of overload the kids early in camp. Then we just keep doing it and doing it. We try to take everything to the game. There are certain things we want to call and work on. But we are taking our whole package to the game. Therefore, when we get in a situation and they change some things, we can go to it because we’ve practiced it and done it enough. I think that’s helped us have a little bit more in our arsenal. We are little bit concerned about doing that sometimes. With a new defensive staff last year, we kind of backed it down and tried to add some things and we just couldn’t go back to them as much. This year, we accelerated that and pushed that hard. We really took advantage of our ability to meet with our kids in the offseason. We really pushed meeting, watching it, putting it in, installing it. Our kids have really been able to handle that. Our coaching staff has done a good job of being able to teach that and understand that. That, to me, has helped us.”
On OLBs Drew Lewis and Davion Taylor
“I think he is getting comfortable out there now with an extra week of practice. We brought him some more with some of the things they were doing. He’s mad at himself because he should’ve had a third sack. He should’ve had three in a row. The quarterback is a great athlete and got outside of him one time. [OLB] Drew (Lewis) is doing really well. [Buff] Davion (Taylor) is starting to really flash. Those two guys can really run and I think you’ll kind of keep seeing that. They are starting to really get comfortable, see things, and understand things. Drew can fly. He is a 4.4 guy. Davion is a 4.4 guy. They are 225 pounds. They are athletic. They are really starting to understand it. As the season goes on, I think they will make more and more plays.”
On WR Laviska Shenault Jr.
“We’re doing a good job with it. There will be some games and there were some things that happened tonight, where they were doubling him and Steven (QB Steven Montez) saw it and went other places. It also opened up some things for us in the run game. Steven is able to see it. Chev (Co-Offensive Coordinator Darrin Chiaverini) and they are able to see it upstairs, then we were able to execute some things that helped us. When teams do that, we’ll take advantage of it in other ways.”
On Impact Of Penalties On Both Sides
“Those are big situations. We had one right there at the end of the half, we would have been on the 10-yard line. Those are things that we have to control. It was a physical football game. I thought both sides played physical. We don’t that (penalties) to happen. We’ll look at it on tape and see exactly what happen. Those are things that we’ll try to correct for sure.”
On Slowing Down UCLA RB Joshua Kelley
“Early in the game we did a stunt and didn’t get across. He kind of ran through an arm tackle and took off. Then in the first part of the second half, we fit a run wrong. We kind of settled in, kids understood what was going on, that’s really what happened. He’s a good, hard runner. He hit downhill quick, if you’re not right there he can pop one.”
On QB Steven Montez
“His work ethic is there. He’s seeing everything now. Kurt (QB Coach Kurt Roper) has done a great job with him on that. He’s always been extremely accurate. He’s stepping up in the pocket and throwing the ball instead of moving out and trying to make a play every time. He’s going to make a bunch of big plays anyway. I’ve been very pleased with that. Our receivers are also catching the football when he throws it to them, that’s a big part of his [completion] percentage. They’re making really good catches and pulling balls in. I’m pleased with Steven, he just has to keep doing it.”
On WR Jay MacIntyre’s Pass
“He doesn’t lobby for it, but they know he can throw. We’ve had him throw some other ones before. He made a heck of a throw and Kyle (TB Kyle Evans) made a heck of a catch. That was a big play in the game and got some momentum going, so that was fun to see.”
On This Year’s Group
“Their brotherhood. Their closeness. That’s not just something (I’ve noticed), I’m having parents tell me about it, kids tell me about it, auxiliary people tell me about throughout the building. Their mental toughness. A lot of that I credit to our coaching staff and our captains and [Director of Football Strength and Conditioning] Drew Wilson and the strength staff for holding them accountable, and the culture of our program in going to class, all of that matters. I thought we were physically tough tonight. That’s what we need to do in the Pac-12, that’s another dimension we need to keep getting better at and I thought we did. The main thing I’ve seen though is just their brotherhood. It’s really unique. Nobody’s getting on each other (in a bad way), everybody is helping each other. Nobody is panicking, everybody is just playing. Same thing with the coaching staff, everybody is under control, everybody is working well. It’s a unique thing to see. We’ll have some hard situations ahead of us, but hopefully we’ll be able to fight through those and do the same thing again.”
On Trick Plays
“We practice trick plays all the time. I have a ‘gadget’ period that we do every day. We’re going to keep doing them. We’ll see things that teams are doing and work it. We kind of have an arsenal. We see things that look good for that game or what they’re doing during the game and Chev (Co-Offensive Coordinator Darrin Chiaverini) calls it and runs with it. I let him call it and look at it where he feels like it’s best to do it. He’ll see stuff and he has a good feel for that.”
On The Colorado Rockies Making The Playoffs
“I almost forgot to say something about the Rockies. How ‘bout those Rockies?”
UCLA Head Coach Chip Kelly
On Strong Start Early
“I think that we were having some miscommunication up front but we started to get that settled down. I think that we can be consistent when we are running and throwing the ball. I think that we are a little balanced on the offensive side of the ball and that helped us out. Then we couldn’t sustain offensively, we need to stay on the field a little longer. I think that we left our defense on the field for too long; some of those drives that Colorado put together in the second half. We just couldn’t sustain our offensive consistency in the second half.”
On The Impact Of Penalties
“They are self-inflicted wounds and it is something that we do, it is in our control. Obviously, against a good team like Colorado you can’t extend them. The first two times they scored in the first half those drives got extended because of penalties. We have to make sure that we are playing with emotion not letting emotion play with us. And understanding that when we have an opportunity to get off the field, we have to get off the field, we can’t be shooting ourselves in the foot in the penalty game. It is something that we have to clean up.
On Having A Game Plan For Laviska Shenault Jr.
“You have to make sure that you know where he is. (Colorado coach) Mike (MacIntyre) does a really good job, they have him lined up in wildcat and they move him around. He plays inside and outside receiver so they do a good job on how they disperse him. He is good football player, you have to give him credit.”
On Montez Stressing The Defense
“Yeah, there were a couple times that we had him down but he is just such a big strong kid that he shook us off. You know that one at the end of the third quarter, we may have had him sacked to get them out of field goal range and it is a whole different ball game. But he was able to shake out guys off, stays on his feet and ends up getting a first down in the red zone and then score on the next play. So when you have a physical quarterback like that it is difficult and we didn’t do a good enough job tackling him today.”
On Joshua Kelley’s Performance
“Josh gave us a little spark in the run game. There were some physical runs that he had to make and I think that Josh did it and came out the other side. It was good to see him start to get acclimated in terms of what we are doing. He practiced really well this past week so I was happy to see Josh and his performance this week.”
On Takeaways From Today’s Game
“It is in the details, it’s the little things. There are some good things that we can improve upon but the penalties are hurting us, and we can’t live with those if we are expecting to beat a really good football team. That is what Colorado is right now, Mike has done such a nice job here. We have to continue to improve, we got knocked down but we aren’t going to stay down, we are going to get back up and get ready for our next opponent.”
“I think that we were having some miscommunication up front but we started to get that settled down. I think that we can be consistent when we are running and throwing the ball. I think that we are a little balanced on the offensive side of the ball and that helped us out. Then we couldn’t sustain offensively, we need to stay on the field a little longer. I think that we left our defense on the field for too long; some of those drives that Colorado put together in the second half. We just couldn’t sustain our offensive consistency in the second half.”
On The Impact Of Penalties
“They are self-inflicted wounds and it is something that we do, it is in our control. Obviously, against a good team like Colorado you can’t extend them. The first two times they scored in the first half those drives got extended because of penalties. We have to make sure that we are playing with emotion not letting emotion play with us. And understanding that when we have an opportunity to get off the field, we have to get off the field, we can’t be shooting ourselves in the foot in the penalty game. It is something that we have to clean up.
On Having A Game Plan For Laviska Shenault Jr.
“You have to make sure that you know where he is. (Colorado coach) Mike (MacIntyre) does a really good job, they have him lined up in wildcat and they move him around. He plays inside and outside receiver so they do a good job on how they disperse him. He is good football player, you have to give him credit.”
On Montez Stressing The Defense
“Yeah, there were a couple times that we had him down but he is just such a big strong kid that he shook us off. You know that one at the end of the third quarter, we may have had him sacked to get them out of field goal range and it is a whole different ball game. But he was able to shake out guys off, stays on his feet and ends up getting a first down in the red zone and then score on the next play. So when you have a physical quarterback like that it is difficult and we didn’t do a good enough job tackling him today.”
On Joshua Kelley’s Performance
“Josh gave us a little spark in the run game. There were some physical runs that he had to make and I think that Josh did it and came out the other side. It was good to see him start to get acclimated in terms of what we are doing. He practiced really well this past week so I was happy to see Josh and his performance this week.”
On Takeaways From Today’s Game
“It is in the details, it’s the little things. There are some good things that we can improve upon but the penalties are hurting us, and we can’t live with those if we are expecting to beat a really good football team. That is what Colorado is right now, Mike has done such a nice job here. We have to continue to improve, we got knocked down but we aren’t going to stay down, we are going to get back up and get ready for our next opponent.”
Colorado Players
TB Travon McMillian
ON THE OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION IN THE SECOND HALF- “Yeah at half time we got together as an offense and we made a few adjustments and we just had to execute better. We were killing ourselves with a few penalties and things like that so we knew if we cut the penalties out, just focused on our job at hand and we’ll be ok so. Yeah we just came out in the second half with a different attitude so we just tried to execute, focus on the details.”ON WHY THE TEAM COMES ALIVE IN THE SECOND HALF THIS YEAR- “Yeah we have a tighter group and the brotherhood on this team is really good. We believe in each other and we don’t doubt each other at all. We don’t blink and just keep moving forward."
ON HOW LAVISKA”S VERSATILITY OPENS THE OFFENSE- “Yeah I mean it opens it a lot. Laviska’s versatile so you can move him around so it’s kind of hard to defend him. When guys are doubling him, there’s less guys in the back so that opens up the running game for me so I’m just really appreciative of the players that we have.”
ON CU’s STATEMENT WIN AGAINST UCLA-“It’s awesome, to get a win at home in front of our home crowd, we just have to continue to do this. We have another game against Arizona State and it’s home so we just have to make sure that we lock in for that game and you know be in our P’s and Q’s and execute.”
ON HIS IMPROVEMENTS-“I mean I’m just getting more comfortable with the offense in general so it’s not anything really specific but I give all of my credit to the offensive line because without those guys I wouldn’t be able to do what I do so as long as they give me one guy that I can make miss or two guys I’m willing to do that so I’m just really grateful for all of those guys.”
ON HIS FIRST START AS A BUFFALO-“I’m willing to do whatever it takes for the team. If the coach needs me to touch the ball 20 times a game I’ll do that. I want to do whatever it takes, I’m really unselfish. I’m fine if I didn’t get any carries, I’m still over there cheering my team on. So I’m taking every week one week at a time and just trying to get better in practice each and every week.”
ON IF HE KNEW HE FOOLED THE DEFENSE ON THE TRICK PLAY- “Yeah definitely, Montez, he’s been doing a great job with his reads and everything so he made a great read and Montez was looking fast today too so that’s good.”
S Evan Worthington
ON WHAT THE TEAM DID TO ADJUST AFTER 7-0 DEFICIT- “We just made some adjustments on the sideline, we had to stop the run on the edge and it just came down to that and a little bit of route concepts and that was about it.”ON THE PRESENCE OF DREW LEWIS EARLY IN THE GAME- “Yeah Drew was amazing for us tonight. He really helped us a lot, got plenty of pressure on the quarterback, helped out all of the defensive backs so that’s what we need every game, we just love that.”
ON WHY THE TEAM COMES ALIVE IN THE SECOND HALF THIS YEAR-“Yeah we definitely come together, we have this little chant we do to just get us hyped and you know that’s the big change from last year and all of the other seasons I’ve been here. We come together and we just get ready to get back on the field.”
ON WINNING THE CONFERENCE OPENER-“You know it means a lot for us, we haven’t been 4-0 since I don’t know how long it’s been. You know, opening up the conference like this is great for us. We have plenty of more games to go but this is a great start.”
ON WHAT THE DEFENSE KNEW ABOUT UCLA’s QUARTERBACK-“We knew we had to put pressure on him because he’s a great mobile quarterback so we just had to adjust with that because we’ve had problems with that in the past. We knew we would have to shut him down and then we would be good.”
ON CU’s STATEMENT WIN AGAINST RIVAL UCLA-“You know it’s a great feeling for us, just opening it up at the home crowd too. It’s just amazing for all of us so we’re just going to continue what we’ve been doing.”
WR Tony Brown
ON HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS-“I just had to talk to everybody. Even though we had a rough first start, it was our mentality, brotherhood, unity, and communication as a team that allowed us to do certain things and make moves. We could make plays and we knew that, so we made moves and made plays and kept moving forward.”ON THE POSTGAME ENERGY-“It was our first Pac-12 game. It’s exciting. Especially playing UCLA, they are a very good team. Everybody was going to be lit with that excitement, energy, and vibe. We are excited.”
ON IF HE LIKED THE PAINTED BLACK END ZONES-“I definitely did, especially with the black uniforms. It was a good look.”
OLB Drew Lewis
ON TEAM GOT BETTER AS GAME WENT ON- “We came out pretty hot in the first quarter then we kind of slowed down in the second. The big emphasis that our coaches told us was to come together as a team and do what we do best. We have brotherhood, we have mental toughness, and we showed it in the second half.”ON HOW IT FELT TO GET HIS FIRST SACK OF THE SEASON-“I have been thinking about the same thing because in the first three games there were no sacks. I had some pressures, had a tackle for loss or two, but no real sacks. I wanted to step that up and today was a perfect platform to do that in the Pac-12 opener.
ON HIS MISSED INTERCEPTION-“I think the ball took a weird angle or something, but I have next week. I’m going to get it next week.
ON HOW IT FEELS TO WIN FIRST CONFERENCE GAME- “It really is because we haven’t had a truly challenging opponent, and that’s what UCLA is. They are a great opponent to play, and the real bar is set at this level. We are trying to take this forward to the rest of the Pac-12 season, and hopefully we can keep that streak alive.
ON LOOKING FORWARD TO ARIZONA STATE-“Arizona State is a very talented team, they could be a little bit better than UCLA. They have a great coach, so we are going to make our adjustments and we are going to keep it rolling.
WR Jay MacIntyre
GENERAL-“We just continue to fight every single play. It doesn’t really matter what’s going on in the game. We just kind of feel like we are going to win and we look to each other and say, ‘Let’s go’. We made some big plays in the third quarter to get us ahead. Montez made that long run on a really good play call by [Co-Offensive Coordinator/WR coach] (Darrin) Chev (Chiaverini). Montez looked like he could run there. It was all fun for all of us. We just have to continue to do that every game because there are going to be highs and there are going to be lows. We have to continue to fight together.”ON QB STEVEN MONTEZ-“He’s grown up a lot. He continues to grow every single day. He’s a leader on this team and a great quarterback. He’s always had the talent. He’s always had the arm. Now it’s just putting it all together and it’s something special to watch. He is going to really help our team.”
ON SLOW START-“We didn’t really panic. We knew that we would get it going. We have confidence in coach (Darrin) Chev (Chiaverini) calling the plays. We have confidence in every one on the field. We knew that once we hit a big play here or there we would get it going and that’s what we did.”
QB Steven Montez
ON THE TEAM’S MINDSET MOVING FORWARD-“It feels good to go out there and get the win today. We’ve been working hard. Like I always say, this isn’t the end game for us. We have another game next week at home against a very good ASU team. It’s really just now preparing for them.”ON HOW THE OFFENSE GOT GOING-“We just came out and started to play at our tempo. I think they got a little tired because we were running that ball quick and making them run sideline to sideline, and then getting them back on the ball and running another play. I think the altitude kind of got them a little bit there in the second half. The second part of it was just us doing our thing and playing good football. Coach Chev (OC Darrin Chiaverini) was making great calls and we put guys out in space and made people miss. We just were making plays.”
ON HIS FIRST DOWN SCRAMBLE-“I just thought it was another play. The guy kind of got on my back, I tried to duck him and he slid right off. There was pretty much nobody else out there except a guy in front of me and I gave him a jab step and he missed. It wasn’t like that was the play that won the game. It was just another play in the game. I think it helped us win a little bit.”
ON THE CONFUSION ON LAVISKA SHENAULT JR.’S RECEIVING TOUCHDOWN-“We heard something from the sideline. Coach Roper (QB Coach Kurt Roper) was telling us to tighten those receivers, so K.D. (WR K.D. Nixon) started telling them to tighten down. Then, Laviska was looking at him and was like, ‘What?’ It is kind of hard to hear each other when you are talking across the field. I just told him to tighten down and for him and Tony to take two steps down. That was it and he absolutely toasted the corner, and he couldn’t run with him. You get the ball in number two’s hands and he is more than likely going to score with it.”
ON LAVISKA SHENAULT JR.’S VERSATILITY-“He can really do it all. They’ve got him playing the tight end position. Whenever he’s not getting the ball, he’s drawing two or three defenders because that’s how many guys it takes to get him on the ground. He is a very special player for us. He makes a lot of great plays. He even plays a little quarterback back there in the wildcat. He can do it all. He’s a great player. He’s my dog.”
ON HIS 35-YARD TOUCHDOWN RUN-“We only ran that play one other time. They didn’t really see it and they really didn’t know what it was. When we did the mesh or whatever, the end had been chasing the running back down all night and trying to catch him from behind. We read it and pulled it. (Tight End) Chris Bounds made an incredible block and sealed the guy inside. I lost a little bit of weight so I was able to get into the end zone. If I was 250 or 245 (pounds), I probably get hawked at the 10-yard line. I’m just happy that I hopped on that treadmill.”
ON THE TEAM’S CONFIDENCE-“It is (the win) a confidence booster. In the second half, we played well. The first half was very sloppy and I think a lot of people would agree with that. Our guys have a lot of confidence which could be good, but could also be an achilles heel for us. I think we just have to come in on Monday next week and take it exactly how we’ve been taking it. Work hard Monday through Friday and then the product comes out on Saturday. We just have to keep working and stay humble.”
ON THE TEAM TAKING IT WEEK BY WEEK-“We’ve done a really good job this year of taking it one step at a time, and not looking ahead to who is next. Not looking ahead to going to a bowl game or doing all of that stuff. The guys are in the moment and are figuring out that we need to take it one step at a time if we want to start stacking wins on top of each other. Our guys do a great job of studying and practicing. Hopefully we keep it up.”
ON TRAVON MCMILLIAN-“I was very impressed by Travon. He’s a great running back. We kind of knew that when he came in. He just looks the part and when he runs, you can tell that he is very athletic. One thing that we didn’t know until we actually started playing football is that he can stop and go on a dime. His cuts are really clean and really quick. I think it’s kind of deceptive. He looks like a bigger back. He is a pretty big dude, but when he stops and he goes, he really puts the moves on them. He’s a very athletic and talented back.”
WR Laviska Shenault Jr.
ON THE MISCOMMUNICATION ON HIS RECEIVING TOUCHDOWN-“Me and my receiver (K.D. Nixon) were just trying to communicate. I thought I saw something else. I was trying to make sure I was going to run the right route. I thought it was the route that I had, but I wanted to make sure. The receiver was talking to me and I thought he was saying something else. I was just trying to understand and make sure I was doing the right thing.”ON THE 4-0 START-“It’s just another day in the office.”
ON THE DIFFERENT ROLES HE PLAYS-“It’s very difficult, but I just try to know everything I am doing, study more and study hard. When they ask me to do it, I just do it. I just study.”
UCLA Players
QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson
ON DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND HALF-“I think the offense got put in certain situations where it’s hard to move the ball, especially with Colorado’s game plan. They like to blitz on third down a lot and when you have to gain a lot of yards to push it down the field it makes it hard.”ON TYPE OF TEAM THEY COULD BECOME-“I think once we clean up penalty mistakes and the mental mistakes, the little things, it’ll get there. We all believe in the process and we all believe in Coach Kelly.”
ON HOW HE PLAYED-“There’s always improvement but for the most part I feel like the offense as a whole was working well. My biggest goal is to put points on the board every drive and we didn’t do that so I always feel like there’s room for improvement.”
ON MOOD OF LOCKER ROOM-“It’s definitely not upbeat or happy. We definitely have work to do, we know what we have to do. It’s very frustrating because you know what the mistakes are and you know what you left out there, and when you have that type of game it’s really frustrating.”
C Boss Tagaloa
ON FIRST GAME BACK-“It felt great to be back out there. Obviously not the outcome we wanted but I think we’re starting to figure things out a little more. Our running game started opening up a little more, so I’m excited. It’s tough to go 0-4 but I’m excited for what’s to come for our young team.”ON FIRST HALF PERFORMANCE-“I think it was just our communication. The O-line, our tight ends, the whole offense was just in sync with each other, and some calls I made were off but I’m going to get that fixed.”
ON FIRST GAME AT CENTER-“It was crazy to be on the other side. It gives you a different perspective on the whole game. I got way more respect for centers now that I’m playing it.”
ON BEING SUSPENDED-“It was tough knowing that I hurt the team based off my decisions. But I learned from that and those three games were tough to just sit and watch our team, especially when we’re struggling, but I learned from my mistakes and it’s good to be back.”
RB Joshua Kelley
ON PERFORMANCE TONIGHT-“Football is a funny game and tonight it was all offensive lineman. It’s kind of easy for me to just run through open holes because those guys were fighting their butts off.”ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HALVES- “We got to give credit to Colorado...they made adjustments on defense. I feel like we executed great throughout the game but you can only control what you can control, I tip my hat off to them…they made great plays out there.”
ON DIFFERENCE IN RUNNING GAME COMPARED TO PREVIOUS GAMES-“It was me just trusting my coaching better. Me just saying ‘I’m going to press holes, I’m going to trust in my coaching.’ Our offensive line has always done a great job all year, the tight ends, receivers, they’ve all blocked. It was just me trusting in my coaching. I just looked myself in the mirror and said ‘I need to be better’.”
ON UCLA’S FIRST 0-4 START SINCE 1971-“Personally for me that doesn’t matter, because I know the season isn’t over. I know that we can bounce back. I have confidence in my teammates, coaches, everybody. We look to control what we can control, and we have U-Dub (Washington) next week, so we just got to keep hammering at it and fixing all the little details.”