POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 17, Oregon 15
Eugene, Ore. (Autzen Stadium)
October 10, 2026
Bob Chesney, The Angelo M. Mazzone III UCLA Head Football Coach
opening statement
“I think it was a tight game against a phenomenal opponent, as we know. Disappointed in the first half, to be honest with you. Just really disappointed with how many opportunities we left out there, but also with plays that we made: letting that punt go over our head and down at the one, dropping the ball when we’re back in the endzone, the blocked field goal. Just things that can’t happen, right? We can’t put ourselves in those situations and we did and I thought that got this game really close at halftime and I don’t think it had to be that just then. I thought we did a really good job of frustrating the quarterback. You guys asked the question, they haven’t thrown an interception or had a turnover all year. I think we walked out of here today with seven of them, and I think that’s a pretty big deal for what we are able to do. We just played physical; we played tough. I thought our front did a good job. I thought our coverage did a good job.”
on Ty Dieffenbach’s performance and on defense’s performance
“I think that when someone goes down, and someone’s gotta step up, I say it every single time, is that you’re either exposed or you’re revealed, right? One of the two is going to happen when your number gets called, and for Ty to step up in that moment when Nico couldn’t go and to put himself in the spot where he was revealed for knowing the run game, knowing what to get us into, the touchdown pass I thought he threw. He had the other one where, if he had just waited another half a second, you have Brian Rowe popping open on the slide out there to the right, and he just missed that throw. It was just a little early on that throw, and Brian Rowe’s head wasn’t around yet. Again, I thought a lot of guys had to step up at left tackle, right? Mack came back, Jensen Somerville, there’s a lot of guys doing a lot of things. It’s not just Ty, it’s pretty much everybody. A lot of different guys had to step up because a lot of guys went down, and that’s unfortunately the situation we find ourselves in, but I love the way they handled that.”
on choosing Ty Dieffenbach over Madden Iamaleava
“We are really on a week-to-week basis here, right? And this week we felt like we had to run a little bit more with the quarterback possibly, and that’s where I felt Ty had a really nice week and that put us in that spot. This is just one of those things that I’m sure if Madden would’ve went in there, he would have done a phenomenal job as well. But I thought Ty was the guy we decided on at this moment based on the previous week of practice. I thought he did a really good job. But Madden’s going to be there the whole way through as well, competing and fighting for that position with or without Nico.”
on the defensive coaching staff’s preparation.
“I think our guys did a really good job. I mean the players did a great job on their conversations on the field. Our coaches did a great job preparing them for that. You know, I thought this week was a great week, a hard week of practice, right? Coming off the bye week, you’re back in school, all of a sudden, it’s 92, 93, whatever it was, every single day that we were down there on that field, and these guys just battled and fought and put themselves in a spot where they were ready to compete today, and I thought they did a really good job of that.”
on the two-point play
“They went for the middle earlier and missed that one, right? And then they went back for the second one that now they need to have, and, you know, we put ourselves in a spot right there where it ended up being a face mask. Clear as can be. Probably an RPO draw for the quarterback to the receivers, and at the same point in time he pulls the ball down, we stop him, but it’s a face mask. Then we come back out and now you’re on the yard and a half line. You know they’re going to run it. I think the odds of converting a two-point play on the ground is like 65% or something crazy compared to throwing the ball, and now you’re half the distance. At that point in time, I thought Sahir made an unbelievable play, and the defensive line did a great job and got the stop that, you know, this thing was bleeding a little bit, and to get that stop was crucial.”
on defensive game plan execution
“It was a big part of it, and I think we didn’t have to bring a whole lot more than the four. At times we did, obviously, to just keep increasing pressure. But I thought our defensive ends, our defensive line did a great job getting home and getting around this quarterback. I thought their guy did a great job, you know, the young kid that came in; I thought he was poised. He stood in there, he took some hits, and picked himself up off the mat and just kept doing what he needed to do. But I do like the game plan we had going in. I think it was really good, obviously, and it worked against a lot of things, but when you don’t have to blitz and put yourself at too much risk because you’re winning at the D line, that’s a big deal, and that’s what we did today.”
on tackles
“I don’t know if it’s part of it; you’re going to look at matchups across the board at every single position group, and for us, we like our D-ends a lot against any offensive tackle. So that will always be something that we’ll feel strongly about.”
on winning even though the team didn’t play to their full potential
“I didn’t really think about it that way a whole lot, but I thought more about it on the lines of we can’t do that and expect to win a game. I thought we played decently penalty-free for the most part as well. There was at the end, obviously, a couple hit us, but that was something that was plaguing us before. I thought our guys did a decent job of that. Yeah, I guess so ultimately, but there’s just, you’re always thinking about the fact that it’s a long season. You’re down a couple of guys now, and now what do you got to do to make sure that you don’t let some of those things happen again?”
on post-game field celebration
“You know, we were here last year, they ended our season and sent us home. And I think I just wanted to take a second and just feel it and just see it one more time before I walked off the field.”
on being 5-0 and the locker room message to the team
“I don’t got a message for the team right now, not tonight at least. But tomorrow it’s going to be the same. It doesn’t matter. Now we got to get better, and how we get better? We go back and we look at these things we got to fix. We look at our personnel and see where we are at as far as once we figure out if these guys are coming back next week or not. There is a lot of football left to be played, so it doesn’t matter. Get better is ultimately always the message when we turn the corner but not just yet. We’ll wait for tomorrow for that.”
on game plan for defensive backs and letting them go one-on-one
“We weren’t doing that at the beginning, and I think it kind of morphed into that and put us in a situation where we thought we could run with them and we thought that we could get home and get some pressure, and we weren’t as nervous to be stuck in a one-on-one situation with them. That’s really just where the thing ended up, you know. For whatever reason, it’s the way the game played, and we just got to play the game that we are in the midst of.”
on quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s status and how close he was to returning to the game
“He wasn’t close to being able to come back today. I thought he got hit in the thigh, there might be a little bit more to it which we got to just figure out as we go. We are going to go through the process tonight, tomorrow, the rest of the way.”
UCLA senior linebacker Sammy Omosigho
on what he saw on his 2-point conversion stop and Oregon’s last drive of the game
“Yeah, that 2-point conversion, we were seeing a little tight formation and we knew it was going to be a downhill run. They got the penalty and knew it was going to be a short-yardage play. We knew they were going to run the ball. It was just who’s going to stop who. The last drive, we knew it was a pass situation and to keep the ball in front of us and swarm to the football.”
on what the media was saying about what type of 4-0 UCLA football team is
“We don’t focus on the outside chatter. That has no meaning to us, no focus to us, no value to us. We focus on ourselves and the jerseys we have on right now. We’re trying to be the best team in LA, best team in Westwood—focus on what we can do, focus on the controllables and focus on going 1-0 every week.”
on the team’s seven takeaways
“It’s a big emphasis. Anything is possible. Play harder and faster, and when the ball is on the ground, play even longer. So focusing on that, and keep flying around.”
on what the limits are for this team
“None. Thank you.”
UCLA fifth-year running back Wayne Knight
on returning to Autzen Stadium
“It’s a great atmosphere here. The crowd shows out. They make it a great environment. I think we just kind of feed off of it. We’re on a roll. We look at it as our field. From the start, we punched them and we just kept on going. We had a couple of mishaps, but we bounced back every single time.”
on the team’s mentality after quarterback Nico Iamaleava went down
“Just keeping composure. Keeping everyone on the same page. One of our leaders went down and we needed to show up for him. I think that’s what everyone did. Everyone came together as a unit and we put it all on the field for them.”
on what he saw on his touchdown plays
“I knew the guys up front were going to do their job and I trust them wholeheartedly. I’m pressing, I’m pressing, I’m pressing and something was going to show. Just got to be ready for that moment. I think I’m always prepared for that moment.”
on what he saw from backup quarterback Ty Dieffenbach
“I’d say just his ability to come in a game like this and environment like this and play as poised as he did and keep the team moving. It just shows a lot about his character and the kind of guy he is.”
on how it feels to win after last year’s College Football Playoff loss to Oregon
“It feels great. I obviously had that loss last December and it left a bad taste in our mouth. I think we didn’t play a clean game of football, but just being able to go on the road and get the job done is a testament to who we are as a team.”
UCLA senior quarterback Ty Dieffenbach
on being second quarterback for this week
“Every week is a battle between me and Madden for the two-spot, and I mean both of us were executing in practice, but today they felt to go with me. When I heard that I was just tunnel vision, just ready to go execute. “
on knowing when he made the two-spot
“No, it was right when it happened. I was just ready. I’ve been waiting for this moment. Chesney says the light’s going to shine on somebody, you’re going to be exposed, you’re going to be revealed, and I just kind of had that mentality today.”
on missed first touchdown pass to Brian Rowe Jr.
“Brian’s a great receiver; it’s all good. We’re going to get it next time.”
on today’s momentous performance
“It’s awesome. I mean, I feel like defense kept us in the game for sure. Everyone’s doing their job. O line was blocking, they’re blocking good. Receivers making plays, running backs doing their thing, tight ends. It was just a great team win. I think this is a big one for us moving forward as we go deeper into Big Ten play. It’s just a big one.”
on slow defender plays
“He is, number one, reading that, and I mean we know he’s going to beat everyone to the edge with his speed. Once I saw that, it was just a touchdown.”
on quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s support from the sidelines
“He’s getting everyone going. He’s a great leader. I’ve learned so much from him already, being with him for ten months now. He’s just a great guy. Him and Madden, they’re great leaders, they’ve been here, you know, older guys, and it’s just great to learn from Nico.”
on post-game celebration with family
“I mean it was awesome. I’ve been talking about this since high school, man. My dad’s back there right now too. It was just great, man. It was a big one for my family, for my hometown, and for everybody. It was just great.”