Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Arizona

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 31, Arizona 30
October 20, 2018

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on the status of quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
“They just told me if they’re in or out. That’s all it is. I don’t know what he did. I’ll get that information.”

on holding on to win the game, securing a second straight victory
“We don’t care about what went on a week ago. Every week is one season for us. So, we did just enough to win tonight. We had a lot of things, obviously the penalties, we’d been good on that coming into this game. But that is going to hurt us, so we’ll need to clean that up. I thought we did a good job except for the one turnover. We did a good job taking the ball away from them. It’s good that we won, but the problems in victory are no less than the problems in a defeat. We need to make sure that we take care of them when we play Utah.”

on quarterback Wilton Speight
“He was available in the second half. So, no injuries with him. I thought he was good. I thought that he did a nice job for us. He hadn’t played in a while, so there was a little rust there. For him to come back in was good. In the fourth quarter there, he was on point. Once we kind of got settled with him, I thought he did a really nice job.”

on a fourth down play where Wilton Speight found Caleb Wilson on the sideline
“We just got one of our base passes, and he did a nice job of buying time. Caleb was where he was supposed to be. He went toward his progression.”

on if he was surprised that Arizona opted to kick a field goal midway through the fourth quarter
“No, I think that when you’re in a situation there you have three timeouts. You hope to get a stop. There was, what was it, six minutes, 6:45, I thought? I think that is plenty of time. I think you go for it on fourth down when you are inside of five minutes. But with three timeouts at 6:45, you’re hoping that you can get a stop.”

on the defensive play by Darnay Holmes to chase down the ball and force a fumble on the three-yard line
“It was something that Coach Rhoads talks about. But, it was just a great hustle play on his part. And it just is the type of player that he is. He’s a heady guy. Not only did he prevent a touchdown from happening, but he turned it into a turnover, and then he recovers it. That’s just a heck of a play. That’s something that you’ll see on SportsCenter.”

on what went into offensive lineman Andre James’ decision to play
“That’s a good question for Andre. We’re all extremely close with Andre. He went through a tough deal. I lost my dad a year and a half ago. So, I have a great understanding of where he is. He wanted to play. When he came back on Thursday, he said that it was important for him to play. We all rallied around him. He got the game ball after the game.”

on what impressed him about holding Arizona to multiple field goals in the red zone
“Red zone defense is obviously something that we spend time on. It’s big. They have three, but you don’t want to let them get seven. So, our guys showed that they’ve got a little fight in them. That was definitely part of the difference in that game.”

on running back Joshua Kelley
“I think that any time we can establish the run, it was a little hit or miss early in the first half there. I think that things got a little bit settled down in the second half there, we wore them down. And then if you can take that ball for the last six minutes of the game when everybody in the stadium knows that you’re going to run it and you still run it, you know, that’s a credit. Wilton pulled one and kind of kept the defense honest there. I thought that our line and tight ends and receivers did a great job. Josh runs so hard. He created somethings after contact. That’s positive and it’s part of being a good football team that you have to finish. We overcame some of the things that we did to ourselves from a penalty standpoint. In the end, we had just enough to beat them. We’ll take it.”

UCLA quarterback Wilton Speight
on leading his team to victory
“It has been a long time. I feel very happy and relieved that I was able to get back in and play the game that I love. It’s been a long haul with some dark times, since the first back injury, and then again opening the season. I worked so hard this offseason to get back and get ready, and for it happen so soon, it was disappointing. this season and get ready. The medical staff and doctors here have been incredible and got me back ready to go. If the opportunity like this presented itself, I wasn’t going to let it slide.”

on taking his first hit
“I wouldn’t say [I was] nervous. There was some anticipation. I went in there, and that first play was cold. I had to just jump in there right away without any warm-up throws or anything, but didn’t get hit. In the next series, I don’t think I got hit, it was three-and-out. But the following series, I was working through my progression, and as I was throwing the ball, I think I kind of crunched or hit from the left side. When I felt that hit, that took some weight off my shoulders, and I was like, ‘Alright, it’s time to roll.’ I felt good from there.”

on quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson leaving the game
“Dorian is tough as nails. I knew if he came out of the game, it had to be pretty significant. When he did that, I went into the game not thinking anything else but I was going to finish it out and lead the team to victory.”

on throwing a touchdown pass to Devin Asiasi
“You look back to the year 2016, we had a lot of success [at Michigan]. Devin Asiasi came in as a true freshman and balled out. I remember throwing him his first touchdown pass there. That was a special moment, and tonight was just as special. It was cool. We’ve been together from the start.”

on contending for the Pac-12 Conference’s South Division title
“That’s obviously huge. We didn’t win any of the non-conference games. In the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t have a tremendous impact on what you want to do as a team. Obviously, conference play is more important, especially when you’re playing within the division. I think it just counts as double. That locker room is filled with winners, led by a coaching staff full of winners. We’re going to keep winning each day and winning each practice and stack little wins until the outcome is what we want on Saturday.”

UCLA defensive back Darnay Holmes
on preventing a touchdown with his forced fumble in the second quarter
“It was God’s glory. I wouldn’t be able to do that unless He was with me the entire time. Honestly, it’s just another play in my book. As a person, I just try to make plays and do what I have to do to contribute to the team, on and off the field.”

on his thought during that forced fumble
“I saw the ball, and I thought ‘alright, I’m going to take a shot.’ The ball came out, and we recovered.”

on the Pac-12 South race
“We aren’t too worried about rankings. We just try to get a win each and every time we hit the field. That’s a blessing. We worked out butts off to get in that race, but we’re just going to keep on doing what we have to do.”

on making defensive plays in the red zone
“Coach Kelly definitely has a huge emphasis on being a team who has the most turnovers when the game is over with. So that’s something we try to do. We do everything we can to stay prepared and when the time comes, take advantage of it.”

on holding Arizona to field goals in the red zone
“Honestly, it’s getting back to basics. It starts tomorrow. We know we have a short week this week, so just tying it up and getting ready for the game against Utah on Friday.”

UCLA running back Joshua Kelley
on his fourth straight game of 100+ yards
“They have a great defense, they fought hard tonight. They were amazing up front. I was very fortunate that the offensive line. They blocked extremely hard tonight. Receivers blocked hard tonight. Tight ends blocked hard tonight. Quarterbacks made great reads. I was extremely fortunate today.”

on the return and play of Andre James
“We love him. We know what type of week he has had. It was very unfortunate. I think he was by far the best player on that field tonight. He played extremely hard. He plays left tackle, and that’s the position where you got to protect the quarterback’s body. You got to help in the running game. He’s great. He’s tremendous for us. I don’t have enough words to say how great a player and man he is.”

on collecting two wins in a row
“It’s tremendous for us because we have a very young team, and now that we’ve got experience winning games, we have some momentum. What we’re doing is working, so I think these two wins are a tremendous confidence booster. We’re building off of this momentum. I can’t wait. The sky is the limit for us.”

on the play of quarterback Wilton Speight
“It’s difficult when you’re coming in from the backup situation. He was extremely prepared. He was excellent tonight. Dorian was great, too. It was great seeing the ‘next man up’ philosophy as far as being ready to go. He definitely played extremely well tonight.”

on Wilton Speight staying prepared
“He’s a warrior. He’s been around the block. He’s played at Michigan. He’s played some big-time opponents at Michigan. He’s always stayed ready. He’s always stayed extremely humble. He’s been fighting hard at practice. I think it’s crazy how he hasn’t really played, and he goes out here and plays tremendous. It speaks to how great of a man he is and how great of a teammate he is.”

on realizing how up-tempo UCLA can play
“I think it speaks to how hard we work at practice and Coach Kelly’s philosophy. We’re clicking, we’re getting there. Playing fast – that’s what we want to do.”

Arizona head coach Kevin Sumlin
on how Rhett handled the pressure tonight
“He made some mistakes. He would be the first to admit that, but in the end, he gave us a chance at the end of the game to really win. So, I have to go back and look at the tape per usual. Talk about it on Monday. With the mistakes he made we still had a chance to win the game on the road and be successful so from that standpoint you would have to say that it is a positive thing for him.

on the difference was in the game
“I think that down the stretch you have to give UCLA credit for how they handled the tight situation in the second half, but we also did some things that allowed them to extend drives. Really some penalties that we did not have in the first half. I think we had two in the first half to their ten. Then we had four critical ones late third quarter late fourth quarter that helped extend their drives. I think they only had two penalties in the second half. We had two turnovers in the end zone. Punch out on JJ and pick in the endzone which certainly would have translated to more than one point in the game. We had our opportunities and basically if you look at the sum of the whole game they made plays with the turnovers.”

on starting two freshmen corners
“They’re freshmen corners. We had a lot of young guys out there and a new quarterback. Like I said this team continues to play extremely hard, but we have to be a smarter football team. That is something we are working on; situational football. In tight games you can’t give away yardage or the football and we did that tonight.”

on why Tim Huff didn’t play tonight
“Tim Huff is no longer on the team.”

on areas that he’s seen Rhett improve since arriving on campus
“You do not know what that is until you are out there. There are a lot of things in practice that you’ll see that you think are there, but I thought he handled the situation well. He communicates well on the sideline. I thought he operated well, except for the turnovers. One was a poor throw and the other bounced off of somebody. I thought in general he handled his surroundings and the tempo.

on the team’s early offensive struggles
“Schematically they did some different things early. A little bit different than they’ve been. They played same two fronts, but they were jumping in and out of both of them. Which led to some issues for us. We got some young guys and new linemen so sometimes the communication as far as what you know as a coach or what you know as coaches can be difficult to pass onto different players in different spots. In the second half we were able to communicate a lot better.”

on the thought of letting UCLA score to have more time
“I used the timeouts on the second and third down in that situation. The decision was made on fourth down with six minutes to go in the game with basically all your timeouts. We kicked the field goal because it gives us an opportunity to kick another field goal and win the game. You don’t have to go 70 yards, only 40 so that was the thought process there. If you don’t make the fourth-and-5, the game is over right there. You are going to need another possession either way so that’s where that was but no we used the timeouts and tried to get a stop. The thought was to stop them and get the ball back.”

on coming away, feeling different about the team after this game (as opposed to last Friday vs. Utah)
“Obviously last Friday was a completely different situation. But nobody in that locker room is happy. One point or 21 points it still goes the same way. Like I said, we continue to play hard with different guys on the field. No one is going to question these guys’ effort. The decision making in critical moments hurts in a game like this and unfortunately it’s a learning experience for some guys. It should be for the whole team. That was the message in the locker room. When you’re in these types of games you have to find a way to close out. Tonight was a situation that UCLA did that, they did a good job answering our scores. We did enough things in the end where we could have scored more than two points.”

Arizona wide receiver Shawn Pointdexter
on quarterback Rhett Rodriguez’s performance
“I think he played phenomenal. For a team that hasn’t been scoring much these past couple games, for him to come out and throw 30 points is phenomenal.”

on the difference at the end of the day
“I think it comes down to the turnover margin like coach like coach [Kevin] Sumlin always preaches.”

on quarterback Rhett Rodriguez’s emotions during game and how he settled in
“I think he settled in right away. I don’t think he had any jitters. Rhett [Rodriguez] has been playing. He played against Utah and he’s been playing since last year, so I don’t think Rhett [Rodriguez] had any jitters.”

on the offense’s gameplay tonight
“I think we played really well. I think we can play better. We got some turnovers and if we can eliminate those, we’ll be talking about how good we really can be.”

on how this loss feels in comparison to Utah
“This one for me, this one was just personal because I was hurt my first year and couldn’t travel to UCLA. So this is my first time in the Rose Bowl. So for me this one hurts.”

on his two touchdowns and chemistry with quarterback Rhett Rodriguez
“I very grateful that Rhett [Rodriguez] gave me the opportunity for those, but at the same time I missed two. So we have to keep working and keep getting better.”

on what he thinks is the highlight of the night
“Just Rhett [Rodriguez]. Everything that he has been through this past year, and for him to come out here and have high energy. He continues to push the guys to be better every single day and to play the kind of game he played today, that’s the highlight for me.”

Arizona linebacker Colin Schooler
on how frustrating it was to perform well on defense, but lose by a point
“It was really frustrating, but it wasn’t necessarily a play at the end of the game. When you lose by one point it’s what happened in the first quarter, first half, opening drive of the second half and there’s a lot of factors that go into that. It not necessarily making plays at the very end, we would like that, but its what could we have done throughout the entire game. We lost the turn over margin today and I feel like that’s a big factor in today’s loss.”

on the team’s next steps
“Try to go in and watch film tomorrow. Have short memory of that, correct mistakes and try to win out from here.”

on what needs to change for next week
“We just need everyone to do their job for four quarters, and as simple as that sounds it’s not. The games are so fast and there are so many key factors with different responsibilities and different plays. If we can slow the game down and getting everyone doing their job at the same time, I think we’ll have a good chance.”

on how UCLA changed offensive scheme with quarterback switch
“It eliminated their quarterback running game, which almost helped us. It was more handoffs, RPOs and deep passes. It did change a little bit.”

Arizona quarterback Rhett Rodriguez
on playing the entire game tonight
“It’s definitely an experience that I’ll never forget. At the end of the day though, I could have been a lot better. We lost the game.”

on whether he was nervous given that he was making his first start
“I was nervous, but you should be nervous. If you’re not nervous, then you don’t love the game. But I felt pretty calm out there. It wasn’t a bad nervous, I guess.”

on playing in the Rose Bowl
“It was awesome. As I ran out on the field, I thought about all the amazing games, all the amazing players that have been on that field. I felt very lucky just to be out there on that field.”

on the key to turning around their offense in the second half
“I think it was really just everyone doing their job. At the end of the day, we just have to execute. I’ve got to be better. I think there in the second half, we kind of got the ball rolling a little bit.”

on his chemistry with Shawn Poindexter
“Shawn’s an awesome receiver. He’s a great athlete, fast, tall – he’s everything you want. I knew that I could trust him. Any time I throw him the ball, it’s not really a 50-50 ball, it’s more than that. Any time he’s in one-on-one coverage, I was confident that he was going to come down with it.”

on the advice his dad gave him before the game
“He watched some film this week, and he kind of told me what he thought, but at the end of the day, he was just telling me to just be myself. Just have fun out there, be myself, and it’s all going to be fine.”

on the team’s overall effort, given the players who were out with injuries
“Effort on this team is never the question. This team always plays hard. So I wasn’t surprised. We felt good going into the game, at least I felt good into the game. I was confident that we were going to come out with a victory, but we were just one point short.”

on whether Khalil Tate helped him during the game
“He was just trying to help me any way he could. I mean if he saw a certain thing the defense was doing, or he saw something I could fix, just little things, he was trying to help me with.”

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Arizona

University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics

Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Arizona