Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Utah
POSTGAME QUOTES
Utah 41, UCLA 10
October 26, 2018
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on the team’s performance after the first quarter
“I don’t think we tackled very well on the defensive side of the ball, and the penalties in the special teams game really hurt us in the first half. Those things really hurt us. We didn’t tackle well in the first half, didn’t tackle well in the second half.”
on special teams penalties
“I don’t think it’s a theme, but those three penalties tonight really hurt us. We’re just short on the 50-yard field goal, and again, that’s just having some poise. It’s just a flinch up front and we’re knocked back five yards. Then the kick is short by two or three yards. I’m confident JJ [Molson] could knock that in from where we were. He’s been really accurate for us and really good for us. Good teams don’t do that, and we’re hurting ourselves right now. We have to stop doing that.”
on Utah running back Zack Moss
“We have to tackle better. Our guys are there sometimes, but we had too many missed tackles. I haven’t seen the film yet but I would say it’s our worst game from a tackling standpoint.”
on Wilton Speight’s performance
“I think some of the drops obviously hurt us. When you’re playing a good team like this, the little things are the difference in winning the games. When you look at the penalties in the special teams aspect, and the missed tackles on defense, and then when we had things going on offense and if a couple of those balls are caught, it’s a little bit different on those drives. I thought he did some good things out there.”
on improving the team’s tackling
“It’s fundamentals and you have to continue practicing them. You’re not gonna’ win games if you tackle that way, and we have to correct that.”
on the effect of defensive injuries to the team’s depth
“You gotta’ play with who you got. You can’t sit here and say ‘we lost linebackers, can we get an extra yard or two?’ It doesn’t work that way. There’s attrition that goes and everybody deals with injuries at this point during the season. The teams that stay healthy over the course of the season usually end up on top, but it’s something we just have to deal with. We knew linebacker was a depth problem to start with, and then losing some of those guys has hurt us, be we just gotta’ go.”
on whether there was defensive fatigue in the second half
“I don’t think it was that, I think we need to tackle. We were there, we need to get those guys down. Nothing more than that. It’s fundamentals. We need to catch the ball on offense and tackle on defense.”
UCLA safety Adarius Pickett
on his reaction to the loss after two straight wins
“It was really hard to see that happen. I feel like we got out played today and we didn’t tackle well on defense. We had some dropped balls on offense. Our special teams had a few penalties, and we didn’t play too good tonight.”
on Utah running back Zack Moss and the difficulties that he presented
“He’s a good running back – a good physical running back who reads his blocks well. He had a good scheme as far as the blocking. They would block out and the receiver would come and block me. The receiver came of the ball fast. I had to wait patiently. They tried to toward the end of the game, take the receiver deep. That was my responsibility the whole game. They had a good scheme with a good running back.”
on the Bruins eliminating bad habits, errors
“Just train and practice each week. Just to improve and to focus. I know that it’s been a short week for the younger guys, really for everybody, but we have to fix it in practice and come back next week against Oregon and have those problems fixed.”
on fumbling a punt return
“I just misjudged the ball. I shouldn’t have tried to catch it. I just misjudged it. It wasn’t any spin. That was on me.”
on UCLA securing its sixth interception in four games
“Coach Rhoads has been adamant about becoming the offense. We do drills just running on the field and becoming the offense. I think that Coach Rhoads does a tremendous job during the week on just taking us through those drills, things that are going to come up in a game.”
UCLA quarterback Wilton Speight
on his performance against Utah
“We came out, our coaches had a great gameplan. We came out firing. Guys were making plays and we felt good about everything. We went into halftime with it being a game. But it just kind of felt like one play after another, it just didn’t really feel like our night. Sometimes in sports, that is how it goes.”
on plays that didn’t add up well
“I’m not going to single out any play in particular. But any time that you are successful in football, with 11 guys on the field, a successful play is big. More often than not, 11 guys on the field did their job right. The cohesion wasn’t really there, and it was not really adding up consistently through the night.”
on not taking too many hits
“No, it’s just part of being a quarterback. I’ve got a long body that is a target. In the first half, I didn’t slide because I wanted to get the first down. If I can get past the sticks, I’m not going to try to bust one toward the end zone.”
on UCLA’s dropped passes
“Well, the bottom line in the whole situation is the guys were getting to the right spots. Obviously, I missed a few throws tonight and forced a corner into double coverage that got intercepted. Like I said, we were not firing on all cylinders tonight. But it wasn’t due to a lack of effort. That is the biggest thing to take away from this.”
on any differences in style of play between the Pac-12 and Big Ten
“The styles of play may be a little different. The field feels more spread out. In the Big Ten, it’s smash-mouth football land you hand the ball off, get behind the linebackers, you get the safeties to bite against the box. Coach Kelly recognizes the style of this conference, but he is not going to adapt just because of that situation. Both are incredible conferences. I’m very lucky to have played in both.”
UCLA linebacker Tyree Thompson
on what adjustments need to be made
“We just have to work on our fundamentals, that’s really what it comes down to. I didn’t see a lack of effort. We just have to tackle together, and everyone has to do their jobs. We’ve got to just come together.”
on Utah running back Zack Moss
“He was really good at running speed on first contact. As you can see, he had a lot of yards. We’ve got to get better at coming together to make those tackles so that he doesn’t get four or five extra yards.”
on adjustments from a shorter week of preparation
“It really doesn’t affect us because we do well in recovery. We’ve got to get back on Monday, and just get it fixed.”
UCLA running back Joshua Kelly
on how Wilton Speight said that tonight’s game just didn’t seem to feel right
“Yeah, [Utah] they’re a tough group. They’re really good up front, their linebackers, and their secondary. They’re a good team. We just kind of shot ourselves in the foot with penalties. But you tip your hats to them. They were great tonight. They deserve the credit.”
on UCLA’s dropped passes
“I think that it’s a matter of us staying positive throughout the game. ‘So what? Now what?’ A motto that we have. We have to just keep going forward. We know that stuff happens, good and bad, it’s like a roller coaster. We just have to keep going. That’s what it is.”
on going to play at Oregon next Saturday
“For me, personally, I need to get better, to be better at breaking tackles and at trusting my reads and working harder. Tonight was not good. It wasn’t good for us at all. Oregon is a great team, too. But we have to amp it up because we’re playing some tough teams in the back end of our schedule. No rear-view mirrors, from here on out.”
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham
on the overall performance by the team
“First half was a little sluggish. Picked it up in the second half. It was a great team win considering the dark cloud that has been over the university this past week. Obviously, tragic situation. The game itself whenever you can run for 300 yards it opens up the field for play action. I thought we executed very well, we did have a turnover or two, but we gained two ourselves. Our guys responded this team is fun to coach. Unfortunately, we had the targeting incident so that was the lowlight of the game. Aside from that really clean game now its on to the next one.”
on the improvement of the offense
“It speaks to the offensive line first of all. That has been the common denominator during these last four games. You take what the defense is giving you and you take whatever is working. I thought Troy called a great game and it was very positive.”
on why his team likes to run the ball in that situation
“I don’t know but you are right. Some of those runs were sheer toughness and willpower.”
on being 4-0 in the month of October
“4-0. It’s good being undefeated in October. The positive is we have settled in as a team into who we are. We are doing a great job of getting the ball into our playmakers. College football is all about players and its great to see. Fun to watch.”
on not generating pressure on the Quarterback
“Give their guy credit, he was very elusive in the pocket. We only had one sack tonight. Several times we flushed him, but we gave him an escape patch. We put a lot of effort into what we did tonight which was zone coverage. A lot of zone coverage this week just like we did last week.”
on winning the games you’re supposed to win as opposed to other years
“I don’t know which games we’re supposed to win but I just think that our guys are playing with more confidence than we have. Our defense and special teams has been consistent now you have an offense that’s feeling really good about themselves.”
on controlling the highs and lows to an environment like this
“It’s part of coaching. First of all, it is harder to stay on top than it is to get to the top. Everyone is gunning for you and human nature is to back off and feel like you have arrived. We have a lot of discussion about that making sure we do not back off. We have a lot of football left and it starts next week against Arizona State at their place.”
Utah running back Zack Moss
on UCLA’s defensive expectations
“We knew coming into this week that they let up a lot of yards to Arizona last week. We felt that we could come out and do something similar. It wasn’t going to be given, so we had to prepare and we had a great week of practice, that’s why we were able to do what we did today.”
on how his team feels, closing out big games this season
“There’s a lot of confidence in the locker room, with the coaches as well. There’s a lot more juice at practice. It’s just flowing in the right direction, which we need, especially in the back end of the year. It’s like we’re fresh and everyone else is dead right now. We’re doing a really good job right now, and we need to keep that going.”
on Utah emphasizing the run game after success the first few weeks
“We had to find our identity. We had to try a few things that didn’t work, but we got back to playing Utah football and we been able to do a lot of good things.”
Utah linebacker Cody Barton
on defensive clicking and putting his team in good spots
“With our offense clicking how it has been, it makes our job a lot easier. It takes a lot of pressure of us, and our defense is definitely clicking. We’ve turned a lot of teams one dimensional tonight – they [UCLA] passed the ball mostly. It’s a great time out there and its fun.”
on limiting UCLA’s success with crossing routes
“We knew they had the crossing routes, and there would be times when we blitzed, and I came free sometimes but they would dumped it off to the crossing route as an insurance. We didn’t really change much, but we focused on it a little more and we shut it down.”
on how the team is handling success
“There can be a point where they say you go to high. If you go into the next week and stop working hard, stop doing what you’re doing. As long as we keep practicing the way we do, keep that mentality of being hungry and not being complacent. Then we’ll be fine.”
Utah 41, UCLA 10
October 26, 2018
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on the team’s performance after the first quarter
“I don’t think we tackled very well on the defensive side of the ball, and the penalties in the special teams game really hurt us in the first half. Those things really hurt us. We didn’t tackle well in the first half, didn’t tackle well in the second half.”
on special teams penalties
“I don’t think it’s a theme, but those three penalties tonight really hurt us. We’re just short on the 50-yard field goal, and again, that’s just having some poise. It’s just a flinch up front and we’re knocked back five yards. Then the kick is short by two or three yards. I’m confident JJ [Molson] could knock that in from where we were. He’s been really accurate for us and really good for us. Good teams don’t do that, and we’re hurting ourselves right now. We have to stop doing that.”
on Utah running back Zack Moss
“We have to tackle better. Our guys are there sometimes, but we had too many missed tackles. I haven’t seen the film yet but I would say it’s our worst game from a tackling standpoint.”
on Wilton Speight’s performance
“I think some of the drops obviously hurt us. When you’re playing a good team like this, the little things are the difference in winning the games. When you look at the penalties in the special teams aspect, and the missed tackles on defense, and then when we had things going on offense and if a couple of those balls are caught, it’s a little bit different on those drives. I thought he did some good things out there.”
on improving the team’s tackling
“It’s fundamentals and you have to continue practicing them. You’re not gonna’ win games if you tackle that way, and we have to correct that.”
on the effect of defensive injuries to the team’s depth
“You gotta’ play with who you got. You can’t sit here and say ‘we lost linebackers, can we get an extra yard or two?’ It doesn’t work that way. There’s attrition that goes and everybody deals with injuries at this point during the season. The teams that stay healthy over the course of the season usually end up on top, but it’s something we just have to deal with. We knew linebacker was a depth problem to start with, and then losing some of those guys has hurt us, be we just gotta’ go.”
on whether there was defensive fatigue in the second half
“I don’t think it was that, I think we need to tackle. We were there, we need to get those guys down. Nothing more than that. It’s fundamentals. We need to catch the ball on offense and tackle on defense.”
UCLA safety Adarius Pickett
on his reaction to the loss after two straight wins
“It was really hard to see that happen. I feel like we got out played today and we didn’t tackle well on defense. We had some dropped balls on offense. Our special teams had a few penalties, and we didn’t play too good tonight.”
on Utah running back Zack Moss and the difficulties that he presented
“He’s a good running back – a good physical running back who reads his blocks well. He had a good scheme as far as the blocking. They would block out and the receiver would come and block me. The receiver came of the ball fast. I had to wait patiently. They tried to toward the end of the game, take the receiver deep. That was my responsibility the whole game. They had a good scheme with a good running back.”
on the Bruins eliminating bad habits, errors
“Just train and practice each week. Just to improve and to focus. I know that it’s been a short week for the younger guys, really for everybody, but we have to fix it in practice and come back next week against Oregon and have those problems fixed.”
on fumbling a punt return
“I just misjudged the ball. I shouldn’t have tried to catch it. I just misjudged it. It wasn’t any spin. That was on me.”
on UCLA securing its sixth interception in four games
“Coach Rhoads has been adamant about becoming the offense. We do drills just running on the field and becoming the offense. I think that Coach Rhoads does a tremendous job during the week on just taking us through those drills, things that are going to come up in a game.”
UCLA quarterback Wilton Speight
on his performance against Utah
“We came out, our coaches had a great gameplan. We came out firing. Guys were making plays and we felt good about everything. We went into halftime with it being a game. But it just kind of felt like one play after another, it just didn’t really feel like our night. Sometimes in sports, that is how it goes.”
on plays that didn’t add up well
“I’m not going to single out any play in particular. But any time that you are successful in football, with 11 guys on the field, a successful play is big. More often than not, 11 guys on the field did their job right. The cohesion wasn’t really there, and it was not really adding up consistently through the night.”
on not taking too many hits
“No, it’s just part of being a quarterback. I’ve got a long body that is a target. In the first half, I didn’t slide because I wanted to get the first down. If I can get past the sticks, I’m not going to try to bust one toward the end zone.”
on UCLA’s dropped passes
“Well, the bottom line in the whole situation is the guys were getting to the right spots. Obviously, I missed a few throws tonight and forced a corner into double coverage that got intercepted. Like I said, we were not firing on all cylinders tonight. But it wasn’t due to a lack of effort. That is the biggest thing to take away from this.”
on any differences in style of play between the Pac-12 and Big Ten
“The styles of play may be a little different. The field feels more spread out. In the Big Ten, it’s smash-mouth football land you hand the ball off, get behind the linebackers, you get the safeties to bite against the box. Coach Kelly recognizes the style of this conference, but he is not going to adapt just because of that situation. Both are incredible conferences. I’m very lucky to have played in both.”
UCLA linebacker Tyree Thompson
on what adjustments need to be made
“We just have to work on our fundamentals, that’s really what it comes down to. I didn’t see a lack of effort. We just have to tackle together, and everyone has to do their jobs. We’ve got to just come together.”
on Utah running back Zack Moss
“He was really good at running speed on first contact. As you can see, he had a lot of yards. We’ve got to get better at coming together to make those tackles so that he doesn’t get four or five extra yards.”
on adjustments from a shorter week of preparation
“It really doesn’t affect us because we do well in recovery. We’ve got to get back on Monday, and just get it fixed.”
UCLA running back Joshua Kelly
on how Wilton Speight said that tonight’s game just didn’t seem to feel right
“Yeah, [Utah] they’re a tough group. They’re really good up front, their linebackers, and their secondary. They’re a good team. We just kind of shot ourselves in the foot with penalties. But you tip your hats to them. They were great tonight. They deserve the credit.”
on UCLA’s dropped passes
“I think that it’s a matter of us staying positive throughout the game. ‘So what? Now what?’ A motto that we have. We have to just keep going forward. We know that stuff happens, good and bad, it’s like a roller coaster. We just have to keep going. That’s what it is.”
on going to play at Oregon next Saturday
“For me, personally, I need to get better, to be better at breaking tackles and at trusting my reads and working harder. Tonight was not good. It wasn’t good for us at all. Oregon is a great team, too. But we have to amp it up because we’re playing some tough teams in the back end of our schedule. No rear-view mirrors, from here on out.”
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham
on the overall performance by the team
“First half was a little sluggish. Picked it up in the second half. It was a great team win considering the dark cloud that has been over the university this past week. Obviously, tragic situation. The game itself whenever you can run for 300 yards it opens up the field for play action. I thought we executed very well, we did have a turnover or two, but we gained two ourselves. Our guys responded this team is fun to coach. Unfortunately, we had the targeting incident so that was the lowlight of the game. Aside from that really clean game now its on to the next one.”
on the improvement of the offense
“It speaks to the offensive line first of all. That has been the common denominator during these last four games. You take what the defense is giving you and you take whatever is working. I thought Troy called a great game and it was very positive.”
on why his team likes to run the ball in that situation
“I don’t know but you are right. Some of those runs were sheer toughness and willpower.”
on being 4-0 in the month of October
“4-0. It’s good being undefeated in October. The positive is we have settled in as a team into who we are. We are doing a great job of getting the ball into our playmakers. College football is all about players and its great to see. Fun to watch.”
on not generating pressure on the Quarterback
“Give their guy credit, he was very elusive in the pocket. We only had one sack tonight. Several times we flushed him, but we gave him an escape patch. We put a lot of effort into what we did tonight which was zone coverage. A lot of zone coverage this week just like we did last week.”
on winning the games you’re supposed to win as opposed to other years
“I don’t know which games we’re supposed to win but I just think that our guys are playing with more confidence than we have. Our defense and special teams has been consistent now you have an offense that’s feeling really good about themselves.”
on controlling the highs and lows to an environment like this
“It’s part of coaching. First of all, it is harder to stay on top than it is to get to the top. Everyone is gunning for you and human nature is to back off and feel like you have arrived. We have a lot of discussion about that making sure we do not back off. We have a lot of football left and it starts next week against Arizona State at their place.”
Utah running back Zack Moss
on UCLA’s defensive expectations
“We knew coming into this week that they let up a lot of yards to Arizona last week. We felt that we could come out and do something similar. It wasn’t going to be given, so we had to prepare and we had a great week of practice, that’s why we were able to do what we did today.”
on how his team feels, closing out big games this season
“There’s a lot of confidence in the locker room, with the coaches as well. There’s a lot more juice at practice. It’s just flowing in the right direction, which we need, especially in the back end of the year. It’s like we’re fresh and everyone else is dead right now. We’re doing a really good job right now, and we need to keep that going.”
on Utah emphasizing the run game after success the first few weeks
“We had to find our identity. We had to try a few things that didn’t work, but we got back to playing Utah football and we been able to do a lot of good things.”
Utah linebacker Cody Barton
on defensive clicking and putting his team in good spots
“With our offense clicking how it has been, it makes our job a lot easier. It takes a lot of pressure of us, and our defense is definitely clicking. We’ve turned a lot of teams one dimensional tonight – they [UCLA] passed the ball mostly. It’s a great time out there and its fun.”
on limiting UCLA’s success with crossing routes
“We knew they had the crossing routes, and there would be times when we blitzed, and I came free sometimes but they would dumped it off to the crossing route as an insurance. We didn’t really change much, but we focused on it a little more and we shut it down.”
on how the team is handling success
“There can be a point where they say you go to high. If you go into the next week and stop working hard, stop doing what you’re doing. As long as we keep practicing the way we do, keep that mentality of being hungry and not being complacent. Then we’ll be fine.”