Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. SDSU
POSTGAME QUOTES
San Diego State 23, UCLA 14
September 7, 2019
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on his initial reaction to Saturday’s result
“I thought there were opportunities for us to make plays that we didn’t make. You have to credit San Diego State. When they had to make plays, they made them. There were a couple of passes they completed where we had guys in coverage, and the quarterback put the ball in the right spot and the receiver came up with the play. I think that we have to protect our quarterback better and give him an opportunity to throw the ball. We had some people open, but we have got to protect him better.”
on UCLA having never before lost to San Diego State
“You try to compare things all the time. It does not matter who we lost to. It doesn’t matter if we had lost to them before or had lost to them now. It hurts when you lose. It hurts when you lose to Cincinnati, and it hurts when you lose to San Diego State. The fact that you hadn’t lost to them before means absolutely nothing. We weren’t here before. We lost to them now, and that is what hurts.”
on making improvements before playing Oklahoma next Saturday
“There are plays to be made that I don’t think we made. We have to make the proper corrections when we look at film tomorrow and when we get the guys back on Monday. We have to show them what they did right and then what did we do wrong, and why’d we do it wrong, and we’ve got to correct that. We do have a really good team coming in here next Saturday, and we have got to be ready for them. They’re an outstanding football team and they’re well-coached, and it’s the same thing we’d talked about with San Diego State coming in here. We knew they’d be a very well-coached team and they were not going to give the game to us. We had to beat them, and we didn’t do that today.”
on what he would tell fans about continuing to support this team
“I see what they see. We made too many mistakes to win a football game today, and we certainly understand that. It’s on us to correct that. It’s on us to tell them what to say or what to think or how to act. It’s on us to make the corrections and to play better as a football team and to coach better as a coaching staff.”
on his level of optimism for improvement
“I believe it will happen. I have faith in these guys.”
on UCLA’s coverage in the defensive secondary
“If you look at a lot of those plays, I think that our DBs were there. You’ve got to make the play. With that one down the sideline near the end there, it was on the receiver. You’ve got to make a play over there. That’s part of it. It’s about making plays. There were opportunities for us to make plays, and we did not make plays.”
on his thoughts about quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
“I thought that Dorian played well. We have to do a better job protecting him. There were a couple times where he took some shots and he should not have taken shots. Guys should have been picked up in protection. We did not do a good job of protecting him. He was efficient when we gave him time to throw the football today.”
on assessments after an 0-2 start
“You are always what your record says you are, so we’re 0-2. We are not doing a good enough job right now.”
on struggling to get a pass rush against SDSU
“I think when you look at a lot of the things that they were doing today, they kept max guys in and most of their stuff was off one-man or two-man routes and there were a lot of guys in there, and it’s difficult to get to them in those situations. It’s as combination of those things.”
San Diego State head coach Rocky Long
on SDSU defeating UCLA for the first time in program history
“I think the whole experience is pretty special. It’s really cool to get to play in the Rose Bowl against a great university and football program like UCLA. That is really neat, in and of itself. And San Diego State had never beat UCLA in a football game. If it had been two or three times, that’s not as unusual, but it was the 23rd meeting, that makes it a special day.”
on SDSU’s offense
“They threw and caught the ball a whole lot better than they did last week. They made a big improvement. I heard that we were seven [passing] yards short of 300. We didn’t run the ball as we would have liked to. But a couple of guys made some great catches, and Kobe Smith did a great job after he caught the ball.”
on the caliber of quarterback Ryan Agnew’s performance
“I don’t think it’s unusual at all. I mean, he is a senior and he’s been around a lot. He has played a lot of football, and all the way back to his high school days, he played in state championship games. I don’t think that it was any special deal, at all. I think he was upset that he didn’t play well last week and he went out and played like a veteran. I mean he is a veteran. We can’t be surprised when he plays well.”
on capitalizing on two UCLA fumbles
“I think that any time that one team turns the ball over and the other team does not, the team that turned the ball over has a very little chance of winning. UCLA is a good football team. They should have won last week, too, but they turned the ball over four times. I thought they had outplayed Cincinnati. If they had not turned the ball over today, I think the outcome would have been completely different. Now, on the other side, our kids caused the turnover. You’ve got to be happy that our guys caused the turnover. Any time that the defense is out there, you’re trying to cause a turnover.”
on the opening three-and-out and UCLA’s first touchdown
“No, I said something to our kicking team because that was only a 40-yard drive. And our punt team let it get all the way back to the 40. They had all the momentum, and they’d got a huge momentum shift, so I said something to the punt team.”
on quarterback Ryan Agnew
“I think he’s a very good quarterback and experienced quarterback and that’s what spread quarterbacks do. We should have had about six sacks today. Their quarterback is a spread quarterback and he made our guys look silly when our guys were trying to tackle him back there. That is what spread quarterbacks do. When they can buy themselves extra time, it gives receivers a better chance to get open. You don’t want to see your quarterback get hit, but both of those quarterbacks out there are great athletes. And great athletes can do those kinds of things to make things happen.”
UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
on his reaction to what both he and the team could improve upon
“I think I still need to improve on some things. Obviously, still the two fumbles, you can’t have that. But as a team, I think we fought hard. But still, a lot to improve on and still a lot to get better at.”
on if he’s surprised the team has not sustained the success from late last season
“I think just looking back on it, we can’t really look at last year’s tape. We always have to look forward. Obviously, we’re not getting it done right now. We have a lot to improve on, so we’re just going to go back to the drawing board and move on forward from here.”
UCLA running back Joshua Kelly
on returning to action for the Bruins
“It felt good be back playing football. The training staff was excellent, excellent coaching staff. They make smart decisions, so it felt really good to be back playing football out here with my brothers, so that was amazing. As a competitor, mentally you always think you’re ready, but physically I wasn’t really ready. The coaches made a smart decision. We have [Demetric] Felton, we have Martell Irby. We have amazing running backs, so they’re a lot better than me when I’m not 100 percent, so I think it was a smart decision for sure.”
on what he feels he could have done better on the team’s last fourth down play
“I’ve got to make a guy miss. There’s unblocked defenders all the time, but I have to make guys miss. I have to. It doesn’t matter how I’m feeling, I’ve got to make the guy miss. I’ve got to get the first down, so that’s on me. The offensive linemen fought their butts off the whole game. I’ve just got to get the first down and give ourselves a chance here and not let the defense back on the field.”
UCLA free safety Quentin Lake
on the feeling of the team’s secondary unit after the loss
“I would say that it’s disappointing. I’m not going to beat around the bush. Being a defensive back, it’s disappointing to see how we performed. I thought we came out good, started off with a stop, but going on, we have to be consistent in the back end. We can’t let a quarterback get his rhythm going. As a DB, I think I’m going to talk to the guys coming back, but we have to step it up, especially going into next week. We have a big challenge. In this game, it was just a matter of keeping level. I think we had our ups and downs. As a defensive back, you have to have a short memory, so it’s just a matter of being consistent.”
San Diego State 23, UCLA 14
September 7, 2019
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on his initial reaction to Saturday’s result
“I thought there were opportunities for us to make plays that we didn’t make. You have to credit San Diego State. When they had to make plays, they made them. There were a couple of passes they completed where we had guys in coverage, and the quarterback put the ball in the right spot and the receiver came up with the play. I think that we have to protect our quarterback better and give him an opportunity to throw the ball. We had some people open, but we have got to protect him better.”
on UCLA having never before lost to San Diego State
“You try to compare things all the time. It does not matter who we lost to. It doesn’t matter if we had lost to them before or had lost to them now. It hurts when you lose. It hurts when you lose to Cincinnati, and it hurts when you lose to San Diego State. The fact that you hadn’t lost to them before means absolutely nothing. We weren’t here before. We lost to them now, and that is what hurts.”
on making improvements before playing Oklahoma next Saturday
“There are plays to be made that I don’t think we made. We have to make the proper corrections when we look at film tomorrow and when we get the guys back on Monday. We have to show them what they did right and then what did we do wrong, and why’d we do it wrong, and we’ve got to correct that. We do have a really good team coming in here next Saturday, and we have got to be ready for them. They’re an outstanding football team and they’re well-coached, and it’s the same thing we’d talked about with San Diego State coming in here. We knew they’d be a very well-coached team and they were not going to give the game to us. We had to beat them, and we didn’t do that today.”
on what he would tell fans about continuing to support this team
“I see what they see. We made too many mistakes to win a football game today, and we certainly understand that. It’s on us to correct that. It’s on us to tell them what to say or what to think or how to act. It’s on us to make the corrections and to play better as a football team and to coach better as a coaching staff.”
on his level of optimism for improvement
“I believe it will happen. I have faith in these guys.”
on UCLA’s coverage in the defensive secondary
“If you look at a lot of those plays, I think that our DBs were there. You’ve got to make the play. With that one down the sideline near the end there, it was on the receiver. You’ve got to make a play over there. That’s part of it. It’s about making plays. There were opportunities for us to make plays, and we did not make plays.”
on his thoughts about quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
“I thought that Dorian played well. We have to do a better job protecting him. There were a couple times where he took some shots and he should not have taken shots. Guys should have been picked up in protection. We did not do a good job of protecting him. He was efficient when we gave him time to throw the football today.”
on assessments after an 0-2 start
“You are always what your record says you are, so we’re 0-2. We are not doing a good enough job right now.”
on struggling to get a pass rush against SDSU
“I think when you look at a lot of the things that they were doing today, they kept max guys in and most of their stuff was off one-man or two-man routes and there were a lot of guys in there, and it’s difficult to get to them in those situations. It’s as combination of those things.”
San Diego State head coach Rocky Long
on SDSU defeating UCLA for the first time in program history
“I think the whole experience is pretty special. It’s really cool to get to play in the Rose Bowl against a great university and football program like UCLA. That is really neat, in and of itself. And San Diego State had never beat UCLA in a football game. If it had been two or three times, that’s not as unusual, but it was the 23rd meeting, that makes it a special day.”
on SDSU’s offense
“They threw and caught the ball a whole lot better than they did last week. They made a big improvement. I heard that we were seven [passing] yards short of 300. We didn’t run the ball as we would have liked to. But a couple of guys made some great catches, and Kobe Smith did a great job after he caught the ball.”
on the caliber of quarterback Ryan Agnew’s performance
“I don’t think it’s unusual at all. I mean, he is a senior and he’s been around a lot. He has played a lot of football, and all the way back to his high school days, he played in state championship games. I don’t think that it was any special deal, at all. I think he was upset that he didn’t play well last week and he went out and played like a veteran. I mean he is a veteran. We can’t be surprised when he plays well.”
on capitalizing on two UCLA fumbles
“I think that any time that one team turns the ball over and the other team does not, the team that turned the ball over has a very little chance of winning. UCLA is a good football team. They should have won last week, too, but they turned the ball over four times. I thought they had outplayed Cincinnati. If they had not turned the ball over today, I think the outcome would have been completely different. Now, on the other side, our kids caused the turnover. You’ve got to be happy that our guys caused the turnover. Any time that the defense is out there, you’re trying to cause a turnover.”
on the opening three-and-out and UCLA’s first touchdown
“No, I said something to our kicking team because that was only a 40-yard drive. And our punt team let it get all the way back to the 40. They had all the momentum, and they’d got a huge momentum shift, so I said something to the punt team.”
on quarterback Ryan Agnew
“I think he’s a very good quarterback and experienced quarterback and that’s what spread quarterbacks do. We should have had about six sacks today. Their quarterback is a spread quarterback and he made our guys look silly when our guys were trying to tackle him back there. That is what spread quarterbacks do. When they can buy themselves extra time, it gives receivers a better chance to get open. You don’t want to see your quarterback get hit, but both of those quarterbacks out there are great athletes. And great athletes can do those kinds of things to make things happen.”
UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
on his reaction to what both he and the team could improve upon
“I think I still need to improve on some things. Obviously, still the two fumbles, you can’t have that. But as a team, I think we fought hard. But still, a lot to improve on and still a lot to get better at.”
on if he’s surprised the team has not sustained the success from late last season
“I think just looking back on it, we can’t really look at last year’s tape. We always have to look forward. Obviously, we’re not getting it done right now. We have a lot to improve on, so we’re just going to go back to the drawing board and move on forward from here.”
UCLA running back Joshua Kelly
on returning to action for the Bruins
“It felt good be back playing football. The training staff was excellent, excellent coaching staff. They make smart decisions, so it felt really good to be back playing football out here with my brothers, so that was amazing. As a competitor, mentally you always think you’re ready, but physically I wasn’t really ready. The coaches made a smart decision. We have [Demetric] Felton, we have Martell Irby. We have amazing running backs, so they’re a lot better than me when I’m not 100 percent, so I think it was a smart decision for sure.”
on what he feels he could have done better on the team’s last fourth down play
“I’ve got to make a guy miss. There’s unblocked defenders all the time, but I have to make guys miss. I have to. It doesn’t matter how I’m feeling, I’ve got to make the guy miss. I’ve got to get the first down, so that’s on me. The offensive linemen fought their butts off the whole game. I’ve just got to get the first down and give ourselves a chance here and not let the defense back on the field.”
UCLA free safety Quentin Lake
on the feeling of the team’s secondary unit after the loss
“I would say that it’s disappointing. I’m not going to beat around the bush. Being a defensive back, it’s disappointing to see how we performed. I thought we came out good, started off with a stop, but going on, we have to be consistent in the back end. We can’t let a quarterback get his rhythm going. As a DB, I think I’m going to talk to the guys coming back, but we have to step it up, especially going into next week. We have a big challenge. In this game, it was just a matter of keeping level. I think we had our ups and downs. As a defensive back, you have to have a short memory, so it’s just a matter of being consistent.”