Spaulding Report: UCLA Football Maryland Week Media Interviews
As you wait for today's game to kickoff, we've gathered all of this week's UCLA Football interviews for you in one place.
As usual, we’ll get right to this week’s interviews and see what’s been getting said at this week’s UCLA football press conferences. I’m just going to share this week’s videos here all in the same place to make it easy for you to watch them if you haven’t already. The videos in this article are courtesy of UCLA Athletics on YouTube, unless noted otherwise.
As is the custom, we’ll start off with interim head coach Tim Skipper. The first question came from Ben Bolch of the LA Times. Ben asked about defensive lineman Siale Taupaki playing offense last week.
He was begging to be able to do something on the offensive side. What I didn’t know is he came in here as a O-lineman. So, he has that background and, like I said, he was begging to get out there. All right, we’re gonna use you then. And sure enough, he went out there and did his job. So, that gave us some juice on the sideline. It was good to see.
One of the other questions he was asked was about how the locker room has changed. Skipper said:
I will say the locker room is clean to start with. That’s the first thing. I think a clean locker room makes you a lot happier. It shows team discipline and it shows you can win off the field. So now, you can go ahead and get on the field. I think success and winning brings smiles to your face and excitement. So, execution fuels emotion. I’m hoping and it looks like the guys are in good spirits and things like that and they know that tomorrow is going to be a work day and they better be ready to go. But, I think we’re giving the guys the why and the reasons why we do things and that’s helping them know what to expect.
I don’t know if that implies that the locker room had been a mess before or not, but it seems to say that. I would definitely agree with this statement. A clean locker room goes a long way towards instill a sense of pride in the program, and I think we’re seeing that renewed pride show up on the field.
That looks to have been the only time Coach Skipper met with the media this week.
Before we move to the player interviews, let’s look at the condition of Spaulding Field on Tuesday. A video posted to X.com by Ben Bolch of the LA Times appears to show that, when the field was recently re-done, someone forgot to put any kind of drainage in, or someone forgot to make sure the project included drainage. To be sure, we don’t get much rain in LA except for February/March, but you need to make sure the field is usable.
Moving to the player interviews, defensive linemen Keanu Williams and Devin Aupiu met with media following the UCLA football team’s practice on Tuesday.
Williams started off and was asked about Taupaki’s offensive contribution and if he would want to play some offense too. He said:
“Oh, it’s big time. That was big time. I think if any of us can help any side of the ball out, let’s do it….Give me a little pop pass. I want a touchdown. I don’t like blocking. I want the score. That’s all I want.”
Aupiu was also asked about Taupaki. He commented:
Oh, it was it was great. We saw him running down. They had the offense call him. Siale! Oh my god, it’s happening. It’s happening. I’m not going to lie. I wanted to play myself cuz I love to hit people. But yeah, it was great to see.
On Wednesday, tight end Hudson Habermehl and wide receiver Mikey Matthews and spoke with the media.
Habermehl spoke about how Jerry has affected the offense. Habermehl said:
I think Jerry, he’s been waiting for this opportunity for a while, and it’s kind of a weird timing and weird situation for him to get the opportunity, but he’s ran with it. He was joking and telling us about how his dad ,when he was little, kind of gave him scenarios when it’s fourth down, what do you call? So, he’s a coach’s son and he’s kind of given us the the right situations and the right plays to execute. So, he lets Nico not overthink things and get the ball to the playmakers and let them do their thing. So, it’s kind of a credit to everyone on offense and Jerry and Coach Skip.
Mikey Matthews spoke a little about the influence Noel Mazzone has had since joining the team. Matthews said:
“He knows a lot of football. So, [he] definitely knows what he’s talking about and just has a lot of knowledge. So, I definitely try to pick his brain as much as I can. And me and him be joking a lot….He’d be like, ‘Make sure you step on the step stool so the quarterback can see you.’”
Go Bruins!!!
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