Spaulding Report: UCLA Football San Diego State Week Media Interviews

As you wait for tonight's game to kickoff, we've gathered all of this week's UCLA Football interviews for you in one place.

(Photo Credit: uclabruins.com)

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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.

Coach Bob Chesney

We’ll start off, like we always do, with head coach Bob Chesney. On Monday, Coach Chesney provided a final recap for last week’s game against UC Berkeley.

On Tuesday, Coach Chesney’s focus with the media shifted to San Diego State. He spoke about what to expect from the Aztecs offensively, defensively and on special teams. He was also asked about how they played three guards against UC Berkeley and if they plan on settling on two guards. Chesney replied:

No, we’re not hoping to settle on on two. We’re hoping to find a fourth to be honest and to rotate through even more if we can. The defensive line does it every single series and then you have you ask your offense line to be out there for the entire game and and no one else to get reps except for the starting five. And then what happens?

Someone gets a little nicked up and nobody has any experience other than those starting five. So that’s by design. And that’s something that Coach Smith has been doing since I think he was the O line coach at New Haven back in probably 2014. So that is something that has served us well and we’re going to continue to do.

Coordinators: Dean Kennedy & Colin Hitschler

Coach Kennedy addressed a bunch of different things regarding the offense, but probably the biggest thing he spoke about was having rotations on the offensive line, expanding on what Coach Chesney said. Kennedy said:

Coach Smith says it all the time that they have to be the hard playing the hardest out of anybody in America. That’s what they did.

Are there mistakes? Yes. Are there things that we have made on? Yes.

But then when you tie it in together, when you have five people playing as hard as anybody on the football field on a every snap basis, it makes up for mistakes. It makes up for some things when you’re just flat out playing harder than everyone.

So I think then on the same point, when you’re rotating people, you’re keeping people fresh, right? And when you have that type of group that is also bought in like the running backs, right? Well, now you’re able to be fresh in the fourth quarter where we kind of…where our job is to impose our will on anybody that faces against us, right? Right. And I think that’s the biggest teaching point of that.

Of course, defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler spoke about what UCLA will face from the SDSU offense today, but one of the most revealing things he spoke about was the third quarter against UC Berkeley. Hitschler explained:

Yeah, I think it’s a tough situation, right? You’re coming off of halftime where you just gave up a a a panicked two-minute drive that you guys didn’t really that we as a staff more than anything didn’t execute. Uh, you know, probably felt some blood in the water and got overly aggressive and then kind of messed it up and come back after half and JKS is is doing a good job and you want to keep the ball in front of you and maybe played a little too much bend not not break and that’s not who we are. Never, never again let that happen and just keep challenging. We’ve got to be more intentional with our aiming points in that drive and we can clean it up and be a lot better.

“Never, never again” play bend not break? That’s refreshing.

Players: Anthony Woods & Sammy Omosigho

Anthony Woods credited the blocking of the offensive line and receivers as the difference in the run game compared to last year. Woods said, “It was good. Shout out to the O line. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to do it by myself.”

Sammy Omosigho spoke about his first game as a Bruin. One of the coolest things he spoke about was the golden ball. Omosigho spoke about the fumble he forced. He said:

Yeah, so Coach Hitch, shout out Coach Hitch with the amazing play call. You know what I’m saying? Came free and then we take layups. But we go make get the quarterback ball comes out. I didn’t know the ball came out till like later.

I’m looking around for the ball and I looked down at him. He didn’t have the ball. So I was looking around for it and I saw Ameir Washington. He did a great job jumping on the ball. Then it’s time to celebrate. All the guys came. I didn’t know he was going to the sideline or the end zone. So, we went to the end zone and then, we’ve had a golden ball for the during fall camp.

Coach Hitch showed us the golden ball. So, whenever you get a turnover, you have the golden ball, take a picture, put your name on the wall or put your picture on the wall. So, we’re started that during the season. So, first turnover…golden ball and then Tashawn had two of them. So, shoot! The golden ball is fire. It’s another incentive on how to be great and how to just keep doing what we’re doing and making sure that we’re having fun doing it.

Bonus Videos

On this week’s Bruin Insider Show, Coach Chesney sat down for an interview with Nick Koop.

Our final bonus video today comes courtesy of Bruin Report Online. A few days ago, David Woods and Tracy Pierson interviewed new UCLA CEO and Director of Athletics Tim Harris. While it is a bit lengthy, it is well worth taking a little more than an hour to watch the entire thing.

In this honest and extensive conversation, Harris talks about wanting to “burn the tarps” which UCLA has used at the Rose Bowl since attendance dropped. He also addresses many of the concerns diehard UCLA fans have complained about for years.

If there are any doubts remaining that UCLA is finally on the right track, I think it’s safe to say we can put them away as Chancellor Frenk seems to have found two cures for Battered Bruin Syndrome: Bob Chesney and Tim Harris.


Go Bruins!!!

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