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
On Monday, Coach Chesney recapped last week’s win over Purdue and looked ahead to today’s Maryland game.
But there was one thing which stood out more than anything.
“I want to lead the nation in development,” Coach Chesney said.
We’ve talked about this at length over the years, going all the way back to the Mora years when Mora and Adrian Klemm failed to successfully develop the offensive line. More specifically, we talked about how hard it can be to develop players during the season due to the demands of preparing for the next opponent.
Well, it seems Coach Chesney and his staff have found a way to make it a priority. Guys who don’t play or play much on Saturday play in a scrimmage on Sunday, not as punishment, but to get more development reps in.
“So, you get out there on Sunday. If you didn’t play a lot on Saturday, you get out there on Sunday. Now you have a chance to truly get out there and show what you can do.
The people that have that have won that Sunday award were JSP [Jalen Saint Paul], the first one, and all of a sudden he was up on the field and activated. The next one was Leland (Smith), and all of a sudden he’s up there and activated. And I think that’s really just important for them to understand that there’s….that’s showing up well. That is not just complaining that ‘Hey, I didn’t play a lot on Saturday.’ You got to get your reps in and being able to do that and make it pretty physical on Sunday is a big piece of why we’ve been able to bump some of those guys up.”
This is just another piece of evidence, albeit a very important one, as to what makes Coach Chesney different from the other coaches who have graced the Bruin sidelines.
On Tuesday, Coach Chesney addressed quite a few topics including travel logistics for the team. He said:
We’re going on Thursday. So, as soon as we’re done here with practice…we’re going to bump practice up a little bit earlier in the morning, hit practice, leave that and go over after as soon as we’re done, jump on the plane and go and then get there and have a walk through on Friday. [We’ll] move around a little bit on Friday and then hopefully get to bed a little bit earlier because the game is is obviously 10:30 our time, but we’ve got to make sure it feels like 12:30 or 1:30 their time.
Coordinators: Dean Kennedy & Colin Hitschler
When Coach Kennedy met with the media on Wednesday, he had a lot of quick hits on a bunch of different topics from Brian Rowe to Semaj Morgan to trusting the process and even game planning.
Meanwhile, Coach Hitschler discussed topics like guys from the East Coast playing close to home, overcoming adversity, the development of Osiris Gilbert, the challenges posed by Malik Washington and the preparation for traveling cross-country.
Players: Semaj Morgan & Rod Pleasant
On Monday, Semaj Morgan spoke about how much fun the team is having as well as his connection with Nico which he built playing 7-on-7 with him in high school and blocking and other fundamentals.
Meanwhile, Rodrick Pleasant spoke about his first career interception last week, among other topics.
Bonus Videos
On this week’s Bruin Insider Show, Coach Chesney and Rodrick Pleasant both sat down for interviews with Nick Koop.
Finally, we’ll conclude with last week’s “Bruin Tape,” a summary of last week’s game against Purdue.
Go Bruins!!!
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