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 spoke about various aspects of the Wisconsin game and. One of things which stood out was his explanation about what goes into his motivational style. Chesney said:
A lot of it, ultimately starts with, honestly my father growing up like watching him and listening to him with a lot of things we talk about in pregame speeches and the stuff he would do, but he was always looking for an edge, like a a mental edge and a building of confidence edge. We were never a really big team, never had a lot of guys on the roster. We were a little Catholic school and, in Pennsylvania, a lot of the two public schools around us were pretty strong powerhouses and I ended up going to a little Catholic school there and never were we the better team, but we played better than a lot of teams sometimes and I think that had a lot to do with just his ability to motivate us and and have us believe in ourselves. That was a big, big part of it. Then, I think for me just I do a lot of like researching and learning just about leadership and I just want to keep growing and getting better and the more people I can talk to the better off I feel like I can be and then just finding my own ways and own research that just kind of fits the narrative of the week that we’re facing.
On Tuesday, Coach Chesney turned his attention to Michigan State, though he did expand on “the standard” which he had explained the day before. Chesney said:
I’ve never looked at odds of what a game is or what any of that stuff is. We just we have to play the opponent that we’ve got to play on that.
So, we have to prepare all week. We have to understand their strengths, their weaknesses, what we could attack, what we have to stop. That’s just the the name of the game. So, how we go about this practice, this walk through at the end, our run fits, our pass game, all the things that come with it, route recognition, and then offensively continue to clean it up. That’s just what we do. So, it’s just when you have a good process and you have a good progression in place and you have the ability to compete every single moment of every day out here. You don’t have to go up or down or do anything else. The standard doesn’t rise or sink, right? The standard is the standard and I think our guys understand that.
Coordinators: Colin Hitschler, Dean Kennedy & Drew Canan
Colin Hitschler spoke about topics like the defense’s success and maintaining the process. He said:
They’ve done a great job of just continuing to get better and continuing to challenge things. It’s really fun to watch a group believe in the process and develop the process. I think everyone’s watching all the saving stuff and all that talk on the process. I think the guys continue to improve their process and enhance it each week and they’re starting to really come together as a group and see how to attack the pass game or or vice versa the run fits and how we got to be perfect on those. So, it’s a fun group to coach right now. But, you know, we’ve been humbled before this year and we know it’s coming again at some point. But it’s our job to battle it off and figure out a way that that teams continue to attack us or try to figure out how the next team’s going to attack us, but adjust on game day and they’ve done a good job of that as well.
Meanwhile, Coach Kennedy spoke about the development of guys like Jaylen St. Paul as well as the performance Ty Dieffenbach had on Saturday. One other topic he discussed was the balance between the run and the pass and how they want to be as balanced as possible so opposing teams can’t focus on just one aspect of the Bruin offense. Kennedy explained:
We believe in being balanced and some of those…sticking to the run game. Obviously, the run game didn’t go as we wanted it to go, but at the same point in time, it still allowed us to have open receivers at times. And that’s the big piece is that how they tie in together because if you just abandon the run game or you abandon the pass game, they can hone in on one individual piece. So, that’s kind of one of our beliefs is that we’re not going to abandon either side of it, right? And that allows for the other position when it’s like you talk about from a team perspective, right? How special teams in defense and offense, they all got to compliment each other. It’s no different from the offensive side of the ball. You know, when one side of it may not be working, it’s the other job to step up.
But at the same point in time, you’re still putting pressure on the defense by still having them think that we’re going to run the ball or pass the ball.
Special teams coordinator Drew Canan also met with the media this week. Coach Canan spoke about the philosophy and some of the strategy which goes into special teams. Canan said:
Well, with special teams, you know, the big thing we talk about, and we talked about this in the first meeting, is we need our most productive players to play on special teams if we want to get to where we are. So, you look at our punt team, you know, there’s Sammy that that’s out there, J9’s out there, Trent Hendricks out there, AG’s out there, Landon’s out there.
So, you know, you look at that unit right there and I think that speaks volumes kind of of of what we need and what we’re asking for on special teams. At the same point, there’s Rosenthal, Shane Rosenthal, there’s Jason McMullen. Maybe they don’t play, you know, a ton of snaps on defense, a ton of snaps of offense, but they’ve bought in.
I think that starts from the leadership. So, I think it starts from the head coach I could probably count on my left hand the 13 years that I’ve been with Coach Chesney how many special teams meetings he’s missed. He’s in every single meeting, meets with me multiple times a day. So, that’s huge. And and then the depth, it’s great to have that and we have multiple returners that we feel we could put in the game, and we have multiple guys that we feel can help us. So, it’s definitely a huge benefit.
Players: Semaj Morgan & Sammy Omosigho
When wide receiver Semaj Morgan spoke with the media, one of the things he spoke of was the performance of Bruin quarterback Ty Dieffenbach. Semaj said:
I feel like the way he got thrown in there during the Oregon game, I feel like that could have been a little nerve-wracking for anybody and I feel like he handled that really well. But, just coming back throughout the week and just gaining confidence throughout the week with his receivers with his play calls, the more and more reps that he got, we could all see it like he was getting more and more confident. So, I was really impressed with how confident he was just going into the game making certain throws like that throw that he had to land and those two whole shot throws that he had to Landon. Those were pro throws and I just was really impressed with the way he came out there and just was a general on the field.
He was real confident. It didn’t feel like we were we were in there with a backup or a second string at all. Everybody on the field, you feel me, is a one. So he came in there with that great mindset that he wanted to win.
Bruin linebacker Sammy Omosigho was asked if he had a favorite Coach Chesney moment. While he didn’t have one, he offered a glimpse into Chesney’s personality. Omosigho explained:
Favorite moment? Not really. He just coach Ch just be talking and what he says is very it’s very impactful, very meaningful. You know, just every day to know him something new. He’ll be he’ll be in the morning. He’ll be walking in the locker room. It’s 6:15. He walks in. All righty, guys. Who’s ready to work?
Mind you, we’re walking in. It’s 6:15.
Like, come on, Coach Chesney…he’s ready to go. Like, I guess that’s type of guy he is and the type of guy that he wants us to buy into. And I think the guys really bought in and that’s really been a good part of it.
Bonus Videos
With Nick Koop moving on to Washington, this week’s Bruin Insider show added Josh Lewin as the new host. Lewin spoke with both Coach Chesney and Semaj Morgan. Lewin asked Chesney why this team is 6-0. Chesney responded:
We, at the very beginning of this, determined the standards that we want to live by every single day when we really talked a lot about it. We talked about what championship level football looks like. We talked about the idea that we have to go every single day and attack greatness and chase greatness. And we’re not there yet.
But at the same point in time, we know that we got to be better today than we were yesterday. And I think that’s really it. We don’t worryabout just the overall outcomes or the 6 and 0 part. Like that is all part a byproduct of what we’re going to do on a day-to-day basis. Our competition levelis through the roof on this team right now. The true joy of playing this game for and with each other exists on this team. And then we’re holdingeach other as accountable as we possibly can on a day-to-day basis to make sure that we don’t fall short
One of the best stories Semaj Morgan told during his conversation was what made him choose UCLA. The bottom line was he wanted to go somewhere he could win. It’s quite a story to listen to. Unfortunately, due to the length of it, I’m not going to quote the whole thing here, but he concluded saying, “So, when I came as soon as I got on the plane, I’m talking to my dad and I text Coach Chesney like, ‘Hey, coach, I want to commit.’” It’s a great story.
Bruin running back Wayne Knight was interviewed on ESPN's SportsCenter. Of course, the hosts asked him about Coach Chesney's pregame speech at Oregon. Knight answered:
if that doesn't get you fired up, then I don't know what will. I just know that I'm ready to run through a brick wall, you know, for the for the guy next to me and for that for that head coach, man. And just in that moment, all the confidence in the world just flowed throughout the whole entire team. And you could feel it. You can feel the energy. You can feel the aura.
It was good to see Wayne get his due since we haven't heard much from him this season in interviews and whatnot. Of course, sometimes, it's better to just do your talking on the field and he has certainly done a lot of that.
Our next video today comes from CBS Sports. Adam Zucker, Rick Neuheisel and Brian Kelly interviewed Coach Chesney this week. Kelly, who graduated from Assumption where Chesney coached, asked him about having to get the job done without the kind of resources that larger programs have. Chesney's answer helps explain why he has been so successful this season. He detailed:
I started at that Salv Regina University first, the D3 school. And when I was at that D3 school, I visited a lot with the Ivy League schools and as many different people as I could at the D2 level to make it more like what I felt was a D2 school. Then I got to Assumption and it was a D2 school. I wanted to be more like a D1 school. And I had the, obviously, honor of coming out and visiting with you quite a bit. I learned a lot about sports science and running a full organization and program and the the way in which you did it. There was a lot thatI took notes on and use today. And ultimately for me, I just think that, with without the resources, you have to get pretty creative, right?
Necessity is the mother of all invention. And I think that, ultimately, that is something that we were able to do and try to give these guys a feeling that it was big-time college football, even if it wasn't. Every step of the way, we tried to really do that and learn from higher levels. When I got to James Madison, I was learning from NFL guys as much as I can, and here now, the same. We have a great support staff from Doc Roberts, the manager of the the Dodgers, to Adam Peters, the GM of the Commanders, to Bob Meyers, who was the Golden State Warrior GM for all those years. Just a great amount of people that I could keep pulling from to make this the greatest place in the world to play football.
The final interview today comes from AM 570's Petros and Money Show. They spoke with Bruin quarterback Ty Dieffenbach about a variety of things. Among the things we learned about Ty included his favorite Westwood sandwich shop and who cuts his hair. One topic Dieffenbach mentioned was how the offense didn't change at all even though the team was forced to play him at QB. He explained:
During the week there was Coach Kennedy. He told me, “We're not going to go out there and change what we do as a offense. We have full full trust and belief in you to go out there and and operate the offense and throw the ball and then move the ball down the field.” So, I just think hearing that and having a good week of practice as well just set me up for success on Saturday. for success on Saturday.
Of course, we conclude today with the Bruin Tape for Game 6 to hype you up and get you ready for Game 7.
Go Bruins!!!
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