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 was already completely focused on Oregon even though he hadn’t met with the media since the Maryland postgame interview.
He spoke a little about Dylan Raiola vs. Dante Moore, the environment at Autzen and the JMU CFP game last season, among other topics.
But what stood out to me was what he had to say about this year’s team as a whole. Chesney said:
I thought their resolve has been something that stood out to me. I thought their togetherness is something that stood out to me. I thought their belief is something that stood out to me. And then the way that they play this game, they have the right effort. They have the right energy. TThey know what they don’t want people to say about them, and they fight every single day to make sure that no one has that platform or that voice to be heard.
So that’s what stands out to me is just that their true commitment to this, the love they have for this game, the love they have for their teammates, their toughness, their resolve, their effort, their energy.
Those are the things I think I would just keep saying over and over again is that we’re four weeks into this, and I think that the bye week was I’m sure needed physically, but nobody wanted time off, right? Everybody wants to keep going and is excited for their improvements and what they could do next week.
On Tuesday, Coach Chesney spoke about the similarities between Dante Moore and Dylan Raiola. Chesney said:
[T]hey’re both similar. That’s the thing. Neither of them are really pulling the ball down and running a whole lot, right? So, a lot of the offense…just that two different style of balls that come out of their hands which elicit some different things in man or zone that we just got to make sure we understand, but ultimately, they’re very similar.
They both could execute the offense at a high level. They’re both very, very good football players. There’s not a whole you can’t really think one way or the other. Who’s going to be out there? Who’s not? We’ve got to prepare for both.
But, really, the good thing is that it’s not like a kid, the second kid, can’t throw and is only a runner and has to change everything we’re doing. They’re still going to get the ball to the running backs. They’re still gonna involve the tight end. They’re just going to take their shots and find their matchups with their two receivers. It’s all the game that they play and it’s going to be what they play on Saturday regardless of who’s at the trigger.
Coordinators: Dean Kennedy & Colin Hitschler
During the bye week, UCLA self-scouted to try to find more things to clean up. Offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy explained:
[W]e took a deep dive, right, into really realizing what are the things that the defenses are going to find to attack us. And we had some periods where it was strictly based on the previous weeks. It’s a copycat league, right? So, if there’s certain things that are going to get home or there are certain things that are going to attack us or attack a protection or attack a run scheme, we got to find ways to make sure that doesn’t show up again because it’s going to show up again until we get it fixed. And that was really what last week was about.
Defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler spoke about a lot of different things including last year’s CFP game JMU played at Autzen. Hitschler said:
[T]hey figured out a way to score a lot of points against our defense at JMU last year and, obviously, there’s a chip on a shoulder there and and we got to find a way to slow it down.
Players: Derrick Barksdale & Hall Schmidt
DB Derrick Barksdale spoke about having played at Autzen last season along with why he’s now going by Derrick instead of DJ.
The first thing Hall Schmidt was asked about was his weekend off. Schmidt travelled back to Boise and proposed to his girlfriend. So, he spoke a little about that.
He also addressed the noise issue the Bruins will face today along with how they were preparing for it.
It’s kind of funny that, even down on one knee, Hall is still almost as tall as his fiance.
Congratulations to Hall and Ariel!
Bonus Videos
On this week’s Bruin Insider Show, Hall Schmidt sat down for interviews with Nick Koop.
As usual, here’s the Bruin Tape from Game 4.
Finally, Big Ten Network spotlighted Coach Chesney on The Journey.
Go Bruins!!!
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