Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. South Alabama (Sept. 17, 2022)

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 32, South Alabama 31
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
September 17, 2022

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on Bruins’ kicker Nicholas Barr-Mira, going 4-for-4 and hitting the game-winning field goal
“Honestly, I thought he had it. I thought he had kicked really well all day. He has been solid this last week. He kicked really well in practice. We always believe that you play the way you practice. The whole operation, between him, Jack [Landherr IV], Sean [Holland], has been really good. Felt good about the protection. Knew where he wanted the ball. We talk about that all the time – where do you want it? Some guys prefer it on the hash and some guys want it in the middle. Some guys want it left, middle. Felt like if we could have run it in to score, we would’ve done that. But we were not going to afford to do anything else besides that, so credit to him. I thought he was clutch. And I think that’s what you dream about as a little kid, kick a game-winning field goal. Down two, and we need three to win and he did it. I’m really proud of Nick.”

on South Alabama attempting a fake field goal late in the fourth quarter
“I wasn’t surprised. You know, we had talked all week long about some type of trickeration. They threw a flea flicker. Sometimes that happens when you have group of fives playing power fives. We had talked to our players about it. We practiced all week along about onside kick and some of those things that teams might dial up and try to do something. I thought that our guys did a really good job of defending it. I saw Carl [Jones Jr.] coming off the edge, and then it was really a big play by our defense when we needed one.”

on the Bruins winning in comeback fashion
“We talk all the time about three things happen in a football game – momentum swings and random events and adversity. The key is that if you’re a competitor, you respond when that happens. Non-competitors react. And I think that our guys responded in a good manner today. We obviously found ourselves in a hole, but I think that our sideline and our guys believed every single time that we were going to win the football game. We’ve just got to keep plugging away and keep playing. That’s a sign of a little bit of maturity, when you have a little bit of an older team. I think that our guys handled the situation, so I am proud of that. We have a ton to correct. We are getting into conference play now. There are a lot of positives from our mindset and our competitive response that I was really proud of with our guys today.”

on any challenges that UCLA’s defense faced
“Well first thing, I think Carter [Bradley] was outstanding. He was a kid who had been in the [transfer] portal and he was at Toledo. A lot of people tried to recruit him. I know his father Gus really well. Gus is the defensive coordinator for the Colts now, been a head coach in the league. And I thought that the kid has got tremendous poise, tremendous ball location. We’d talked about it in our visit with you guys on Monday, about how good of a football team that is. That is a really, really good football team. And we knew that this would be closer, back and forth football game all along. There is nothing that they did that surprised us. I thought their running back was outstanding. People bounced off of him. He broke tackles. I think that they got a good scheme, offensively. They did some nice things. So, sometimes you’ve got to give them credit. They made some plays when they had to.”

on if it was good to see the team go through some adversity
“Yeah, I loved it. It was awesome and it felt great – no, I’m being sarcastic. I mean, in hindsight yeah, while it is going on you are not very excited about it. Alright, this is good we’ve got some adversity and then we will just win. But it doesn’t just happen that way. But that is the great thing about football. And it happens every single week. I haven’t seen any scores throughout college football today, but there will be somebody where you’re like, ‘Who beat who?’ We talked about it immediately last week. There were three teams from this [Sun Belt] Conference – Georgia Southern, Marshall and App State that went into A&M, Notre Dame and Nebraska and beat them. So, it happens every week. That is why college football is great. You just don’t want to be on the side of when someone goes, ‘Hey did you see that score?’ and you were part of that score. You do not want to be part of that. But we were fortunate to come out on top today. We’ll get back to work on Monday. The out-of-conference part is over. Now everybody is getting into conference play and we’ve got to go.”

on UCLA’s Jake Bobo
“One of the things that we saw when we recruited Jake to come here, to have a go-to guy. We have the ability to move him around. He plays in a lot of different spots. He is also a tremendous blocker. I don’t think that people realize how good of a blocker he is in some of the things that he does. To have that versatility, to be able to move him around, he can handle anything. He has a lot of experience coming in from Duke and what he did there. But I’m really happy he’s a part of it. He’s a big, long, tall target. I think that Dorian is getting really comfortable with him.”

on UCLA wide receivers Logan Loya and Titus Mokiao-Atimalala
“I was really happy for both of those guys. They have worked so hard. Logan has been here for a little while, and he is such a savvy route-runner. That fourth down play, he was the third option. Some guys rushed that route. But he knows that he is three in the progression, but the timing of it was perfect. That’s the way that Logan is. I was really excited about that. He had a big catch on third down for us, we caught him in man coverage. He ran a great route. And then Titus came up big. I think that as Titus continues to get more comfortable in our offense and our terminology, hopefully we’ll continue to grow him. I feel good about what we are doing out wide. Kam Brown was back and Kam scored, really happy for Kam also. To add to Bobo and Kaz [Allen], to see Titus and Logan and Kaz step up, I feel pretty comfortable with where we are at wideout.”

on ball-handling issues
“I mean, we had run that pitch play three or four times earlier. And it was successful. I’d have to look at the film to see what happened in terms of that decision. Then the one on the goal line, both Zach and Dorian, the two of them had talked about it. We didn’t get a clean handoff on that. We thought that Zach had scored on the play before. When you are in a one-point game, you start to think about those situations. We had turned the ball over and fumbled, and you cannot do that against a really good team. We were fortunate we got away with that today.”

on South Alabama’s fake field goal attempt – a go big or go home mentality
“That’s a question for Kane [Wommack], I don’t know what his thought process was there. We had talked all week long about those certain situations, that things would come up – whether it was a fake punt or a trick play. They ran a flea flicker and hit it down our sideline. So our coaching staff and players were aware that something could happen. We talk about how competitors respond. When they shifted out, there was no panic with our guys. We work with our field goal block team, every week, with who has got who. There was no panic from our defensive side.”

on Nicholas Barr-Mira’s job as a punter
“We didn’t punt often but when we did punt, that is the one thing with Nick – he had four field goals, but I thought that he punted the ball really well. Nick is an outstanding directional punter. He keeps the ball away from the returner. He did a great job of pinning them down there deep. So for him to have double duty, to be a punter and a field goal guy, I am really proud of how Nick played today.”

UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
on the game-ending field goal
"I was at ease, everybody wrote off Nick first week for his performance. Seeing Nick all throughout training ever since that first game, he has worked his tail off, put that work in, I have always confidence in him going into that last kick.”

on the fourth-quarter comeback
"Just sticking with the plan, sticking with each other, knowing who the guys you've got in the huddle, the talent that we have, just staying within the system."

on the final drive
“We work on it everyday, the two-minute clutch. We're pretty good at it now having done it so much, it's a normal Wednesday's practice for us. We all have the complete confidence in the world and our defense does too that we are going to get it done."

UCLA kicker Nicholas Barr-Mira
on the game-winning field goal
“That was my first one. As a kid, as a kicker, you definitely think about those moments, dream of those moments. Any kicker, you dream of having those moments. And in the moment, all I was focused on was making that kick, treating it like any other kick. I just went out there, lined up, trusted Jack (Landherr) out here, had Sean (Holland) out there and it felt like any other operation.”

on his pre-kick routine
“We both have our individual routines, I’m over in the net doing my thing and Jack’s on the side doing his thing, warming up his arms. We don’t ever really say anything to each other before, it’s always after the kick. And Jack is always the first one to come up to me after a miss or a make, we always have each other’s backs so that’s our routine.”

on celebrating with the team
“I think just being with everybody and feeling everyone’s support, that’s been the most fun. I really feel everyone’s support all the time, whether I miss or make a kick, but especially after that one, it was really cool to embrace everybody and see everybody’s love and excitement for me.”

UCLA long snapper Jack Landherr IV
on chasing Barr-Mira down after the kick
“He was definitely running away from me, but I can’t give him enough credit. He’s an incredible athlete, he’s an incredible kicker. We’ve always talked about ‘chin up, chest out’ and I think this kid is one of the most resilient kids in the building. He’s just incredible, I’m so proud of him. Money as always.”

on stopping South Alabama’s fake kick attempt
“35 (Carl Jones, Jr.) had an incredible game, that was a clutch stop. Our defense kept its composure there, I think everyone else was freaking out on the sideline seeing them split out wide and stuff, but they kept their cool on the field. 35 came up big time.”

on preparing for the final kick
“You know, this is all part of the game. We all dream about this moment, it doesn’t come often. They’re few and far between but you have to make the most of it. I was prepared to give Nick the best chance he could have with this kick, laces out, all that kind of stuff. It was all Nick there, it was big time, I’m proud of him.”

UCLA linebacker Carl Jones Jr.

on stopping South Alabama’s fake kick attempt
“I’m down in a four-point stance getting ready to run through a 300-pounder, and the next thing you know, we hear ‘Fake, fake fake.’ I got up, scooted outside so I could have a better rush to the quarterback. Honestly, I didn’t believe that they were going to do a fake. My eyes lit up when they hiked it and number 10 was looking for somebody to pass the ball to. The only thing that was on my mind was ‘go get him.’ This could be a chance to change the game, and that’s what happened, we changed the game. We drove down the field, the offense did their thing and Nick finished. That’s all we can ask for.”

on defensive mentality going into the game
“Going into it, we knew they were a good team. Coming into the game, we knew it was going to be a hard-fought battle. At the end of the day, it all came down to who wanted it more. Us Bruins, we definitely wanted it more. On the offensive side, they had big runs, they had big plays, but we just continued to stay together and that’s all you can ask for as a defense, just stay together, get the call and run that call. We believed that it was going to stop there, whatever play they tried against us.”

on Barr-Mira’s mentality
“Nick is one of the hardest people on himself. You know, for any specialist, it’s really you versus yourself. Nick, he knew he missed (during the first game), and he knew he was a great punter, kicker, field goal specialist, and he just needed another week to bounce back. That’s what he did.”

on the lesson from today
“It’s really adversity, you know, I’m glad that we got it today. Around the same time last year, we were playing Fresno State and, when adversity hit, we couldn’t come out on top. Today, we came out on top, and that just shows how much Coach Kelly pushed us to – when adversity hit, what are you going to do? Are you going to respond, react? That’s what we had to do, respond instead of react.”

UCLA defensive back Mo Osling III
on Barr-Mira’s work ethic
“Shoutout to Nick, he’s one of the hardest workers on the football team. As a kicker, he goes out there and he works. He’s a skilled player.”

on defensive mentality late in the game
“We really just wanted to go out there on first down and make it hard for them, then just control on third down. We had some successful stops today, we had some unsuccessful stops today, so just trying to get off the field after third down. Set edges, eliminate the screen game, they were going to take some shots when they got into the middle of the field and we knew that coming into the game. We just tried to put pressure on the quarterback and make him make a bad decision.”

on the lesson moving forward
“It exemplifies our defense, you know, we’re going to stay together regardless. We’re going to go out there, fight, throw punches, and they’re going punches back and we’re going to take them. Don’t flinch. Nothing really matters on the field as long as we play the next play, forget the bad plays. We’ll try to fix them, go back to the film room and correct the correctables, but, at the end of the day, it’s about us. The defense is going to be the same every week, so just fine-tuning it.

South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack
opening remarks
“I thought our guys competed really hard. I thought we made some plays in big moments. We were also an inconsistent football team today, and when you go into big stadiums and have opportunities like this, you have to take care of the ball offensively and you can’t shoot yourself in the foot from an execution-standpoint offensively. Defensively, you’ve got to step up on some critical third downs and give ourselves a chance to run the ball and end the football game. You go up against a quarterback like [Thompson-Robinson], one of the most-experienced quarterbacks in the country who we knew was gonna go on a two-minute drive, we felt like we needed to make it an eight-point ballgame instead of kicking the field goal. We would have liked to have that play [the fake field goal in the fourth quarter] but thought we had an opportunity right there and came up a little short. In all honesty, there were too many other opportunities that we dropped that put us in that moment. Credit to [UCLA], they’re an experienced football team. Older guys that know how to be in these moments, and they came up an executed a little bit better than we do.”

on takeaways from the game
“Our guys competed the whole game. The sideline was great, the demeanor, the energy, all that stuff. It’s just the execution. Our physicality was really good, we did some good things as we adjusted to some of the run game stuff that they were doing against us. Offensively, we effectively established the line of scrimmage, we protected the quarterback well, ran the football. Just a couple plays that we’re gonna sit here and watch the film and really want those opportunities back. I told the guys they’re going to have an opportunity to bounce back from this game. It’s not going to be here, at UCLA, but you’re going to have an opportunity to respond from this game, and that’s what we have to do next week against Louisiana Tech at home.”

South Alabama quarterback Carter Bradley
opening remarks
“These are always tough, these close ones, but you go back and look at the film. It will make the team better, make guys come closer together. You want to get over them fast but this one is going to hurt a little bit. We’ll go back home, and guys will be good.”

on the fake field goal in the fourth quarter
“You look back and probably should’ve kicked those field goals. We should have scored though, you can’t have field goals, but points are points at the end of the day. We have to be better getting points scored, throwing touchdowns. I support coach on everything and it’s a coaching move, players have to do what coaches ask at the end of the day.”

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. South Alabama (Sept. 17, 2022)

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. South Alabama (Sept. 17, 2022)