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Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Bowling Green
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 45, Bowling Green 17
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
September 3, 2022
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
opening remarks
“We wanted a W, and we don’t ask for anything and we don’t ask for anything and don’t prescribe anything about how the game is going to unfold. We just talked to our players about responding. And I thought that they did respond. We dug ourselves a hole. But we did not continue to keep digging. We fought our way out of a hole. We were down 17-7 and we won 45-17, so it’s a credit to those guys. We made some mistakes. We don’t have preseason games. When you’re in a practice situation and someone will make a mistake, you’ll do it over. But you don’t get do-overs here. We did dig ourselves a little bit of a hole to start, but I was really proud of how our guys responded.”
on his main takeaways from this game
“Just their mindset, more than anything, and how they responded to things. I mean, we’ll wait until we get to the tape specifically to see what we did. I know that defensively, we had talked about being able to generate a rush with the front four when you are playing against a team that really likes to throw the football. That was a challenge for us. I thought that our back end did a really good job from a coverage standpoint. I thought our rush got home, so that was my first takeaway, just watching how our defense performed today.”
on the Bruins’ offensive line
“I’d have to look at the tape to get to that point in time, but I think that we had 600 and some-odd yards of offense. I don't think that they played poorly. There are things they could fix or get better at.”
on his team’s defense
“I liked their effort and how hard they played. When we get into the technical aspect, we’ll figure that out when we watch the film. We had talked about being able to be in coverage and rush four, and against a team that did a really nice job last year of throwing the football. That quarterback [Matt McDonald], and I talked to him after the game, he’s a tough sucker. We got after him today. And he just kept bouncing back, making plays. They have a really sound scheme. For us to do what we did, hold them to under 200 yards and really seven points, that was really impressive to start the season. And hopefully we can build upon that.”
on how important UCLA’s “chunk plays” were (large yardage plays)
“If you can win those battles, if you can win the turnover battle and the X-play battle, you’re probably going to win the football game. Our guys know that. That’s part of our plan to win. We want to have more X-plays than they have. When we needed a play and we were down, it was Dorian’s long touchdown and then Zach really kind of sparked us. Those two veteran leaders on the offensive side of the ball, helped us get out of that hole, and it was good to see. You’ve got to rely on your playmakers with those deals and then they can make some big plays.”
on UCLA’s special teams miscues earlier in the game
“We will have to look at the film. I mean, I think with Jake [Bobo], he had just taken his eyes off it. It was a fair catch situation. We have to field the ball. But we’ll have to look at the film to see what went on with the punt block.”
on the heat and how that affected calling certain plays
“I don’t think it was a factor because it affected both teams. They had a lot of guys go down with cramps. We had a few guys that cramped, a little bit. Our medical team and our football performance team did a really good job of getting our guys prepared for this game from a hydration standpoint. It was hot. But there was no getting around that. I don’t know if it was a factor in the game, but you could feel it down there. It was as hot as I’ve been at a game. Some of the games that I have played at Arizona State were kind of like that. But playing in games when it is in triple digits, you’ve got to be able to fight through it a little bit. Our guys did a good job with that.”
on any preparations for the heat, going into Saturday’s game
“Yeah, we have a hydration program that our guys go through, in terms of what they put into their bodies and electrolyte-wise, what type of fluids they put in their bodies. We check for hydration on a daily basis. And then obviously, we’ll hydrate test them before we are here. If they are slightly dehydrated, we can prescribe how many milliliters of water and electrolytes they’ll need. We have the cool zone fans on the field and some towels and some ice towels that can kind of get to your vagal nerve and that can help to bring your body temperature down a little quicker. We had a hydration plan going into this game and I thought that our guys executed it.
on if he senses the other team wilts in the heat
“You could see that. And they probably had more cramping that we did. We had one or two, but there were a few times where they had four or five guys down. They were legit cramping. That makes it difficult. So your depth in a game like this will get tested. I think that our depth kind of shone through as the game went along.”
on running back Keegan Jones
“I’ve been impressed with Keegan. And I know that the question came up a lot about how we had Zach and Brittain [Brown, last season] – and Brittain is playing for the Raiders now. Keegan had a great offseason for us and worked extremely hard. I thought that he did some really good things when he was out there. And then TJ [Harden] had an opportunity late. He flashed a little bit. We will continue to grow at the running back spot behind Zach. But I thought that both Keegan and TJ did a really nice job today.”
on running back Zach Charbonnet
“That’s just Zach. He’s just a warrior. You know, a lot of guys carry 21 times, and they’re kind of tired but he will want to know why he couldn’t get more. He’s that type of a kid with a tremendous work ethic. We kind of hang our hat on being able to run the football and it starts with him. We need him and Dorian when we get down a little bit. You can kind of see that those are the guys who we relied on a little bit.”
on his thoughts about working through those earlier mistakes
“You’ll never play a perfect game. There are always things that you’ve got to work on after every game you play. Winston Churchill said that the problems in victory are a lot more agreeable than the problems in defeat, but they are no less difficult. So, we have some things that we have got to get better at. I told our guys that I hope that our goal will be that this will be the worst game that we play. That’s how learning happens. You’ve got to correct those mistakes. That is what the process is for us. And I think that our guys understand that. Do we play with great effort? And then how do we respond when things don’t go our way? There are 12 games, and we’ve got 11 left and you get one per week. We’ll come back in on Monday and we’ll make the necessary corrections, then we will move on to our next opponent.”
UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
on responding to the early deficit
“I think not only me being through this so many times, but a lot of guys on this team have been through this so many times. We have a lot of third, fourth, and fifth years guys that have been in this program, they know how to be college athletes, they know how to be football players, when stuff gets hard they are not going to tanks and everything. I couldn’t be more proud of my team for that, just the maturity level out there on the field.”
on his performance
“I can’t stop thinking about the pick, I’m going to be super, super critical about that, making sure to clean up those mistakes, especially a lot of the stuff that happened in the first quarter, but I think I still brought a really good day. I try to get the ball out of my hands as fast as possible, not try to take as many sacks, try to get this O-Line to cool down a little bit. I think it was a really good day for the team overall.”
on being a player-led team
“It wasn’t even getting on each other, it was more so going back to our good individual position groups and individual position coaches, and seeing the feedback from them because this is our first game. There is going to be some different stuff on the defensive side, different stuff on the offensive side, just what Bowling Green was running, we knew was going to be different than what we had seen on film. I think we did a really good job on adjusting in the second half.”
on targeting Kazmeir Allen 13 times
“I am trying to spread the ball as much as possible. Obviously, with his speed and what he brings to the table, it’s hard not to get him the ball. I think Coach Kelly is doing a really good job knowing the matchups, knowing how we can attack the defense and getting him [Allen] the ball is definitely one of them.”
UCLA linebacker Carl Jones Jr.
on UCLA’s response to trailing early
“Honestly, I wasn’t even looking at the scoreboard, none of us were. You know, if a play happens, we just kept going, kept pushing. We didn’t flinch, and that was one of the biggest things. Defense didn’t flinch, offense didn’t flinch, we gave the offense back the ball and, you know, we scored. That’s all we could do as a team, just don’t flinch.”
on the new defensive feel
“It’s definitely a new feeling, but once again, we just feel a lot closer. This whole break, this summer break, spring break, I feel like we just got closer as a unit, closer as a team, and, you know, that showed on the field today. You know, when things got rough, 7-0, we didn’t flinch. Once again, like I said, we just went back to it, stops. Like y’all said, 160 yards, I don’t think nobody else could do that as a D, and as a unit. We just played together as brothers.”
on preparing for the heat
“I’d say definitely a mental thing – throughout the whole week, we knew it was going to be hot. I think Tuesday and Wednesday were hot on the turf at UCLA. If you’ve ever been to UCLA, we’ve got those big glasses and they’re just glimmering onto the field, so it makes it even hotter. I’d definitely say that went into play. But we were just prepared, Ross [Shumway, team nutritionist], like we said, had us hydrated. We’re gonna thank Ross for sure, because I think they had like eight cramps – Osling: “oh you were counting?” – I was counting.
UCLA defensive back Mo Osling III
on the response to the early deficit
“We had a ‘so what, now what’ mentality, you know, ‘so what, it happened.’ You gotta move on to the next play at that point. We just went out there and played as a team, as a unit with love, so, you know, we came out victorious at the end of the day.”
on getting the defense off the field quickly
“That’s the game plan, go out there, 3-and-out, get off the field, you know, get back to the sideline. Our nutritionist, Ross, did a great job preparing us this week. We knew it was going to be hot, so we were over-hydrating, we had towels and stuff, shade. I don’t know if they had any shade over there, they were kinda cramping up a bit, but, I think our nutrition staff did an excellent job preparing us for this game.”
Bowling Green head coach Scott Loefler
opening remarks
“I thought our effort was good. The guys played extremely hard. Obviously on defense they played their hearts out. They were in a tough situation considering we didn’t play complimentary football in terms of having a ton of three and outs on offense. We couldn’t run the ball or protect the passer. We need to get that fixed because we have enough guys at skill positions, and we need to get them the ball. I thought our special teams did some really good things. We said that we wanted to block a punt and we ended up getting the opportunity. I thought that was an excellent play by our special teams. We are disappointed, but we are going to learn a lot from this tape.”
on Jakari Robinson
“We are hoping really soon. I’ve got faith in the NCAA and I think they’re going to do the right thing here, I really do. If there was a poster child for a waiver situation, it’s this one. This is why the waiver situation was created hands down. He is a 3.1 student, graduated, and came in second for offensive captain. He has a child, is married, and he has worked all year long to make sure he can provide for his family. Not to go into the specifics whatsoever, it was an error that no one can control. I am confident the NCAA will do absolutely the right thing. I really am and I hope soon.”
on the team’s performance compared to expectations
“Well, I thought that we would play better offensively. Whenever your starting center who is a really good football player isn’t playing in the game against a superior defensive line, you are going to have your struggles.”
Bowling Green quarterback Matt McDonald
on the heat
“It was definitely hot and it definitely played a factor in the game, but it was hot for them also so you just have to overcome. Second half, guys were dropping like flies [with] cramping and whatnot. So we need to do a better job of preparing.”
on the results of the game compared to his expectations
“We wanted to do more offensively. We had opportunities, just couldn’t really get into rhythm. I think that was what was tough, because it takes all 11 of us every single play. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times and you can’t do that, especially when you’re playing a superior team.”
UCLA 45, Bowling Green 17
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
September 3, 2022
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
opening remarks
“We wanted a W, and we don’t ask for anything and we don’t ask for anything and don’t prescribe anything about how the game is going to unfold. We just talked to our players about responding. And I thought that they did respond. We dug ourselves a hole. But we did not continue to keep digging. We fought our way out of a hole. We were down 17-7 and we won 45-17, so it’s a credit to those guys. We made some mistakes. We don’t have preseason games. When you’re in a practice situation and someone will make a mistake, you’ll do it over. But you don’t get do-overs here. We did dig ourselves a little bit of a hole to start, but I was really proud of how our guys responded.”
on his main takeaways from this game
“Just their mindset, more than anything, and how they responded to things. I mean, we’ll wait until we get to the tape specifically to see what we did. I know that defensively, we had talked about being able to generate a rush with the front four when you are playing against a team that really likes to throw the football. That was a challenge for us. I thought that our back end did a really good job from a coverage standpoint. I thought our rush got home, so that was my first takeaway, just watching how our defense performed today.”
on the Bruins’ offensive line
“I’d have to look at the tape to get to that point in time, but I think that we had 600 and some-odd yards of offense. I don't think that they played poorly. There are things they could fix or get better at.”
on his team’s defense
“I liked their effort and how hard they played. When we get into the technical aspect, we’ll figure that out when we watch the film. We had talked about being able to be in coverage and rush four, and against a team that did a really nice job last year of throwing the football. That quarterback [Matt McDonald], and I talked to him after the game, he’s a tough sucker. We got after him today. And he just kept bouncing back, making plays. They have a really sound scheme. For us to do what we did, hold them to under 200 yards and really seven points, that was really impressive to start the season. And hopefully we can build upon that.”
on how important UCLA’s “chunk plays” were (large yardage plays)
“If you can win those battles, if you can win the turnover battle and the X-play battle, you’re probably going to win the football game. Our guys know that. That’s part of our plan to win. We want to have more X-plays than they have. When we needed a play and we were down, it was Dorian’s long touchdown and then Zach really kind of sparked us. Those two veteran leaders on the offensive side of the ball, helped us get out of that hole, and it was good to see. You’ve got to rely on your playmakers with those deals and then they can make some big plays.”
on UCLA’s special teams miscues earlier in the game
“We will have to look at the film. I mean, I think with Jake [Bobo], he had just taken his eyes off it. It was a fair catch situation. We have to field the ball. But we’ll have to look at the film to see what went on with the punt block.”
on the heat and how that affected calling certain plays
“I don’t think it was a factor because it affected both teams. They had a lot of guys go down with cramps. We had a few guys that cramped, a little bit. Our medical team and our football performance team did a really good job of getting our guys prepared for this game from a hydration standpoint. It was hot. But there was no getting around that. I don’t know if it was a factor in the game, but you could feel it down there. It was as hot as I’ve been at a game. Some of the games that I have played at Arizona State were kind of like that. But playing in games when it is in triple digits, you’ve got to be able to fight through it a little bit. Our guys did a good job with that.”
on any preparations for the heat, going into Saturday’s game
“Yeah, we have a hydration program that our guys go through, in terms of what they put into their bodies and electrolyte-wise, what type of fluids they put in their bodies. We check for hydration on a daily basis. And then obviously, we’ll hydrate test them before we are here. If they are slightly dehydrated, we can prescribe how many milliliters of water and electrolytes they’ll need. We have the cool zone fans on the field and some towels and some ice towels that can kind of get to your vagal nerve and that can help to bring your body temperature down a little quicker. We had a hydration plan going into this game and I thought that our guys executed it.
on if he senses the other team wilts in the heat
“You could see that. And they probably had more cramping that we did. We had one or two, but there were a few times where they had four or five guys down. They were legit cramping. That makes it difficult. So your depth in a game like this will get tested. I think that our depth kind of shone through as the game went along.”
on running back Keegan Jones
“I’ve been impressed with Keegan. And I know that the question came up a lot about how we had Zach and Brittain [Brown, last season] – and Brittain is playing for the Raiders now. Keegan had a great offseason for us and worked extremely hard. I thought that he did some really good things when he was out there. And then TJ [Harden] had an opportunity late. He flashed a little bit. We will continue to grow at the running back spot behind Zach. But I thought that both Keegan and TJ did a really nice job today.”
on running back Zach Charbonnet
“That’s just Zach. He’s just a warrior. You know, a lot of guys carry 21 times, and they’re kind of tired but he will want to know why he couldn’t get more. He’s that type of a kid with a tremendous work ethic. We kind of hang our hat on being able to run the football and it starts with him. We need him and Dorian when we get down a little bit. You can kind of see that those are the guys who we relied on a little bit.”
on his thoughts about working through those earlier mistakes
“You’ll never play a perfect game. There are always things that you’ve got to work on after every game you play. Winston Churchill said that the problems in victory are a lot more agreeable than the problems in defeat, but they are no less difficult. So, we have some things that we have got to get better at. I told our guys that I hope that our goal will be that this will be the worst game that we play. That’s how learning happens. You’ve got to correct those mistakes. That is what the process is for us. And I think that our guys understand that. Do we play with great effort? And then how do we respond when things don’t go our way? There are 12 games, and we’ve got 11 left and you get one per week. We’ll come back in on Monday and we’ll make the necessary corrections, then we will move on to our next opponent.”
UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
on responding to the early deficit
“I think not only me being through this so many times, but a lot of guys on this team have been through this so many times. We have a lot of third, fourth, and fifth years guys that have been in this program, they know how to be college athletes, they know how to be football players, when stuff gets hard they are not going to tanks and everything. I couldn’t be more proud of my team for that, just the maturity level out there on the field.”
on his performance
“I can’t stop thinking about the pick, I’m going to be super, super critical about that, making sure to clean up those mistakes, especially a lot of the stuff that happened in the first quarter, but I think I still brought a really good day. I try to get the ball out of my hands as fast as possible, not try to take as many sacks, try to get this O-Line to cool down a little bit. I think it was a really good day for the team overall.”
on being a player-led team
“It wasn’t even getting on each other, it was more so going back to our good individual position groups and individual position coaches, and seeing the feedback from them because this is our first game. There is going to be some different stuff on the defensive side, different stuff on the offensive side, just what Bowling Green was running, we knew was going to be different than what we had seen on film. I think we did a really good job on adjusting in the second half.”
on targeting Kazmeir Allen 13 times
“I am trying to spread the ball as much as possible. Obviously, with his speed and what he brings to the table, it’s hard not to get him the ball. I think Coach Kelly is doing a really good job knowing the matchups, knowing how we can attack the defense and getting him [Allen] the ball is definitely one of them.”
UCLA linebacker Carl Jones Jr.
on UCLA’s response to trailing early
“Honestly, I wasn’t even looking at the scoreboard, none of us were. You know, if a play happens, we just kept going, kept pushing. We didn’t flinch, and that was one of the biggest things. Defense didn’t flinch, offense didn’t flinch, we gave the offense back the ball and, you know, we scored. That’s all we could do as a team, just don’t flinch.”
on the new defensive feel
“It’s definitely a new feeling, but once again, we just feel a lot closer. This whole break, this summer break, spring break, I feel like we just got closer as a unit, closer as a team, and, you know, that showed on the field today. You know, when things got rough, 7-0, we didn’t flinch. Once again, like I said, we just went back to it, stops. Like y’all said, 160 yards, I don’t think nobody else could do that as a D, and as a unit. We just played together as brothers.”
on preparing for the heat
“I’d say definitely a mental thing – throughout the whole week, we knew it was going to be hot. I think Tuesday and Wednesday were hot on the turf at UCLA. If you’ve ever been to UCLA, we’ve got those big glasses and they’re just glimmering onto the field, so it makes it even hotter. I’d definitely say that went into play. But we were just prepared, Ross [Shumway, team nutritionist], like we said, had us hydrated. We’re gonna thank Ross for sure, because I think they had like eight cramps – Osling: “oh you were counting?” – I was counting.
UCLA defensive back Mo Osling III
on the response to the early deficit
“We had a ‘so what, now what’ mentality, you know, ‘so what, it happened.’ You gotta move on to the next play at that point. We just went out there and played as a team, as a unit with love, so, you know, we came out victorious at the end of the day.”
on getting the defense off the field quickly
“That’s the game plan, go out there, 3-and-out, get off the field, you know, get back to the sideline. Our nutritionist, Ross, did a great job preparing us this week. We knew it was going to be hot, so we were over-hydrating, we had towels and stuff, shade. I don’t know if they had any shade over there, they were kinda cramping up a bit, but, I think our nutrition staff did an excellent job preparing us for this game.”
Bowling Green head coach Scott Loefler
opening remarks
“I thought our effort was good. The guys played extremely hard. Obviously on defense they played their hearts out. They were in a tough situation considering we didn’t play complimentary football in terms of having a ton of three and outs on offense. We couldn’t run the ball or protect the passer. We need to get that fixed because we have enough guys at skill positions, and we need to get them the ball. I thought our special teams did some really good things. We said that we wanted to block a punt and we ended up getting the opportunity. I thought that was an excellent play by our special teams. We are disappointed, but we are going to learn a lot from this tape.”
on Jakari Robinson
“We are hoping really soon. I’ve got faith in the NCAA and I think they’re going to do the right thing here, I really do. If there was a poster child for a waiver situation, it’s this one. This is why the waiver situation was created hands down. He is a 3.1 student, graduated, and came in second for offensive captain. He has a child, is married, and he has worked all year long to make sure he can provide for his family. Not to go into the specifics whatsoever, it was an error that no one can control. I am confident the NCAA will do absolutely the right thing. I really am and I hope soon.”
on the team’s performance compared to expectations
“Well, I thought that we would play better offensively. Whenever your starting center who is a really good football player isn’t playing in the game against a superior defensive line, you are going to have your struggles.”
Bowling Green quarterback Matt McDonald
on the heat
“It was definitely hot and it definitely played a factor in the game, but it was hot for them also so you just have to overcome. Second half, guys were dropping like flies [with] cramping and whatnot. So we need to do a better job of preparing.”
on the results of the game compared to his expectations
“We wanted to do more offensively. We had opportunities, just couldn’t really get into rhythm. I think that was what was tough, because it takes all 11 of us every single play. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times and you can’t do that, especially when you’re playing a superior team.”