Postgame Quotes – UCLA 42, Penn State 37
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 42, Penn State 37
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
Oct. 4, 2025
UCLA interim head coach Tim Skipper
on the Bruins’ process of coach Jerry Neuheisel installing the offense and how that transpired
“I’m going to start with this, he’s a coach's kid. You move around the country when you are young, you’re trying to figure out all your new friends and things like that. Before he even became a coach, he has dealt with having to be ready to go at any time. It was a short week for him to get ready. He did a great job of using stuff we have been doing and adding new to it. We wanted to control the time of possession and slow things down. The plan worked to a T. That was a game of a lot of situations. There were a lot of things happening. We just kept the guys calm, and took it one play at a time – Jerry did a great job of that.”
on quarterback Nico Iamaleava and his strong performance
“Big-time players make big-time plays, and that’s what he did out there. There are times when we have drop-back passes and nobody is open. Ad he just takes off, he makes a guy miss and it springs an explosive run. He’s a player, he’s a football player. It doesn’t matter what the play call is, you always have to account for him. He rises to the occasion, that’s the thing I love about him. There’s no pressure too big for him. He applies pressure to defenses. I am happy for him, he’s our leader of the team. He was the number one vote getter for captains, and I love that kid and appreciate him so much.”
on UCLA’s explosive plays throughout the game and the first-quarter onside kick
“We were going to be super aggressive, but not do dumb things. The plan was to score a touchdown first, we were going to go to it [onside kick]. A lot of film study, just watching those guys on kickoffs – and when they are on kickoff return and seeing that outside guy, if he was just going to run early, and over a two-year study, they always ran over when we had a little motion guy going. It was a long study. We felt confident in it and it worked. We practiced that thing just this week. It wasn’t something we have been doing all season. This week we did it, Mateen Bhaghani had a great kick. We completed a kick pass and it worked to a charm. We are going to always be aggressive. That’s just my nature and the nature of the team now, and we are going to continue to do that.”
on quarterback Nico Iamaleava using his legs more
“We were going to run the ball more, whether that was Nico or our running backs. We were going to run the ball, that was an emphasis for us this week. It doesn’t matter who’s doing it, we have a lot of guys who we think can control the line of scrimmage, and get positive yards on the ground. We are going to call numbers for different people and they have to take advantage of the situation. WE did a great job of running the ball by committee.”
on taking a safety at the end of the game
“We were going to take that safety because we are up seven. We knew they were going to try and hold us up, so if they are holding us up then we are going to have more time to eat up the clock. I believe it was eight seconds we took off – doing the safety. That was huge. Now it limits the plays they could execute, and we wanted the field to flip. By taking the safety, we can now kick it off and flip the field. It worked amazingly – something we have been practicing for a while, taking a safety on the punt team. I am so happy for those guys, it was a well-executed play.”
on what the Bruins’ locker room was like after the game was finished
“A disaster. There is water flying everywhere and there is music. There are guys who are dancing who can’t dance, coaches trying to be dancers. It was exciting to be in there. Saturday’s after games have been kind of lonely and sad, and this will be the first Sunday where we kind of celebrate a little bit before we get ready for another tough opponent.”
on Jerry Neuheisel offensive play-calling
“Jerry is a ball coach. He’s coached multiple positions on the offense. He’s a coach’s kid. He attacked it, as soon as he knew he was going to call it [offensive plays], let’s go to work, and he went straight to work. We used every single hour and second and minute you could possibly use all the way up to kickoff. We did walk-throughs this morning, getting all his new stuff in there. He did a great job. Love that guy because I just love the work ethic and the patience he has. The guys, they really respond to him. You can see true love and belief and that was amazing.”
on his team’s effort, offensive execution, and the Bruins’ early start
“We wanted to control the game. That’s why we wanted to run the ball, and it all starts with the big boys up front. They have to control the line of scrimmage. They were creating openings. We know their D-line and linebackers are really really good, so we had to put bodies on those guys. We just wanted to control it one play at a time, just take it one play at a time, and that’s exactly what we did. We actually have never talked about not leading for a game, somebody told me about it that’s how I knew. We never talked about it or anything, we just went out there and played ball today. We just went out there and took the lead, and fortunately for us we kept it.”
on UCLA’s defense
“A big deal is starting fast. You guys heard me after the Northwestern game, I didn’t like the way we started. We practiced a little different, I went good on good, ones versus ones. As soon as stretch was over we went against each other to kick start things. That was a big part of it for us. It worked out. I could see a difference, the guys were excited and ready to go right from the jump. That was huge and awesome for the guys to take practice to the game. Defensively, I liked the way we played. That’s a top notch team over there. The ultimate goal is to win, it’s not to keep points down. You know you would always take that, but you have to make the plays to win the game. Those were some crucial stops that happened, we had the stop, the second to last possession, that was a big stop on fourth down, and then we took care of the clock situation at the end when they are trying to lateral it and things like that. Guys playing with correct leverage and things like that. I think they only had seven (points) at halftime, and that was huge. We are just going to keep on sawing wood and just keep on playing ball. That’s defense right now, just get the stop when you need to. We had a turnover and things like that, just keep playing ball, that’s all it is.”
on getting the first win of the season
“College football is crazy in multiple ways. You just take whatever happens each day and you keep on striving to stay on the rise. I’m a passionate, emotional, energetic type guy, and that’s what I bring every single day. You never have a bad day unless you declare it a bad day. Every day is a good day if you want it to be good. Stay positive, figure out solutions, and you keep on rolling. Staying on the rise is a big thing to me, and that is what we have been doing.”
on holding on to the lead the entire game
“Everybody in that locker room stayed together, they stayed together. There were many storms happening throughout the last two weeks, but we found the daylight. We found the sunshine, and we kept on working. That’s all it is. You just keep on working. There is going to be more stuff this week. WE are going to have to overcome it, and we are going to have to go play. I am proud of everyone in that locker room, players and coaches, to get this thing done. So proud.”
on keeping this team focused on the task at hand
“Block out the noise is the main thing. You always want to block out the noise. Tell the guys, when it’s football time, it’s football time. A major distraction, school just started. That’s a major distraction, that’s included in all the other stuff. We have to always just stay the course. But, when we are doing football, we are locked in on football. The outside, everything you are hearing and the situation doesn’t’ matter, it’s time to get better with football. Whether we are on the field, or in meetings, in walk-throughs, it’s about the ball. We are just focused on that, we are going to continue to be focused on that, and we are going to need to keep getting better and better. It’s a long season left, lot of game to be played, and we are excited for the opportunity to keep on fighting and battling.”
UCLA assistant coach Jerry Neuheisel (offensive play-caller)
on where this ranks for him as a Bruin
"It's up there. First thing I want to say is I love UCLA more than anything, and the kind of kids you see that played on that field today is exactly why you love a place like this. We had two days to practice a new game plan, and all they did was believe, and we came out and played as hard as we could for 60 full minutes. Had to take a safety at the end because we messed it up at the end. How can you not love college football when you have days like this? It's special. Special. Special."
on his emotions after that win
“It would be a better question to ask me tomorrow. Right now, I still haven't come down off of it. Again, it's those kids. It's the fact that I got to spend time and do that. I've been around them for so long. To come together and play a game like that ... I think that's what we were capable of. To see their excitement and their emotion in the locker room, again, just a special, special day. I don't know where it would rank. I don't know how to put it into words. I'm just glad I'm the one who gets to be in it right now.”
on the nuts and bolts of the week after learning he would be the one to call plays
"Tuesday at 5:00, I found out that I was going to be calling plays, and then hadn't slept until I got maybe three hours of sleep since then. Just trying to put something they could operate on, that they could execute, and something they could be confident with. I put a lot of onus on number nine [Nico Iamaleava]. Nico brought those guys together. His understanding, his willingness to do the extra work, to learn the game plan, and then to coach those guys when he was at practice the other day. He is special special. We're just glad we got him on our team. It's reminiscent of all the guys who are on that offense and defense. Special. Special."
on what he told Nico to change his performance
"I'd love to take a lot of credit, that all of a sudden we said some voodoo magic to him. But that's who he is, that's what he's capable of. The understanding of what we were trying to accomplish, and the understanding the why of every play, that's what allowed him to go out and play like that. I would love to take credit, because as a coach, you'd love to say I put my finger on that guy, and that's why he's special, but I'm just going to be honest with you, He's special. And we've just got to facilitate around him. He's got a lot of players who will go to the ends of the earth for him that are going to play on that offense with him. To be around that, you just want to give him space and then just let him go."
on holding the lead and keeping the team composed
"It sounds harder than it really is. That was the coaching point. That's everything we said on Friday night. This was going to take the full 60 minutes. We talked about it at halftime. We were going to get their best punch, and they came out and played hard. That's a really, really good team. We had to play our best to have a chance to win, and today we had our very best. And now, the hard part is this is not a bowl game, this is not the end of the season. Now you have to go back and get to work on Sunday, you forget all this and you get back to work. So you enjoy this moment like hell for the next 12 hours, and then as soon as you wake up on Sunday morning's it's how do we get the next one."
on changing formations
"I'd love to take a lot of credit. I think what we were trying to do was get a game plan together where the guys could feel confident, that no matter what look they gave us, that we know exactly who we're blocking and what we were doing at all times. We know that with how special they are on defense and how special they are as a team, that we were going to have to do different things to be able to try to throw them off. I thought our guys just went out and executed the game plan as well as we possibly could. It's just one of those days, and hopefully we've got more of these days coming."
on what he saw against Penn State that enabled UCLA to score nearly every possession
"I think the plays just had answers. They're a team that likes to mix up all their coverages. They're very good at it, and they play the same percentage of everything. It's really hard to tell what they're going to be in, but you get a natural feel for what's going to happen next and where they're going, and you get into the rhythm of the game. But I thought we did a good job of making sure our game plan had answers for anything they threw at us. When we knew that, we knew we could call these plays without this fear of a 'what if they call this'. To be honest, there's a time where the defense just made a really good call, and we got stopped. I thought the second half, they did a really good job of adjusting to what we were doing. There were three possessions there that I wish we could have back where we could have marched the ball down the field a little bit more. A couple of miscommunication errors that happened at the end of the game makes that way closer than it probably should have been, but all things you learn from. I hate to say this, but I had never practiced with the headset in terms of the button to talk to the quarterback, so there were multiple times in the game I'm calling the play, but the headset is flipped up because I'm used to being a position coach, and then I'm pressing the wrong part of the button when talking to them. It was a mess. Hopefully we'll get that cleaned up by next week. It was just one of those days where it all kind of fell into place."
on when it felt like the team could win this game and when he was feeling good about it
"Last night, I knew we had a chance. The way they were in our meetings, the way we had our offensive meeting, the way they took to our team meeting. It was the most enthusiastic 0-4 team you've ever seen in your life. And all of a sudden you just get this delusional optimism where you think we might have a chance at this thing, and there's this belief. I know it's really hard, because if you're not in that environment, you feel like it's doom and gloom. But in that building, everyone believed, and that's all it really takes."
on having coach Noel Mazzone back at UCLA
"To have Coach Mazzone here has been, honestly, one of the coolest things ever. That is someone that I've looked up to and played for, who I moved to Texas for. That is somebody that I can lean on and I trust and somebody who I just love being around. To have him with me, to have him working with the quarterbacks and to be able to bounce ideas off of, awesome."
on being carried off the field in comparison to being carried off the field as a player in Arlington, Texas
"I'll make a bad joke. When I was carried off in Texas, I had my mouth guard in the whole time. So if you go back and look at the pictures, I had this blue mouth guard in the entire time. This time, I did not have a mouth guard, so this one I'll put just a little bit above the other one.”
UCLA redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava
on his feelings after the win
“Man, it feels great. We finally put it all together on the offensive side of the ball. We were able to score some points and come out victorious. The defense did a great job holding them down on the last drive.”
on his message to the team during the week
“It was just a lot of outside noise coming into it. I just was preaching to the guys ‘If you don’t want to be here, leave.’ Basically, telling the guys, whoever still believes that we’re still in this and we still have games ahead of us that we can win, let’s roll.”
on playing for Jerry Neuheisel
“Coach Jerry has been here for a while now. I knew Coach Jerry going back to my senior year when UCLA was recruiting me. So I have a good feel for Coach Jerry. He puts that belief in us that we can go out and execute. He put a great game plan together for us to go out and execute.”
on using his legs
“I was just taking what the defense was giving me. They’re playing great coverage on the back end. It was fun for me to use my legs. We were able to convert some big third downs and keep the drive going.”
on keeping the faith
“I think these past four games, a lot of self-afflicted things were happening to us and we ended up coming up short. I’ve always seen the skill level and the belief in our guys. Our coaches kept us afloat. We have the right guys to do it, we just have to go execute. Today was a great display of that.”
on the Bruins’ fast start on Saturday
“Coach Skip was preaching to us to strain and start fast. It was a lot of games where we could have started fast like that and felt better about the game. We’ve been coming from behind these last four games, and it felt great to get a lead.”
UCLA redshirt senior offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio
on installing the new offense so quickly under Jerry Neuheisel
“Coach Jerry has been in the building for a while, so going into it we knew he had our backs. We knew he’d give us everything he had as a coach. That’s all we needed from him.”
on the offense clicking
“I think we’ve been persevering as an offense. We haven’t let any of the outcomes or [what’s been happening] inside the building affect us as an offense. Especially on the O-line, Coach Kwon has been pushing us every week. I think as an offense we keep lifting each other up and that’s all we can ask for as brothers and teammates.”
UCLA redshirt senior defensive back Key Lawrence
on what this win means to the team
“Like I just told Jerry outside, it’s just a stepping stone of what we are capable of doing. It’s a big mindset for us. Whatever is thrown in front of us, we are capable of doing it. It was just all a mindset. We were striving for perfection so much that we were getting in our own way. Understand that today we just went out there and let it loose, be free, and let certain plays come to us. Keep stacking from there. For right now, we’re happy, of course, because it took us so long, but we understand that this is just step one for us. We have to keep the ball rolling.”
on the locker room environment
“It was fun, because we hadn’t experienced it yet. Nobody in the world expected us to win, let’s be honest here. Everybody doubted us. We are just proud of each other – we played for each other. I wasn’t playing for no one in stands, or anybody else, it was just people on the sidelines and the ones that came with us to work every day at practice.”
on the team becoming more disciplined
“We still preach the same pillars Coach Foster had instilled in us. It’s the discipline, enthusiasm, respect. We never underestimated them. We gave them the respect, and we played up to that caliber. Stay down, chop wood, carry water.”
on belief and why it’s important
“When you play defense, it’s a reactionary thing. I have to understand that if he does his what he needs to do, everything will flow together. It’s like the analogy when you put one pencil and you break it, but when you put a few of them together and you try to snap them, they don’t break, because they all hold their own will. We all believe in each other. Shout out to Nico. Once everything started shutting down, and Tino got released, he brought everyone together and let us know that he’s still in it. Everybody on the offensive side is still in it. We already knew our defense was still with it, but it was a great thing to see everyone collaborate like this. That’s the main thing right there, believing in one another.”
on Scooter Jackson’s big play on a late fourth down situation
“For Scooter, it’s a big thing for him, because he is so young. He went out there and manifested. He literally said I’m about to go make this play, and went out there and did it. As his big brother and mentor, I’m so proud of him for understanding how to keep stacking these days. Like I said before, he knows he can do it. So it’s big for us on the back-end and big for him and his confidence.”
on being a vocal leader
“I’m just trying to get the juices going. Once you understand if everyone is having fun, it’s like a kid in the candy store. You put a kid out there doing his favorite thing, and there’s like nothing else in the world that matters. Just be where your feet are, be present in the moment. It all really relies on the D-line and the front seven, and everyone around me picking me up, because I made some bad plays out there and everyone kept installing the same faith in me like I had with everyone else.”
UCLA redshirt senior defensive lineman Gary Smith III
on what this win means to the team
“I would say the same thing. We didn’t lose belief in ourselves, even when outsiders were losing belief in us, and reasonably so. I can’t blame anybody for doing so. But at the same time, we just brought it every day, we knew what we could do, and today we finally got to display it.”
on the team becoming more disciplined
“I feel like we were just taking care of the little things. It’s always about the little details. How you do small things is how you do all things, just taking care of simple stuff.”
on belief and why it’s important
“It’s important to us because without belief, you are not going to have any energy. We are big on discipline, respect, and enthusiasm – that’s still the pillars. That’s still what we believe in. You have to believe in order to do something that other people may not think you can do, but we knew. It was exciting.”
Penn State head coach James Franklin
opening remarks
“We’ve got to give UCLA and their coaching staff a ton of credit. We’ve got to give their quarterback a ton of credit. We obviously had a hard time stopping him all day long. I think the opening sequence of the game was significant, with the touchdown and then the surprise onside [kick] that we talked about all week long. We knew they were going to take significant risks in this game, and they were obviously two really significant drives and plays in the game. From that point on, we were battling. Obviously, we went in at halftime in a challenging situation, and we came out and battled in the second half, but not enough to win the game. So give UCLA credit, give their quarterback a ton of credit. We made mistakes today that we normally don't make. We had a ton of missed assignments, turnovers at critical times, penalties at critical times; things that we really don't do and have not done for a really long time. So, give UCLA credit.”
on the difficulty containing UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava
“He had 166 [passing] yards, and a lot of those yards came at critical points. A couple times we spied him, and when we spied him he was either able to make the spy miss, or run away from the spy. To your point, obviously, we lost a significant player for us last week, and that would normally be his responsibility. But at the end of the day, we spied and he ran away from the spy, or we spied and he would make the spy miss. There were a couple of other times they caught us in man coverage without a spy, we got out of our rush lanes, and he made a ton of plays.”
on the team’s mental preparation after last week’s loss
“Obviously, we did not handle last week’s loss well. We also lost some players in that game during the week, and then everything else. The travel, everything else. We did not come out with the right energy to start the game, and before you know it obviously they get a touchdown drive and an onside kick, and now you’re fighting. They gained confidence, and we’re fighting for the next three quarters. That’s my responsibility, and I didn’t get it done.”
on the level of defensive effort
“Especially when you talk about the first half, third down was not very good. We could not get off the field. Again, they did a really good job of staying on schedule. In the second half, when we were able to get them off schedule, that’s when Nico really hurt us a few times. I didn't feel like watching the game it was an effort thing, but I did think we made a bunch of mistakes based on what I saw and based on what I heard on the headsets.”
on the final fourth down play
“Obviously it was a QB power read, where we had an opportunity to get the ball on the edge, divide the defense, get the quarterback downhill, based on the read. They brought edge pressure which we knew was coming – they beat the block, got penetration, and we weren’t able to get around. They gave us the give read, and they had two guys right at the point of attack for not only the ball carrier, which would have been Peña, but also for Drew [Allar]. So give them credit for their aggressive coverage zero call, but we also have to make sure that we’re able to make the blocks with the point of attack.”
on how to bounce back from multiple losses
“We have to tune out all the outside noise. I thought our guys worked hard at doing that last week, but obviously not well enough. We have to stick together; the coaches, the players in the locker room; offense, defense, the special teams. The reality is we didn’t play well enough in all three facets to win the game, and there’s going to be a lot out there to divide, divide, divide, and we have to tune all that out and stick together. I think we’ll do that; it’s not going to be easy but I think we’ll do that.”
on the halftime locker room conversation
“We’ve been in this situation before, so I thought the locker room was good. Obviously, there was some emotion and there was some energy. There were some adjustments being made. We were in a similar situation last year at USC, that was part of the discussion, and I thought we came out and gave us a chance to win the game in the second half. But not enough obviously to win the game and obviously their quarterback [Iamaleava] in a lot of ways was the difference in the game in multiple scenarios and in multiple situations.”
on if he still believes that this is the best personnel he’s had at Penn State, like he said at Big Ten Media Days
“Obviously, that question at this moment – how am I supposed to answer that when we lose the last two games? Then obviously, that’s all that matters, we didn’t win the last two games. Obviously, I felt that way [at the time] or I wouldn’t have said that, but after two losses it’s hard for me to answer that question and say that that’s the case.”
Penn State quarterback Drew Allar
on his reaction to the loss to UCLA
“I believe that we have one of the best coaches in college football. I don’t think one or two games is what defines us. I think what’s going to define us is going to be how we respond to this. It’s a bumpy road for sure, but backs against the wall there’s no other team or coaching staff that I’d rather be in this situation with.”
on whether they felt extra pressure on offense because of the high-scoring nature of the game
“No. Our job as an offense is to go out and score points. We didn’t score enough points today. I don’t care what the situation is, our job is to go out every possession and put points up on the board, whether it’s touchdowns or field goals. We didn’t do that today, and that’s what it came down to. There’s no lack of resiliency in this team, but we just have to find a way to come out with a different result.”
on whether the team was mentally ready for the game
“Yeah, I felt that the team was mentally ready.”
on the 4th and 2 play, on the second-to-final drive
“The D-end stunted out. Unfortunately, they had a really good call on that. The kid made a really nice play coming off the edge. Danny [O’Brien] told me to pull it, and unfortunately, the guy folded inside.”
on the offensive line’s protection
“I think it was fine. It was one of those games where we just have to make it right. I think we have the best offensive lines in the country. There’s gonna be plays where they miss block-- it’s football—but it’s my job to make it right. I think we did that a fair amount today, but we didn’t do it enough to come out with the result that we wanted.”
on what he says to the team as their leader after a game like this
“There’s no other group that I’d rather be in this situation with. I know for me personally, I’m going to take it day-by-day and put 100% of my effort into doing whatever I need to do to get us right. I can promise that I will do everything in my power to put my heart and soul into it to help us come out with a different outcome each week. Just keep taking day-by-day and not looking into the future or looking into the past. What we can control is our actions from now until tomorrow morning, learn from it, flush it, then come out with the attitude of just swinging. Our backs are against the wall, so we have to come out swinging every day.”
on whether he feels the difference of playing so far away from home
“I wouldn’t say so. Honestly, it’s football. I don’t care where we’re playing in the country, it’s football. It’s an opportunity to come out and play the game we love and have fun. Obviously losing is not fun and it’s gonna be a long plane ride home, but it’s about how we respond to this.”
on whether there was a big emphasis on him using his legs
“We always talk about on offense making it right. Some of those plays came from scramble drills, some of them came from designed runs. The guys downfield did a great job blocking for me, and that helped me add on extra yards. The offensive line, tight ends, and running backs did a great job of giving me lanes to go through. I just had to break a couple of tackles from some of the extra guys.”
on how these last couple of weeks were for him personally
“Personally, it hasn’t been fun, I’d say that. The amount of texts you get, emails you get, of all of the things you have to deal with in the outside world. I try my best not to let those things faze me, because nobody knows what it’s like to be in our position unless you’ve done it before. I’ve talked to some former players and coaches, and people I trust. We’re in the position we’re in because we’re Penn State. We have to come out and win games, and we have the talent to, but we just have to go out and find different results. When you don’t get those results, there will be things that happen that are hard to deal with, but you just have to learn to deal with it. I’ve been here starting now for a few years, so I’ve gotten used to it.”
on the impact of the blocked punt, and how happy he was for Liam Clifford, when that happened
“I was really excited. Liam puts his heart and soul into what he does every day. He’ll do whatever the coaches ask him to do, whether that’s running routes to open guys up, whether it’s blocking, or him getting open on the offensive side of the ball. He’s taken a huge role on special teams this year, and it’s cool to see him get a result like that. That got us going a little bit. We just gotta keep building off those momentum plays.”
on how he bounced back personally after last week’s game
“I just came out and let it loose. I think I did a pretty good job of that. Again, as an offense we just need to come out and score every possession. I don’t care who we’re playing or where we’re playing; that’s our job. We didn’t score enough points today, so that’s on us. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to right the wrongs and come back swinging one day at a time. Not looking into the future or looking into the past, but only controlling what I can control. I promise these guys will rally together and stick together, because I think we have one of the best cultures and brotherhoods in America. It’s time to show that.”
Penn State defensive end Doni Dennis-Sutton
on how big of a hole they have to dig out of to get back where they finished last season
“We’ve got a long way to go. Big Ten [Championship] is still so far down the line. We’ve got to win our next game. I can’t talk about Big Ten or anything past that.”
on accountability for the loss
“All of us. It’s not one person, not one coach, not one player.”
on how he and the team are dealing with outside noise
“Just trying to stay together. The leaders have to make sure everybody in the locker room is not saying anything negative about the offense or defense. That’s really all we can do. We tried to do that this week, but we didn’t do a good enough job.”
UCLA 42, Penn State 37
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
Oct. 4, 2025
UCLA interim head coach Tim Skipper
on the Bruins’ process of coach Jerry Neuheisel installing the offense and how that transpired
“I’m going to start with this, he’s a coach's kid. You move around the country when you are young, you’re trying to figure out all your new friends and things like that. Before he even became a coach, he has dealt with having to be ready to go at any time. It was a short week for him to get ready. He did a great job of using stuff we have been doing and adding new to it. We wanted to control the time of possession and slow things down. The plan worked to a T. That was a game of a lot of situations. There were a lot of things happening. We just kept the guys calm, and took it one play at a time – Jerry did a great job of that.”
on quarterback Nico Iamaleava and his strong performance
“Big-time players make big-time plays, and that’s what he did out there. There are times when we have drop-back passes and nobody is open. Ad he just takes off, he makes a guy miss and it springs an explosive run. He’s a player, he’s a football player. It doesn’t matter what the play call is, you always have to account for him. He rises to the occasion, that’s the thing I love about him. There’s no pressure too big for him. He applies pressure to defenses. I am happy for him, he’s our leader of the team. He was the number one vote getter for captains, and I love that kid and appreciate him so much.”
on UCLA’s explosive plays throughout the game and the first-quarter onside kick
“We were going to be super aggressive, but not do dumb things. The plan was to score a touchdown first, we were going to go to it [onside kick]. A lot of film study, just watching those guys on kickoffs – and when they are on kickoff return and seeing that outside guy, if he was just going to run early, and over a two-year study, they always ran over when we had a little motion guy going. It was a long study. We felt confident in it and it worked. We practiced that thing just this week. It wasn’t something we have been doing all season. This week we did it, Mateen Bhaghani had a great kick. We completed a kick pass and it worked to a charm. We are going to always be aggressive. That’s just my nature and the nature of the team now, and we are going to continue to do that.”
on quarterback Nico Iamaleava using his legs more
“We were going to run the ball more, whether that was Nico or our running backs. We were going to run the ball, that was an emphasis for us this week. It doesn’t matter who’s doing it, we have a lot of guys who we think can control the line of scrimmage, and get positive yards on the ground. We are going to call numbers for different people and they have to take advantage of the situation. WE did a great job of running the ball by committee.”
on taking a safety at the end of the game
“We were going to take that safety because we are up seven. We knew they were going to try and hold us up, so if they are holding us up then we are going to have more time to eat up the clock. I believe it was eight seconds we took off – doing the safety. That was huge. Now it limits the plays they could execute, and we wanted the field to flip. By taking the safety, we can now kick it off and flip the field. It worked amazingly – something we have been practicing for a while, taking a safety on the punt team. I am so happy for those guys, it was a well-executed play.”
on what the Bruins’ locker room was like after the game was finished
“A disaster. There is water flying everywhere and there is music. There are guys who are dancing who can’t dance, coaches trying to be dancers. It was exciting to be in there. Saturday’s after games have been kind of lonely and sad, and this will be the first Sunday where we kind of celebrate a little bit before we get ready for another tough opponent.”
on Jerry Neuheisel offensive play-calling
“Jerry is a ball coach. He’s coached multiple positions on the offense. He’s a coach’s kid. He attacked it, as soon as he knew he was going to call it [offensive plays], let’s go to work, and he went straight to work. We used every single hour and second and minute you could possibly use all the way up to kickoff. We did walk-throughs this morning, getting all his new stuff in there. He did a great job. Love that guy because I just love the work ethic and the patience he has. The guys, they really respond to him. You can see true love and belief and that was amazing.”
on his team’s effort, offensive execution, and the Bruins’ early start
“We wanted to control the game. That’s why we wanted to run the ball, and it all starts with the big boys up front. They have to control the line of scrimmage. They were creating openings. We know their D-line and linebackers are really really good, so we had to put bodies on those guys. We just wanted to control it one play at a time, just take it one play at a time, and that’s exactly what we did. We actually have never talked about not leading for a game, somebody told me about it that’s how I knew. We never talked about it or anything, we just went out there and played ball today. We just went out there and took the lead, and fortunately for us we kept it.”
on UCLA’s defense
“A big deal is starting fast. You guys heard me after the Northwestern game, I didn’t like the way we started. We practiced a little different, I went good on good, ones versus ones. As soon as stretch was over we went against each other to kick start things. That was a big part of it for us. It worked out. I could see a difference, the guys were excited and ready to go right from the jump. That was huge and awesome for the guys to take practice to the game. Defensively, I liked the way we played. That’s a top notch team over there. The ultimate goal is to win, it’s not to keep points down. You know you would always take that, but you have to make the plays to win the game. Those were some crucial stops that happened, we had the stop, the second to last possession, that was a big stop on fourth down, and then we took care of the clock situation at the end when they are trying to lateral it and things like that. Guys playing with correct leverage and things like that. I think they only had seven (points) at halftime, and that was huge. We are just going to keep on sawing wood and just keep on playing ball. That’s defense right now, just get the stop when you need to. We had a turnover and things like that, just keep playing ball, that’s all it is.”
on getting the first win of the season
“College football is crazy in multiple ways. You just take whatever happens each day and you keep on striving to stay on the rise. I’m a passionate, emotional, energetic type guy, and that’s what I bring every single day. You never have a bad day unless you declare it a bad day. Every day is a good day if you want it to be good. Stay positive, figure out solutions, and you keep on rolling. Staying on the rise is a big thing to me, and that is what we have been doing.”
on holding on to the lead the entire game
“Everybody in that locker room stayed together, they stayed together. There were many storms happening throughout the last two weeks, but we found the daylight. We found the sunshine, and we kept on working. That’s all it is. You just keep on working. There is going to be more stuff this week. WE are going to have to overcome it, and we are going to have to go play. I am proud of everyone in that locker room, players and coaches, to get this thing done. So proud.”
on keeping this team focused on the task at hand
“Block out the noise is the main thing. You always want to block out the noise. Tell the guys, when it’s football time, it’s football time. A major distraction, school just started. That’s a major distraction, that’s included in all the other stuff. We have to always just stay the course. But, when we are doing football, we are locked in on football. The outside, everything you are hearing and the situation doesn’t’ matter, it’s time to get better with football. Whether we are on the field, or in meetings, in walk-throughs, it’s about the ball. We are just focused on that, we are going to continue to be focused on that, and we are going to need to keep getting better and better. It’s a long season left, lot of game to be played, and we are excited for the opportunity to keep on fighting and battling.”
UCLA assistant coach Jerry Neuheisel (offensive play-caller)
on where this ranks for him as a Bruin
"It's up there. First thing I want to say is I love UCLA more than anything, and the kind of kids you see that played on that field today is exactly why you love a place like this. We had two days to practice a new game plan, and all they did was believe, and we came out and played as hard as we could for 60 full minutes. Had to take a safety at the end because we messed it up at the end. How can you not love college football when you have days like this? It's special. Special. Special."
on his emotions after that win
“It would be a better question to ask me tomorrow. Right now, I still haven't come down off of it. Again, it's those kids. It's the fact that I got to spend time and do that. I've been around them for so long. To come together and play a game like that ... I think that's what we were capable of. To see their excitement and their emotion in the locker room, again, just a special, special day. I don't know where it would rank. I don't know how to put it into words. I'm just glad I'm the one who gets to be in it right now.”
on the nuts and bolts of the week after learning he would be the one to call plays
"Tuesday at 5:00, I found out that I was going to be calling plays, and then hadn't slept until I got maybe three hours of sleep since then. Just trying to put something they could operate on, that they could execute, and something they could be confident with. I put a lot of onus on number nine [Nico Iamaleava]. Nico brought those guys together. His understanding, his willingness to do the extra work, to learn the game plan, and then to coach those guys when he was at practice the other day. He is special special. We're just glad we got him on our team. It's reminiscent of all the guys who are on that offense and defense. Special. Special."
on what he told Nico to change his performance
"I'd love to take a lot of credit, that all of a sudden we said some voodoo magic to him. But that's who he is, that's what he's capable of. The understanding of what we were trying to accomplish, and the understanding the why of every play, that's what allowed him to go out and play like that. I would love to take credit, because as a coach, you'd love to say I put my finger on that guy, and that's why he's special, but I'm just going to be honest with you, He's special. And we've just got to facilitate around him. He's got a lot of players who will go to the ends of the earth for him that are going to play on that offense with him. To be around that, you just want to give him space and then just let him go."
on holding the lead and keeping the team composed
"It sounds harder than it really is. That was the coaching point. That's everything we said on Friday night. This was going to take the full 60 minutes. We talked about it at halftime. We were going to get their best punch, and they came out and played hard. That's a really, really good team. We had to play our best to have a chance to win, and today we had our very best. And now, the hard part is this is not a bowl game, this is not the end of the season. Now you have to go back and get to work on Sunday, you forget all this and you get back to work. So you enjoy this moment like hell for the next 12 hours, and then as soon as you wake up on Sunday morning's it's how do we get the next one."
on changing formations
"I'd love to take a lot of credit. I think what we were trying to do was get a game plan together where the guys could feel confident, that no matter what look they gave us, that we know exactly who we're blocking and what we were doing at all times. We know that with how special they are on defense and how special they are as a team, that we were going to have to do different things to be able to try to throw them off. I thought our guys just went out and executed the game plan as well as we possibly could. It's just one of those days, and hopefully we've got more of these days coming."
on what he saw against Penn State that enabled UCLA to score nearly every possession
"I think the plays just had answers. They're a team that likes to mix up all their coverages. They're very good at it, and they play the same percentage of everything. It's really hard to tell what they're going to be in, but you get a natural feel for what's going to happen next and where they're going, and you get into the rhythm of the game. But I thought we did a good job of making sure our game plan had answers for anything they threw at us. When we knew that, we knew we could call these plays without this fear of a 'what if they call this'. To be honest, there's a time where the defense just made a really good call, and we got stopped. I thought the second half, they did a really good job of adjusting to what we were doing. There were three possessions there that I wish we could have back where we could have marched the ball down the field a little bit more. A couple of miscommunication errors that happened at the end of the game makes that way closer than it probably should have been, but all things you learn from. I hate to say this, but I had never practiced with the headset in terms of the button to talk to the quarterback, so there were multiple times in the game I'm calling the play, but the headset is flipped up because I'm used to being a position coach, and then I'm pressing the wrong part of the button when talking to them. It was a mess. Hopefully we'll get that cleaned up by next week. It was just one of those days where it all kind of fell into place."
on when it felt like the team could win this game and when he was feeling good about it
"Last night, I knew we had a chance. The way they were in our meetings, the way we had our offensive meeting, the way they took to our team meeting. It was the most enthusiastic 0-4 team you've ever seen in your life. And all of a sudden you just get this delusional optimism where you think we might have a chance at this thing, and there's this belief. I know it's really hard, because if you're not in that environment, you feel like it's doom and gloom. But in that building, everyone believed, and that's all it really takes."
on having coach Noel Mazzone back at UCLA
"To have Coach Mazzone here has been, honestly, one of the coolest things ever. That is someone that I've looked up to and played for, who I moved to Texas for. That is somebody that I can lean on and I trust and somebody who I just love being around. To have him with me, to have him working with the quarterbacks and to be able to bounce ideas off of, awesome."
on being carried off the field in comparison to being carried off the field as a player in Arlington, Texas
"I'll make a bad joke. When I was carried off in Texas, I had my mouth guard in the whole time. So if you go back and look at the pictures, I had this blue mouth guard in the entire time. This time, I did not have a mouth guard, so this one I'll put just a little bit above the other one.”
UCLA redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava
on his feelings after the win
“Man, it feels great. We finally put it all together on the offensive side of the ball. We were able to score some points and come out victorious. The defense did a great job holding them down on the last drive.”
on his message to the team during the week
“It was just a lot of outside noise coming into it. I just was preaching to the guys ‘If you don’t want to be here, leave.’ Basically, telling the guys, whoever still believes that we’re still in this and we still have games ahead of us that we can win, let’s roll.”
on playing for Jerry Neuheisel
“Coach Jerry has been here for a while now. I knew Coach Jerry going back to my senior year when UCLA was recruiting me. So I have a good feel for Coach Jerry. He puts that belief in us that we can go out and execute. He put a great game plan together for us to go out and execute.”
on using his legs
“I was just taking what the defense was giving me. They’re playing great coverage on the back end. It was fun for me to use my legs. We were able to convert some big third downs and keep the drive going.”
on keeping the faith
“I think these past four games, a lot of self-afflicted things were happening to us and we ended up coming up short. I’ve always seen the skill level and the belief in our guys. Our coaches kept us afloat. We have the right guys to do it, we just have to go execute. Today was a great display of that.”
on the Bruins’ fast start on Saturday
“Coach Skip was preaching to us to strain and start fast. It was a lot of games where we could have started fast like that and felt better about the game. We’ve been coming from behind these last four games, and it felt great to get a lead.”
UCLA redshirt senior offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio
on installing the new offense so quickly under Jerry Neuheisel
“Coach Jerry has been in the building for a while, so going into it we knew he had our backs. We knew he’d give us everything he had as a coach. That’s all we needed from him.”
on the offense clicking
“I think we’ve been persevering as an offense. We haven’t let any of the outcomes or [what’s been happening] inside the building affect us as an offense. Especially on the O-line, Coach Kwon has been pushing us every week. I think as an offense we keep lifting each other up and that’s all we can ask for as brothers and teammates.”
UCLA redshirt senior defensive back Key Lawrence
on what this win means to the team
“Like I just told Jerry outside, it’s just a stepping stone of what we are capable of doing. It’s a big mindset for us. Whatever is thrown in front of us, we are capable of doing it. It was just all a mindset. We were striving for perfection so much that we were getting in our own way. Understand that today we just went out there and let it loose, be free, and let certain plays come to us. Keep stacking from there. For right now, we’re happy, of course, because it took us so long, but we understand that this is just step one for us. We have to keep the ball rolling.”
on the locker room environment
“It was fun, because we hadn’t experienced it yet. Nobody in the world expected us to win, let’s be honest here. Everybody doubted us. We are just proud of each other – we played for each other. I wasn’t playing for no one in stands, or anybody else, it was just people on the sidelines and the ones that came with us to work every day at practice.”
on the team becoming more disciplined
“We still preach the same pillars Coach Foster had instilled in us. It’s the discipline, enthusiasm, respect. We never underestimated them. We gave them the respect, and we played up to that caliber. Stay down, chop wood, carry water.”
on belief and why it’s important
“When you play defense, it’s a reactionary thing. I have to understand that if he does his what he needs to do, everything will flow together. It’s like the analogy when you put one pencil and you break it, but when you put a few of them together and you try to snap them, they don’t break, because they all hold their own will. We all believe in each other. Shout out to Nico. Once everything started shutting down, and Tino got released, he brought everyone together and let us know that he’s still in it. Everybody on the offensive side is still in it. We already knew our defense was still with it, but it was a great thing to see everyone collaborate like this. That’s the main thing right there, believing in one another.”
on Scooter Jackson’s big play on a late fourth down situation
“For Scooter, it’s a big thing for him, because he is so young. He went out there and manifested. He literally said I’m about to go make this play, and went out there and did it. As his big brother and mentor, I’m so proud of him for understanding how to keep stacking these days. Like I said before, he knows he can do it. So it’s big for us on the back-end and big for him and his confidence.”
on being a vocal leader
“I’m just trying to get the juices going. Once you understand if everyone is having fun, it’s like a kid in the candy store. You put a kid out there doing his favorite thing, and there’s like nothing else in the world that matters. Just be where your feet are, be present in the moment. It all really relies on the D-line and the front seven, and everyone around me picking me up, because I made some bad plays out there and everyone kept installing the same faith in me like I had with everyone else.”
UCLA redshirt senior defensive lineman Gary Smith III
on what this win means to the team
“I would say the same thing. We didn’t lose belief in ourselves, even when outsiders were losing belief in us, and reasonably so. I can’t blame anybody for doing so. But at the same time, we just brought it every day, we knew what we could do, and today we finally got to display it.”
on the team becoming more disciplined
“I feel like we were just taking care of the little things. It’s always about the little details. How you do small things is how you do all things, just taking care of simple stuff.”
on belief and why it’s important
“It’s important to us because without belief, you are not going to have any energy. We are big on discipline, respect, and enthusiasm – that’s still the pillars. That’s still what we believe in. You have to believe in order to do something that other people may not think you can do, but we knew. It was exciting.”
Penn State head coach James Franklin
opening remarks
“We’ve got to give UCLA and their coaching staff a ton of credit. We’ve got to give their quarterback a ton of credit. We obviously had a hard time stopping him all day long. I think the opening sequence of the game was significant, with the touchdown and then the surprise onside [kick] that we talked about all week long. We knew they were going to take significant risks in this game, and they were obviously two really significant drives and plays in the game. From that point on, we were battling. Obviously, we went in at halftime in a challenging situation, and we came out and battled in the second half, but not enough to win the game. So give UCLA credit, give their quarterback a ton of credit. We made mistakes today that we normally don't make. We had a ton of missed assignments, turnovers at critical times, penalties at critical times; things that we really don't do and have not done for a really long time. So, give UCLA credit.”
on the difficulty containing UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava
“He had 166 [passing] yards, and a lot of those yards came at critical points. A couple times we spied him, and when we spied him he was either able to make the spy miss, or run away from the spy. To your point, obviously, we lost a significant player for us last week, and that would normally be his responsibility. But at the end of the day, we spied and he ran away from the spy, or we spied and he would make the spy miss. There were a couple of other times they caught us in man coverage without a spy, we got out of our rush lanes, and he made a ton of plays.”
on the team’s mental preparation after last week’s loss
“Obviously, we did not handle last week’s loss well. We also lost some players in that game during the week, and then everything else. The travel, everything else. We did not come out with the right energy to start the game, and before you know it obviously they get a touchdown drive and an onside kick, and now you’re fighting. They gained confidence, and we’re fighting for the next three quarters. That’s my responsibility, and I didn’t get it done.”
on the level of defensive effort
“Especially when you talk about the first half, third down was not very good. We could not get off the field. Again, they did a really good job of staying on schedule. In the second half, when we were able to get them off schedule, that’s when Nico really hurt us a few times. I didn't feel like watching the game it was an effort thing, but I did think we made a bunch of mistakes based on what I saw and based on what I heard on the headsets.”
on the final fourth down play
“Obviously it was a QB power read, where we had an opportunity to get the ball on the edge, divide the defense, get the quarterback downhill, based on the read. They brought edge pressure which we knew was coming – they beat the block, got penetration, and we weren’t able to get around. They gave us the give read, and they had two guys right at the point of attack for not only the ball carrier, which would have been Peña, but also for Drew [Allar]. So give them credit for their aggressive coverage zero call, but we also have to make sure that we’re able to make the blocks with the point of attack.”
on how to bounce back from multiple losses
“We have to tune out all the outside noise. I thought our guys worked hard at doing that last week, but obviously not well enough. We have to stick together; the coaches, the players in the locker room; offense, defense, the special teams. The reality is we didn’t play well enough in all three facets to win the game, and there’s going to be a lot out there to divide, divide, divide, and we have to tune all that out and stick together. I think we’ll do that; it’s not going to be easy but I think we’ll do that.”
on the halftime locker room conversation
“We’ve been in this situation before, so I thought the locker room was good. Obviously, there was some emotion and there was some energy. There were some adjustments being made. We were in a similar situation last year at USC, that was part of the discussion, and I thought we came out and gave us a chance to win the game in the second half. But not enough obviously to win the game and obviously their quarterback [Iamaleava] in a lot of ways was the difference in the game in multiple scenarios and in multiple situations.”
on if he still believes that this is the best personnel he’s had at Penn State, like he said at Big Ten Media Days
“Obviously, that question at this moment – how am I supposed to answer that when we lose the last two games? Then obviously, that’s all that matters, we didn’t win the last two games. Obviously, I felt that way [at the time] or I wouldn’t have said that, but after two losses it’s hard for me to answer that question and say that that’s the case.”
Penn State quarterback Drew Allar
on his reaction to the loss to UCLA
“I believe that we have one of the best coaches in college football. I don’t think one or two games is what defines us. I think what’s going to define us is going to be how we respond to this. It’s a bumpy road for sure, but backs against the wall there’s no other team or coaching staff that I’d rather be in this situation with.”
on whether they felt extra pressure on offense because of the high-scoring nature of the game
“No. Our job as an offense is to go out and score points. We didn’t score enough points today. I don’t care what the situation is, our job is to go out every possession and put points up on the board, whether it’s touchdowns or field goals. We didn’t do that today, and that’s what it came down to. There’s no lack of resiliency in this team, but we just have to find a way to come out with a different result.”
on whether the team was mentally ready for the game
“Yeah, I felt that the team was mentally ready.”
on the 4th and 2 play, on the second-to-final drive
“The D-end stunted out. Unfortunately, they had a really good call on that. The kid made a really nice play coming off the edge. Danny [O’Brien] told me to pull it, and unfortunately, the guy folded inside.”
on the offensive line’s protection
“I think it was fine. It was one of those games where we just have to make it right. I think we have the best offensive lines in the country. There’s gonna be plays where they miss block-- it’s football—but it’s my job to make it right. I think we did that a fair amount today, but we didn’t do it enough to come out with the result that we wanted.”
on what he says to the team as their leader after a game like this
“There’s no other group that I’d rather be in this situation with. I know for me personally, I’m going to take it day-by-day and put 100% of my effort into doing whatever I need to do to get us right. I can promise that I will do everything in my power to put my heart and soul into it to help us come out with a different outcome each week. Just keep taking day-by-day and not looking into the future or looking into the past. What we can control is our actions from now until tomorrow morning, learn from it, flush it, then come out with the attitude of just swinging. Our backs are against the wall, so we have to come out swinging every day.”
on whether he feels the difference of playing so far away from home
“I wouldn’t say so. Honestly, it’s football. I don’t care where we’re playing in the country, it’s football. It’s an opportunity to come out and play the game we love and have fun. Obviously losing is not fun and it’s gonna be a long plane ride home, but it’s about how we respond to this.”
on whether there was a big emphasis on him using his legs
“We always talk about on offense making it right. Some of those plays came from scramble drills, some of them came from designed runs. The guys downfield did a great job blocking for me, and that helped me add on extra yards. The offensive line, tight ends, and running backs did a great job of giving me lanes to go through. I just had to break a couple of tackles from some of the extra guys.”
on how these last couple of weeks were for him personally
“Personally, it hasn’t been fun, I’d say that. The amount of texts you get, emails you get, of all of the things you have to deal with in the outside world. I try my best not to let those things faze me, because nobody knows what it’s like to be in our position unless you’ve done it before. I’ve talked to some former players and coaches, and people I trust. We’re in the position we’re in because we’re Penn State. We have to come out and win games, and we have the talent to, but we just have to go out and find different results. When you don’t get those results, there will be things that happen that are hard to deal with, but you just have to learn to deal with it. I’ve been here starting now for a few years, so I’ve gotten used to it.”
on the impact of the blocked punt, and how happy he was for Liam Clifford, when that happened
“I was really excited. Liam puts his heart and soul into what he does every day. He’ll do whatever the coaches ask him to do, whether that’s running routes to open guys up, whether it’s blocking, or him getting open on the offensive side of the ball. He’s taken a huge role on special teams this year, and it’s cool to see him get a result like that. That got us going a little bit. We just gotta keep building off those momentum plays.”
on how he bounced back personally after last week’s game
“I just came out and let it loose. I think I did a pretty good job of that. Again, as an offense we just need to come out and score every possession. I don’t care who we’re playing or where we’re playing; that’s our job. We didn’t score enough points today, so that’s on us. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to right the wrongs and come back swinging one day at a time. Not looking into the future or looking into the past, but only controlling what I can control. I promise these guys will rally together and stick together, because I think we have one of the best cultures and brotherhoods in America. It’s time to show that.”
Penn State defensive end Doni Dennis-Sutton
on how big of a hole they have to dig out of to get back where they finished last season
“We’ve got a long way to go. Big Ten [Championship] is still so far down the line. We’ve got to win our next game. I can’t talk about Big Ten or anything past that.”
on accountability for the loss
“All of us. It’s not one person, not one coach, not one player.”
on how he and the team are dealing with outside noise
“Just trying to stay together. The leaders have to make sure everybody in the locker room is not saying anything negative about the offense or defense. That’s really all we can do. We tried to do that this week, but we didn’t do a good enough job.”