Christian Ramirez at Media Day

On his offseason:
"I'm up to 220 now, the heaviest I've ever been; it's all muscle," Ramirez said laughing. "I still kept my speed, though, which is what (UCLA head athletic performance coach Mike Linn) was preaching to me. We needed to get me bigger, faster and stronger but keep that speed."

On what hurt the offense the most last season:
"Turn...overs - that's all I have to say," Ramirez said. "We had 20 interceptions, and that hurt. If we start off just taking care of the ball, everything should fall into place. We have a lot of talent on this team, we've gained experience, and we learned a difficult lesson - if you don't have the ball, you can't win."

On Neuheisel and his change from year one to year two:
"He's still there," Ramirez said. "Coach Neuheisel is still in there. He's a very optimistic guy, and unfortunately we weren't able to pull through his expectations. We haven't lowered them. We still want to be a championship team. That's what we fought for this whole summer. We don't expect anything less than he's told you guys."