Full Mora/Guerrero press conference transcription Pt. 4

JLM on his role with the bowl game
“That’s something we’ll have to evaluate as we go forward. I can’t give you a definitive answer on that. I’ve only been on the job for an hour here, so there are a lot of things we certainly have to solidify. We need to decide the best way to go forward. We want to make is this: We want to make sure players and coaches who have worked so hard to win the Pac-12 South, to earn a bowl bid, can enjoy that experience. We want to make sure seniors who have spent carrers dedicated to UCLA get the opportunity to go out there free of distractions and play their heart out for their university.”

JLM on his role in the defense:
“I will be involved in all three phases of the game. I think that I’m most valuable if I have a direct understanding of our defensive philosophy, our offensive philosophy, our special teams philosphy. And I think one of the most important thing a head football coach can do on gameday is manage the game. I have a real pet peeve about football coaches who make game managament errors, who call timeouts when they shouldn’t be called, who aren’t prepared to make decisions on critical fourth downs, whether to go for it, punt, kick a field goal. I will be very active with all three phases. I cannot tell you now for sure whether I will or will not call defenses but I can assure you that everything that happens on that football field will go through my headset.”

JLM on attending the bowl game:
“I can’t answer that either. We have not gotten that far. I haven’t been on campus. I need to sit with those coaches, get a feel for them. Need to talk to Dan and Bob Field and decide what is best for those kids. The most importnat thing we can do is honor the work that they’ve done by providing them the best opportunity to succeed on Dec. 31 against Illinois.”

JLM on getting back into the college game:
“I love the purity and the passion of the kids. When I say purity, there might be some cynicism and skeptics who say college athletics are not pure and maybe theyr’e not. But I was very fortunate when I left the Seahawks to be able to spend some time around the Washington program. what grabbed me immediatley was the enthusiasm those young student-athletes had for playing the game. It sparked a fire and passion in me that I have not felt in a while. I love the idea of being a part of the community, and when I say community, I’m not talking about the Los Angles community, although I’m extremely excited about that. I was born in santa monica, spent a lot of time in that area, my folks are both Los Angeles natives.
But I’m talking about the UCLA community. I grew up on college campuses. My dad coached at Occidental. My dad coached at stanford. my dad coached at Colorado. My dad coached at UCLA. My dad coached at Washington. When I was a young kid, I spent most of my time when I wasn’t at school or participating in my own sports, on a college campus. When I was able to go back over and spend some quality time at the University of Washington, that just got my juices flowing. I spent as much time as I could researching the college game and learning the recruiting rules and the differences of the game. I’ve got a long way to go on all of those things but I have a real excitement and passion about the college game right now.”