UCLA head coach Jim Mora
Opening statement:
“That was a tough loss, obviously, but our hats are off to Oregon State. That’s a good defensive football team and a well-coached football team and they beat us. We have lots of lessons to learn from this. We’ll see how we handle some adversity. We got knocked back a little bit, so it’ll be a great lesson for our young men to respond to this. I expect that they will respond in the proper way, and we’ll be ready to go next week.”
On UCLA’s fake field goal formation:
“We thought we might have the opportunity to get something on them. But, when they shifted, we called the timeout.
On scoring 10 first-half points:
“We have to do a better job in the first half. Last week we played well in the first half. Our emphasis is to start fast, and we were not able to get that done. We have got to examine the film and figure out how we can get better.”
On Oregon State’s run defense:
“They have a very good run defense. They are big and physical up front. Some people call it a seven-man front, but it’s a nine-man front with inverted safeties. In run support, they respond very quickly and scouted the point and won the battle at the line of scrimmage, offensively.”
On responding to a loss:
“I just feel like we have to keep our eyes forward and work hard.”
On why the team did not perform as well today:
“We were playing a really good football team, and they were having success at the line of scrimmage. In the third quarter there was a critical time there with two takeaways with no points. That gave them momentum and energy and hope. We have to do a better job.”
On committing penalties at inopportune times:
“The personal foul [called against Kenneth Walker] – I’m interested to look at the film and see why it was called. Many times officials and coaches will have differing opinions. I don’t think that discipline is an issue here.”
On running back Johnathan Franklin:
“When you are struggling to move in a conventional way, which is your bellies and dips and inside zone plays – you’re getting little movement at the point of attack. You’ve got to find alternate ways to do that. We tried to find ways to get our offense going.”
On Jeff Baca’s absence:
“Jeff is a very good football player for us. He’s a veteran. Like I’ve said, he’s a glue guy. To say that was a reason that we could not get things done was an excuse. We won’t make excuses. When he is not playing, whoever steps in for him, we just have to do a better job.”
On dropped passes:
“I didn’t count the drops in the game. So many different things go into a drop – ball placement isn’t exact, a guy runs a route differently so the timing is off. Lots of that happened today. We have to focus on the ball, catching the ball, running the right route, and protecting up front so that our quarterback can step right into it.”
On Shaquelle Evans
“Well, he made big plays when he needed to. He was blocking downfield and he continued to do that. He’s a tough player. He took a wicked hit in the back where his helmet popped off and then I think he was stepped on. He was out for a play, by rule, put his helmet back on and came in. He’s a tough kid.”
On responding to today’s loss:
“I want to see how we bounce back. We’ll come back to work focused. We’ll use the next 24 hours to get over this. There are a lot of changes this week with school starting. There are schedule changes. We are asking a lot of our young men. They’ll respond. All indications from me being around these guys is that they’ll respond. So, we’ll get back to work.”
BOX SCORE
Oregon State 27, UCLA 20
Oregon State 3 14 7 3 — 27
UCLA 0 10 0 10 — 20
SUMMARY
OSU: Terevor Romaine 22 field goal
UCLA: Ka’imi Fairbairn 22 field goal
OSU: Brandin Cooks 75 pass from Sean Mannion (Romaine kick)
OSU: Marksu Wheaton 42 pass from Mannion (Romaine kick)
UCLA: Shaq Evans 65 pass from Brett Hundley (Fairbairn kick)
OSU: Storm Woods 2 run (Romaine kick)
UCLA: Hundley 1 run (Fairbairn kick)
OSU: Romaine 17 field goal
UCLA: Fairbairn 35 field goal
Records: Oregon State 2-0, 1-0; UCLA 3-1, 0-1
Attendance: 54,636