UCLA appears to have found its course again after back-to-back losses in October, and is now riding consecutive victories over Cal and Colorado. The Bruins still have their issues — the most glaring of which is a banged-up defense — but Saturday’s trip to Oregon State gives them a chance to build momentum into the final stretch of the season. The Oregonian‘s Gina Mizell answered five questions about the Beavers, who are still searching for their first conference win under new head coach Gary Andersen.

1. What are the biggest changes that Gary Andersen has instituted in the program since taking over after Mike Riley’s departure?

For starters, he changed the base scheme on both offense and defense. OSU is now running a spread offense that requires a dual-threat quarterback, rather than the pro-style system that the Beavers ran under Riley. The defense has also switched from a 4-3 base to a 3-4 (though you’ll still see a fair amount of packages with four down linemen and/or five defensive backs). Philosophically, Andersen’s motto is “Players make plays. Players win games.” Not saying that Riley’s staff did not put the players first, but Andersen really, really emphasizes that. He’s also tried to instill toughness and accountability with this young team, and has noted multiple times this season that the grind was going to test certain players’ commitment and if Pac-12 football was truly for them. Obviously, all of this has not translated to a whole bunch of wins this season, but the coaches still believe in the foundation they are building.

2. How does Oregon State’s offense change with Nick Mitchell at quarterback instead of Seth Collins?

Mitchell obviously is not as dynamic as a runner as Collins, but he’s athletic enough to still run the zone-read and scramble on the fly if necessary. As a passer, Mitchell’s numbers aren’t great so far this season, but as an observer he just seems to throw a more catchable ball and is a bit more reliable with the intermediate throws. He’s also shown solid poise, particularly while being thrust into his first full-time duty in a tough environment like Utah. Andersen said earlier this week that a goal is to find an offensive “identity” in this last month, so we’ll see how similar the game plan looks to the one at Utah. Given that Collins’ injury happened last Thursday, coaches were left scrambling a bit for that game against the Utes.

3. Defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake said last month that Oregon State “can’t get any worse” on defense. Why have the players struggled so much to grasp his system, and what progress have they made in the last couple of weeks?

As you mentioned, the defense has made significant strides in the last couple weeks. And the reasoning is simple—the players are finally doing the proper fundamentals and technique required for the system and style that Sitake wants them to play. It’s not necessarily that the technique taught by the previous staff was wrong, it’s just that it’s not correct for what Sitake is specifically trying to implement. But as they say, old habits die hard. When players were getting into the high-pressure game situations earlier in the season, sometimes the natural reaction is to revert back those former ways. The Beavers have gotten solid play all season from guys like nose tackle Kyle Peko and linebacker Rommel Mageo, and underclassmen like linebacker Jonathan Willis and Baker Pritchard have really emerged in recent weeks.

4. How are fans dealing with the team’s 2-6 start, especially given the buzz surrounding Andersen’s arrival and his successful track record at Wisconsin and Utah State?

The reasonable fans understand this is going to be a process, and that 2015 was probably going to be a tough season regardless of who was coaching. Every eligible quarterback on the roster is a freshman. The Beavers replaced nine starters on defense. The schemes are all new, as mentioned before. Fans were frustrated after the Arizona game and the first half against Washington State — where things were just awful — but were encouraged by the performance at Utah. But the last time fans were encouraged was after OSU hung tough with Stanford for 2 1/2 quarters and then went into a bye week, and then the Beavers got blasted in Tucson. So I’m curious to see if they’re able to build on momentum this time around.

5. Which remaining game offers the Beavers their best hope of a conference win? What has to go right for that to happen?

It might be this weekend, given how banged up the Bruins are on defense and that the game is at home. In short, the Beavers need to score. They rank 116th nationally in scoring offense at under 20 points per game and have particularly struggled in the red zone. Defensively, now that the Beavers are playing cleaner overall, Sitake would like to see them get more “impact” plays like sacks (they rank last in the Pac-12 with 10) and takeaways (tied for ninth in the league with 10).