Oregon-UCLA Postgame Quotes
10/22/10 | Football
Chip Kelly, Head Coach
On how well the team performed tonight:
“The week off was good for us. We got better as a group.”
On looking fresh:
“It is a byproduct of how we practiced. Darren was really distributing the ball all over the place. When we have receivers and Darren clicking like that, we are hard to stop.”
On the offensive line:
“It was a total team effort, everyone stepped up. That's what makes us a special group.”
On controlling UCLA:
“People wondered, can you control their rush offense. We've handled Stanford and UCLA now. “
“Our defense is very opportunistic.”
On the tough match next week against USC:
“They have had a week off. I have a lot of respect for them. I checked on them last week and it was 42-0 in the 2nd quarter. It's a good football team.”
On how Oregon will approach USC:
“You have to spread the ball around. We've got some really talented receivers and the way Darren is playing right now makes it tough to defend.”
On how long the team will get to enjoy this win tonight:
“We have film in the morning, so 8 hours.”
On preparing for next week's game:
“We will take advantage of this extra day. It is the 1st weekend off as a team, and then back to practice Monday.”
“Our formula is to take care of one game at a time.”
On if the team was nervous coming off a bye week:
“If I saw something this week in practice, I would have said, hey what's going on here.”
Darron Thomas, QB #1
On his health:
“The shoulder held up pretty well today. I felt fine throwing the ball.”
On the game plan:
“We were pretty balanced between both the run and the pass. The defense gave us a lot of looks that we felt we could throw in and we executed well.”
On playing as the top ranked team in the country:
“It was not any different this week. We focused on just doing what we do all week in practice and during the game.”
On the fourth down pass to LiMichael James:
“He was the last read on the play, but he did a nice job making a play when I found him.”
On the play of the offense:
“Our receivers made some amazing catches today. The key was that the offensive line did a tremendous job blocking for the running game and giving me time to make the proper reads.”
On the team's overall performance:
“We feel that we can get better and that's what we will continue to work towards as we prepare for USC next week.”
LaMichael James, RB #21
On the hit where he came off the field:
“I just got the wind knocked out of me, no big deal.”
On the game:
“The offensive line did a great job of protecting and blocking for Darron Thomas. It was a clean game for us, not too many mistakes. The receivers made great catches and the offensive line played really well tonight. It was a great team effort. It doesn't matter about all the points, and it doesn't matter who the opponent is, as long as we win.”
On Darron Thomas:
“He gets an A+ tonight and every game. He's a great player, he makes all the right reads.”
On having open lanes:
“The receivers are making great catches and the defense has to guard them, so I have open lanes.”
On Remene Alston:
“He did great tonight, he played really hard. It was really good for him to get experience like that.”
On the confidence of going for fourth down:
“We do have the confidence to get two or three yards because the offensive line is blocking so well.”
On why they continue having success:
“We practice hard, we really really practice hard. That's our key, we give 100% every practice.”
On being #1 in the nation:
“It doesn't matter about #1, we don't care what the outside world thinks of us being #1 or #2, we just have to win.”
On being a Heisman candidate:
“I don't care about that. It's a team effort, If we lose one game I'm out, so I think it's really a team effort. I don't like to think about it.”
Casey Matthews, LB #55
On the game:
“We came out fast and held them to just a few points. We did a good job of containing their physical offense. We haven't started out as well as we've wanted to lately, we knew we had to work on that and we did tonight. We're excited about our performance; we came out on fire, putting up lots of points.”
On UCLA's offense:
“It's very similar to our offense, we did a good job against it.”
On being #1 in the nation:
“It's a big thing, it's exciting, we just have to show that we're deserving of #1. We just go out and play our normal game. That's just how we treat it, ranking shouldn't matter. The coaches do a great job of keeping our heads level.”
About Oregon's fast offense:
“You can tell they (UCLA's defense) were not ready for it and our fast pace.”
Jeff Maehl, WR #23
On tonight's solid effort:
“We had a fast start. We put the foot on the pedal and kept going. We came out and scored touchdowns on the first four positions. “
“I give a lot of credit to the linemen. Darren had all day back there sometimes. We prepared well this week.”
Remene Alston Jr., RB #5
On win:
“I am happy to be playing. I'm having fun with my teammates. This is by far the most fun.”
On being a senior:
“Being a senior, every moment you have this year is your last.”
On players getting hurt:
“I say Remene, ok let's go, it's up to you. It is not a crisis, just an opportunity for the next guy. We miss Kenjon, but like I said one man goes down, next one steps up.”
On paying attention to other teams and polls:
“We spend so much time around football; I try my best not to watch football when I get home. I definitely don't pay attention to us (in the polls). All we can do is control ourselves.”
Spencer Paysinger, LB #35
On feeling of win:
“There is a lot of camaraderie. We said we wanted to play a complete game for the first time this season, because we are known as a second half team.”
On beating UCLA 60-13:
“Every time we get a Pac-10 win is good.”
David Paulson, TE #42
On playing as the No. 1 team:
“None of us were focused on our ranking. We just prepared these past two weeks to play UCLA.”
On the importance of next week's USC game:
“It is our next game, so of course it is our biggest game of the season. USC has great athletes on both sides of the ball that we have to prepare for.”
On the offense's potential going forward:
“We are in a groove right now and passed pretty well today, but we also came back and produced some great running plays.”
On the impression left to people watching Oregon for the first time:
“I hope they see a team that plays hard and runs with a fast tempo.”
On the play of Darron Thomas:
“He played great today, maybe the best I have seen him. He made all the throws and made the right reads all game.”
On his performance:
“The coaches called a lot of pass plays early and the coverage had me open a lot so the ball went to me early.”
On the fast start:
“We talked about starting fast. We saw in film that UCLA struggled a little when they fell behind early, so that was a point of emphasis in practice.”
Kenny Rowe, DE #58:
On the game:
“We started off slow, but made a couple of adjustments.”
On being ranked #1:
“It's the same as it always is. We just have to go out and practice like always.”
On UCLA's offense:
“They still got over 100 yards, but we stopped it a bit.”
Offensive Coordinator Mark Helfrich
On the game:
“We're just trying to play fast. We got off to a much better start than we have recently.”
On the Darron Thomas:
“He operated at a high level. He played really well and same with the guys around him. They protected him well.”
On practice:
“We had a great week and a half of practice. The win is because of how we practice.”
Some things to work on:
“Things in the red zone clogged us down.”
Rick Neuheisel—UCLA Head Coach
Opening Remarks
“Obviously the game got out of hand. We've got some serious work to do in rebuilding our program, getting back to where we can be a good football team, one that can compete successfully in this conference and we're going to start it as quickly as possible because obviously this isn't good enough. We've got to answer some tough questions as to what we're doing on both sides of the ball to make sure we're putting out kids into positions where they can be successful.”
On Oregon
“They were terrific tonight firing on all cylinders, their pace of play, and their quarterback was hitting almost everything. We were having a hard time keeping up.”
“When you can spread the field like they do and then you can't get pressure on the Quarterback, it's difficult to cover the width of the field as well as the depth of the field for as long as we were asked to. And so, they had us in that regard.”
“They did a nice job of figuring out how to stop the inside zone but really it's the offence giving them that kind of leeway where they can be aggressive and take chances and get after your Quarterback because they've got such a lead. Their offense put them in that position. That's not to take away from their defensive effort; it's just that offense was pretty prolific tonight.”
“We're playing some new guys that haven't played a lot…and given our injuries situation it was what we had so those kids played hard and we're going to keep working at it.”
On UCLA
“I thought we ran the ball effectively, we've obviously got to figure out ways to create some more play action opportunities where we can get chunks of yard-age because it is difficult to sustain a drive when you are just getting three and four, and three and four. Those two drives I talked about, the opening drive of the game, which was a got us down to a third and five and we ended up taking a shot down the rail and got picked and then the drive that took, I think it was almost eight minutes, off the clock and then sputtered on the third and three where we didn't get a back side technique block. Those are things where we have got to be more proficient and have a few more answers.”
“I know one thing: You can't give up. You keep fighting. As the old saying goes, 'It's always darkest before the dawn.' So we've got to find a way and I also bet the sun will come up tomorrow and so will UCLA. We're going to find a way to get off the mat and make something of the rest of our season.”
On injured player Kevin Prince (QB)
“There was a swelling that just didn't go down and… he wants to play, just like a lot of our guys want to play. We've got a lot of good players that aren't available right now. But that's the nature of the beast when you are playing this kind of aggressive game.”
“There's a chance he could have surgery as soon as Saturday… we'll know more once they are inside.”
“I would say that it is very unlikely that he would be ready for anything in the Arizona game and we'll see about Oregon State.”
On the Game overall
“A great learning experience, unfortunately a painful one. But there were some good things, we just got to figure out some more answers… obviously when you fall far behind you give them a free rush.”
UCLA Quotes
Sean Westgate, LB #11
On Defense:
“As a defense we can't do much about a triple threat, we just got out played. We had answers to one or two offensive threats, but they just had more offense. We had them stopped multiple times, but it's hard to break an offense with so many options.”
“Being tired is a mind set, it is something you have to shake off.”
On Oregon's Speed:
“There speed was tough in the beginning, but we adjusted to it and got used to it.”
On Oregon's Passing:
“Thomas was spot on, and LeMichael is a Heisman prospect, and great athlete, so it was very tough trying to stop all of these offensive threats.”
