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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE
October 17, 2019
Stanford, California
UCLA - 34, STANFORD - 16
(UCLA interview)
Q. Great defensive effort tonight.
COACH KELLY: I think it was coordination. I think when you play good coverage it helps you in the pass rush. And I think our guys up front, starting with Osa and KLS and Woodsy, did a really nice job of creating pressure on the quarterback.
And that's really, I think it was really good team defense overall. Not very often where you can hold Stanford under 200 yards offense because David is such a good offensive team. And I was just really happy with our guys' effort and how hard they played.
Q. Did the quarterback situation change your approach defensively?
COACH KELLY: No, they run the same plays with all three guys, whether it's K.J. or Davis or Jack. So, it really didn't change what he did, The route combinations were the same, the protections were the same, the run game was the same. I think the defensive coaches had a solid plan and I thought our players really executed tonight.
Q. What did you see from your offense that clicked better tonight? Put up 34 against Stanford.
COACH KELLY: I've seen it from the offense in every week since the Washington State game, when we put up points. Arizona, we didn't punt in the Arizona game. I think we struggled in the red zone in the Arizona game. But I thought we moved the ball well in the Arizona game.
And last week against Oregon State, we scored 31. I thought we moved the ball (indiscernible). And Austin did a really nice job. I just think we're balanced right now. We have the ability with Josh and Demetric to run the ball.
I thought Dorian really kept the ball alive with his legs today. I don't know if he had close to 100 yards himself, bit I thought he made really good decisions. And our receivers, except for maybe one, caught the ball really well today.
Q. You ended a long losing streak in this series. Does that mean anything to you?
COACH KELLY: No, it doesn't. I just care about being 1-0 on the weekend. Where were you 11 years ago?
Q. The LA Times.
COACH KELLY: I wasn't, so -- I was an assistant coach (laughter), and most of these kids were six and seven years old we don't talk about -- that's just I guess -- it's a good thing to write, the streak is over. Would that be the banner tomorrow?
Q. It will be. (Laughter)?
COACH KELLY: We didn't talk about it. We just talked about what they want and what they do. And, again, I just thought our guys, from an effort standpoint, they kind of put it together. And when you have a young team, they continue to grow. And I thought young players like Kyle Philips, who's a redshirt freshman, only played four games last year, continues to get better.
And there's a lot of guys when you watch them from the beginning of time to now, they keep getting better. Josh Kelley keeps getting better. When you have a guy like that can help you ice a game by hitting a run like that, I think there's -- guys keep, the more at-bats they get, so to speak, the better off they get. And we continue to get more at-bats where that's what we need. And so it was a good feeling for those guys. They'll feel good going to class tomorrow.
Q. How happy are you for the guys just given (inaudible) success?
COACH KELLY: And they've had success, too. I think that's what we talk about, you know what I mean? Even when you lose a football game, there's successful things that they do within the game and I think that's what the teaching process is all about. You either win on an individual play or you learn on an individual play. And I think that's what this team has done. It's part of our growth mindset as a group; how do we continue to get better?
And there's a lot of things tonight that we have to clean up that we have to get better at, that we didn't by any stretch of the imagination didn't play a clean football game. When we get a chance to sit back down with these guys again and look at the film, we'll go over all those things and continue to teach them.
But it's an eager group. I love this group. They want to get better. And they practice that way, and they're a lot of fun to be around.
Q. What's top of mind for you to clean up?
COACH KELLY: Penalties today, I think there were some inconsistencies especially in the kicking game. We hadn't had those, but we got a couple kicking game penalties today that we need to clean up. Guys have been to be a little tighter with their hands and what they need to do.
We had one turnover at the end of the first half. Ultimately when we defer or we don't win the toss we're trying to score at the end of the first half and score again at the beginning of the second half because you kind of get a two-for-one there.
And I thought we drove the ball down, but we threw a pick. We have to learn if we get a field goal in that situation, we'll get the ball coming out at the beginning of the second half. And can we score some other points and stack them on top of each other. But there's a lot of things we can teach off this tape.
Q. The interception, Dorian did a good job managing the game?
COACH KELLY: I did. We don't talk about managing the game, we talk about playing the game. I think he has to take what the defense gives him.
And there's a couple times they did a really good job in coverage. But if they're doing a good job in coverage and no one's left for him. So that first long run down the sideline something we talked about, if they're going to be in man match coverage and turn their back to you, you have to make them pay with your legs. And I think that's something he can do. And again I have all the confidence in the world in him. And I was really excited, because he played really well at Washington State. And I thought he played really well at Arizona until he got hurt.
Then this week of training I thought he did a really nice job and hopefully we'll continue to grow off this one because we've got a big one next week.
Q. You guys kind of followed them, two kind of disappointing losses how do you kind of take the positive momentum of the game here?
COACH KELLY: We had positive momentum all the time. I don't think the outcome of a game, just because you lost a game doesn't mean that you can't get positive things out of it. That's just not the way it works.
I think there's obviously a final outcome that you talk about and then what happened with that final outcome and what was my part in that final outcome, how did I contribute to that final outcome and how do we build upon it.
But you don't just go in every week when you win and say we did a good job, don't worry about it, and when you lose tear them down.
We continue to coach these guys up week in, week out. And I think they've gotten better from the beginning of the year to now. There's a growth mindset in the entire group, whether it's the coaching staff or players.
There's as much as you can get out of winning a game as losing a game. So I think our guys got better over those last two weeks. And they learned to face adversity and get stronger from it and that's part of what this process is about so that what we're trying to teach life lessons through football and we've got a ton that we continue to teach these guys but that's what this process is about if they understand it's about the process and again nothing to do with an 11-game winning streak. But that's a distraction we shouldn't have to talk about because I don't really care what happened in 2012 and neither do these guys care about what happened in 2012. I care about that we have a really good Monday, and that's what our guys' mindset is going to be.
And I care that every one of our kids goes to class tomorrow morning and make sure they're all going to be in class tomorrow morning because that's what they have to do. Whether there's a streak or not a streak doesn't matter. I don't know what our streak against Arizona State is. I'm sure you'll get it from me on Monday.
And we can chat about what that one is. But I think, to our guys, to me those are distractions and let's eliminate distractions. It's tough being a young kid nowadays. There's a lot of distractions. Let's just play football. And I tell our guys let's go out and have fun.
That's what they did tonight. I thought they played as a team and played together and they have a lot of fun playing football. And that's what this is a game. They have to remember it's a game. When you have fun playing a game, you'll probably end up winning the game.
Q. Having that much fun as a rushing passer, is that growth, was that --
COACH KELLY: Yeah, I think it's growth. I think he tackled better. I think when we got pressure from our outside guys. Allows Osa to get singled inside a little bit. I thought our defensive coaches did a really good job getting guys in one-on-one situations in the pass rush. And when you get a one-on-one situation you have to exploit that. I thought our guys did a good job of that. But it was some tough sledding for them tonight throwing the football.
But it starts playing team defense. We have to be in good coverage. The quarterback has to hold the ball a little bit longer. When he holds the ball a bit longer, we have a chance to get home. And that's what happened tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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