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UCLA Coach Mora: Defensive Sideline Adjustments Helped Us

One of the big postgame themes that the coaches and players were discussing were the adjustments the team made both offensively and defensively. Offensively, it was Josh Rosen changing a play at halftime. Defensively, it was small adjustments on the line that made a difference. Here's what they said.

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As usual, we'll start with Coach Mora. While his postgame interview went eleven and a half minutes, there wasn't a lot of especially interesting information mentioned.

One of the more interesting tidbits he did discuss was the fact that, after the first drive of the second half, the defensive line made a few small adjustments.

In the first half and in the first drive of the second half, [Utah] did a nice job of running the football. We struggled to contain Travis, whom I have a lot of respect for and our players have a lot of respect for. We made some adjustments on the sideline there and it helped us. It helped us tremendously....We made some adjustments along the defensive line...some slight, slight adjustments that didn't allow them to do some of the things they were doing that were giving us problems and our guys handled it pretty well.

Mora also spoke about how Josh Rosen was re-designing a play at halftime.

He was in here in the locker room at halftime drawing up a play he wanted to run. I don't know if we ran it or not. But that's how his mind works.

Here's the full video of Coach Mora's press conference. Thanks to Jack Wang of InsideSoCal for sharing all of the postgame videos.


Defensive Coordinator Tom Bradley also spoke about how he thought the defense "did a really good job adapting [to what Utah was doing] as the game went on." He thought the gamechanger, though, was the stop at the goal line.

He explained the adjustments a little bit more:

We started to play games with our tackles and our ends. We started moving them at different times and doing different things inside which really helped us.

Meanwhile, Deon Hollins was asked what the defense was saying to each other. His response was simple:

Don't let them score! Let's hold them to field goals.

Josh Rosen and Paul Perkins spoke to the media together.

As had been the case most of the season, Jordan Payton spent much of his interview talking about Josh Rosen. He spoke about how Rosen adjusted one of the plays at half based on what he was seeing. He also mentioned how "he's fanatical about" watching film.

He's constant. He's on his phone. You think he's just texting but he's really watching film. I saw a lot of it at camp. I saw the way he prepare and the way he'd lock himself in his room at night and just study.

Tak McKinley spoke about how they were trying to mess with the heads of the Utes with the adjustments they made on the line.

Last but not least is Jayon Brown. In addition to talking about the play of the defense, Jayon also looked ahead to next week.

It's always a big rivalry, but, now that there's more on it, it just makes it all that better. We're excited. We can't wait and we're looking forward to it.

So are we, Jayon.

Thanks again to Jack Wang of InsideSoCal for sharing the postgame videos.

Go Bruins!!! Beat 'SC!!!