Thanks to Edward Lewis of the Bruin Sports Report for posting the video of Coach Mora.
Let's dig right in and see what Coach Mora had to say after the game.
Before we talk about the game, I just to say that UCLA, our prayers are with Trevor Davis. Hopefully, the young man is OK. I saw him moving his feet. He gave the thumbs up. There's nothing better than seeing that. Boy, you hate to see anyone go down where they have to bring the cart out. It just puts everything in perspective. These are kids playing a game that they love and hopefully that young man is ok. UCLA is thinking about him. I'm thinking about him. Our coaches are thinking about him.
The thoughts and prayers of Bruins Nation are also with Trevor Davis. We wish him the best and hope he gets well soon.
The other story here for me is Marcus Rios. I don't know if you all know what Marcus has been through since he's been at UCLA. But, at one point, he was in UCLA Medical Center and was told there was a pretty good chance that he wasn't going to walk out. To come back up here to the Bay Area where he's from and to get the game-saving or winning, however you guys want to put it, interception....Man! Unbelievable! Unbelieveable! The resolve...the resilence...He kind of epitomizes what we've become about. That's the "never give in, never quit" type of spirit. You saw what we did today. We overcame three turnovers on the road to win a game at a place where UCLA hasn't won since, I was told, 1998. I think a couple of our guys, maybe, they weren't even born yet. I don't know.
Marcus Rios definitely gets the game ball for today. His interception clearly saved the game and his story is amazing. Bruins Nation pulled together to show our love for him when he got sick and we couldn't be happier that he has recovered to return to the field especially after today's game.
But that's a heck of a team. I think that quarterback Goff is a big time player. He's got everything you want in a big time player. They've got tremendous skill position players. We just came out with a win. There will be those that say, "Oh, you only beat them by whatever we beat them by...what was the final?...Two." But, to overcome the disappointment we've suffered the last two weeks...self-inflicted...the losses and to come in here into an environment where UCLA has struggled...to overcome the three turnovers...the back and forth and hang in there and get a win...I think that's something that you build on. When you're trying to build a program and when you're trying to create a culture, it's never going to be smooth sailing, especially when you're trying to do as drastic as what we're trying to do and what we're trying to become. This is a young team. There's six scholarship seniors on this team. So, every time we get into a game like this and we have to win it and find a way to win, it just adds to what we're going to be in the future. As a coach, I'm going gray and I'm getting an ulcer. I promise you that. But I'm proud of those guys. I needed a big hug after that win.
What Coach Mora really means: I had a meeting with Dan to learn about managing expectations this week. So, going forward, I'm going to talk about how young our team is so that you don't expect us to win every single week, especially when we play a sloppy game like we did today.
No I never have. They were disappointed. We were all disappointed. As a matter of fact, this week in practice it was one of our best weeks. We always practice well. But the transition from practice to the field. But they refused to be discouraged. They get down, but they just keep coming back. We've done that in games. We've done it through the season. We need to build on that. That's what we need to do and just try to keep getting better and get these young guys playing more consistently and that's what we work at every day.
What Coach Mora really means: We practice hard. I don't know why it doesn't translate into more success on game day. People keep saying it's because of our coaching staff, but I'm not considering wholesale changes.
Well, I'll tell you. It wasn't as long as it was for others because the officials have these little signals...these codes and I've kind of picked up on them. So, I knew a couple of minutes before they announced it that they weren't going to overrule it. Until I saw the code, I was sweating bullets....I can't tell you. It's a secret code. I'm part of the Pac-12 so I have to protect the code.
What Coach Mora really means: We won and, now, I can mess with you. So, I'm messing with you.
Are these the final stats? I don't know the stats. I don't really look at them that often. We got 567. That's pretty good, but turning the ball over like that. I felt like we had things going pretty well on offense and then we turned it over and really, it was kind of uncharacteristic of us to turn it over the way we have. We've been a pretty decent team taking care of the football. All three of the turnovers gave them the ball in plus territory and they resulted in touchdowns. Once again, you don't see it very often where you overcome three turnovers on the road and still get a win. To me, it just speaks to what these guys are becoming. We are far from perfect, but there's a grit that's building. I think we can get that. That's the culture we want. The toughness, never quit, never say die, never give in, never give up. We can get all the other stuff fixed. This is a long term deal.
What Coach Mora really means: I don't pay attention to stats. You should know that by now. How many times have I've told you penalties don't matter? Sacks? Blah..blah...blah. We just want to do whatever it takes to win. We'll get it all fixed. It's just going to take us a decade to reduce the number of penalties.
I thought it was good. Did we give up any....one. It might have been that he was just scrambling. I think it was really good to see Conor go in there and play. I think we were all kind of holding our breath to see if he could survive. I know he was a little bit nervous before the game. I think he played well with the naked eye. I think Malcolm played well at guard. I think he felt comfortable in there. It's a good looking offensive line. I think that this week we'll get Alex Redmond back and Simon suited up for the first time this year. He practiced last week. I think there's a good chance we'll get those two guys back. And, hopefully, we can stand still and stay healthy and keep growing. I think that's going to be a really good offensive line. We're only going to lose one guy Malcolm. The rest of those guys are pretty darn good players. So, I think the future looks bright up front.
What Coach Mora really means: Sorry, Brett. Josh Rosen will have a great offensive line...until he doesn't. Then I'll tell you how young those guys are then.
I was hoping you wouldn't ask [about the fourth down attempt that failed]. I hung on to that one until I got back to the locker room. If we had not won that game, I would have felt like I let the kids down. At halftime, we felt like we were moving the ball well. We felt like we were running the ball well. We felt like we had momentum. We had the ball on the 45 yard line with about 6 inches. We'd had a successful quarterback sneak and I felt like we had the ability to blow them off and get it and we didn't and, I can you this, no one would have felt worse about it than me. I wasn't able to let that go until we got to the locker room and I was like, "Whew! Thank you guys!"
What Coach Mora really means: I finally had the balls to go for it and you're going to ask me that? We may not have made it, but I'm sure it bought some goodwill with all of our fans who have been complaining about me trying so many field goals from unmakeable distances.
Thanks to Ryan Kartje of the Orange County Register for posting the videos of Coach Mazzne, Coach Ulbrich and Brett Hundley. There isn't a whole lot of interesting content in these. So, we'll let you just watch them on your own. First up is Coach Mazzne.
Coach Ulbrich spoke a lot about Marcus Rios.
Brett talked about not making mistakes that makes it tough on the defense.
Go Bruins!