Oct. 9, 2010

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CALIFORNIA HEAD COACH Jeff Tedford

On Cal's defense:

"The defense played like they normally play, with a better understanding of the pistol offense. I liked their effort today; they rallied to the ball and gang tackled. They did just about everything you can ask for."

On facing the pistol offense:
"(Their offense) isn't quite to the Reno (Nevada) stage yet. Reno has been doing it a long time, and the quarterback is excellent with it. They are very efficient; UCLA is not quite there yet. Once you play it the first time like we did, you learn a lot. We definitely needed to learn from our last experience with (the pistol offense). It is like triple-option football, you have to cancel every aspect of it. It causes a lot of challenges. I thought Clancy (Pendergast) and the staff did a great job of planning for it; and the guys executed it very well."

On Cal's running backs:
"Isi (Sofele) was productive when he was in there. Shane (Vereen) had 25 carries, that's about is limit; we let Isi take the rest of them. Shane played a good game today, but we need to get Isi more involved in the game."

On running the ball so much:
"We felt like we were going to challenge them down hill. Some of the teams that (UCLA) has been successful against are spread teams. Houston is a spread team; Texas is a spread team. Stanford played them well running down hill against them. We felt we were going to test them downhill and make it a physical football game. We still need to throw the ball better though, no question."

On Cal QB Kevin Riley:
"He needs to improve. We need to improve as a pass offense. He needs to make some better decisions. He needs to throw the ball away when we need to throw the ball away. He needs to complete the ball to guys that are open. He didn't throw any interceptions, which is a good thing."

On Cal RB Shane Vereen:
"We all understand what Shane (Vereen) brings to the table. He has been a productive consistent back, be it the backup role or as a starter towards the end of last season and so far this year. He is very dependable and very tough. He is a very smart guy. That being said you can't run him into the ground; we need to keep him fresh. He had another very good game today. We came out of this game today very healthy, so that's always nice."

On distributing the ball between Vereen and Sofele:
"Coach Gould really handles (distributing the ball). He has a good feel for the count as the game progresses. With Shane you are going to try to keep it around 25. Coach Gould has always done a great job communicating with the backs over the years."

On Cal DB Darian Hagan:
"It is always nice when you bring the corners on the blitz and it lands. I think (Hagan) had two of them off the edge, and then he had an interception. He played a very solid game."

On the front seven of Cal's defense:
"It was nice having Mike Mohamed back in the game. The entire front seven played really well. A lot of those things you don't see unless you watch it on tape. With (Mychal) Kendricks and some of the guys on the outside really forcing things in so you can stuff the run. There are also a lot of things in the backfield that happen, but those guys were doing a lot inside to stop the run."

CALIFORNIA PLAYERS

Mike Mohamed, LB

On this being a redemption game after the previous two losses:
"It's kind of what we've focused on in the past two weeks. We felt like we had a lot to prove. Especially in that Nevada game, we felt like we had lost our identity. We just wanted to go out there and prove what kind of a defense we were."

On stopping the UCLA rushing attack:
"Any time you can stop the run against any team, especially the conference leader, it's huge. We felt like if we could stop the run, we could pretty much control the tempo of the game. It feels really good. We're really proud of ourselves right now."

Marvin Jones, WR
On his touchdown:
"It felt great. We had been running that play every day since fall camp. We ran it previously in the Colorado game. Whenever that number is called, we know there's a chance for it to be a big play. I got some nice blocking, and I was able to make something happen."

On getting the passing attack back on track:
"It starts with the run opening up the pass. It's on all of us. We were inconsistent in the second half, but there is going to be days like this when our running game is on. Our running game looked terrific today, they really helped us win. We'll take a look at our passing game on film, and I'm sure we'll overcome it."

Kevin Riley, QB
On how much the running game helped the offense:
"Right from the opening series, they set the tone. From the line blocking, the receivers blocking and Shane running the ball, after that first drive, we were just running the ball constantly. The passing game never really got going, but I think that was partly due to the running game working so well."

On the Cal defense:
"It gives the offense confidence. Sometimes you press when the other team is scoring and moving the ball consistently. When our defense is playing like they have been, you can go out there and relax because you have confidence the defense is going to stop the other team. You know if you can put some points on the board, you have a good chance of winning the game. Our offense struggled a little bit at times today, but the way our defense was playing, it didn't really matter."

Shane Vereen, RB
On if he knew right away the running game would work so well:
"We definitely started off great. I got a good feeling early about running the ball. We had some good matchups, it was pretty soft inside. In the second half, we didn't run the ball as well as we wanted."

On if they planned on establishing the running game all week or if it developed during the game:
"It was a little bit of both. We came into the game with a mindset that we were going to pound them with the run, but for me personally, I wasn't expecting us to run it that much. But the chains were moving, the holes were opening up and the o-line did a great job. We developed into a real inside attack as the game went on."

UCLA HEAD COACH RICK NEUHEISEL

General comments:

"Congratulations to Cal. They thoroughly outplayed us, especially in that first half. It was too much to come back from. We got out of element as an offense. We were forced to throw the ball way more than we wanted to or were prepared to and obviously it didn't go well for us. Very proud of the way the defense played in the second half with the exception of the reverse for a touchdown. We fought and I'm pleased with the effort despite the large deficit at halftime. We've got a lot of work to do. We have to go back and figure out more answers with our offensive scheme so that we don't get stymied like this. You have to give credit where credit is due to the Cal defensive plan. We'll go back and see what we can do to be better the next time we play."

On UCLA's offense and Cal's defense:
"Certainly their scheme was important. We got two holding calls early in the game that took us out of our element. With Nelson Rosario down, we weren't able to make plays to make up the deficit of 10-yard penalties. It was uncharacteristic for us. Those were tough to weather. Then obviously the turnover. We had a fumble in the second drive of the game, which was pivotal, giving them the 14-0 lead. In this offense, you have to find a way to stay patient. But it also requires that the game stay in balance and the game got out of balance."

On UCLA's performance in the second half:
"I was fired up about the way we came out in the second half with the opening drive, going down and getting the touchdown. Defense gave us some chances. But we were not efficient in the throwing game."

At what point he thought the game was off balance:
"Well you're down three scores. [Offensive coordinator Norm Chow] felt that he saw some things. They were playing a lot of man coverage. We had some chances. We just didn't hit the passes. We had guys [in position.] You have to give credit to [Cal]. Obviously they were getting pressure on our quarterback and making good plays in the back end."

On UCLA's mistakes:
"We made mistakes in the games that we won, too. They become magnified when the other team is playing as well as Cal did today. We're going to continue to work and get better. I am going to make sure that everyone understands that we have to have a higher expectation for everything in the program. We'll just keep working at it."

On where UCLA needs to improve:
"We have to work harder. We can't beat ourselves. We can't have holding calls. We can't fumble the football. When we play a field position game with people, as we did in the second half, the score was 7-7."

UCLA PLAYERS

David Carter, DT

On the turnaround in the second half:
"We just figured out what was going on. We talked to the coaches and we just tightened it up. But it was too late by that point. We have to do that the whole game, not just the second half. We have to know what they're doing and react earlier."

On rebounding for Oregon:
"We have no choice. This is a competitive sport. As an athlete and as a competitor that's what you have to do. As coach Gansz says, "One snap and clear." We'll take from it and learn from it and go out the next game and dominate. People don't think we're going to win against Oregon because they're ranked number three, but they thought the same about Texas. We have to gout out there with the same effort and dominate."

On the loss:
"It's a very hard loss. But you have to be a man, you have to suck it up and keep going."

Jonathan Franklin, RB
On the fumble:
"The fumble hurts. We were down seven with a chance to come back and the momentum was on their side. Their offense was doing a great job driving down the field and it's hard to come back from that. I, myself, put the team in a bad situation with that fumble but we all have to work and we all have to get better."

On the loss:
"It's tough, especially coming off the three-game winning streak. We thought we were getting better. Cal played a great game, they're a great team."

Kevin Prince, QB
On California's defense:
"I don't think there's anything they did that we didn't expect necessarily. I just think that they did a great job defending our run game. They obviously played Nevada who we took our offense from. They were ready for us. They did a great job defending the zone read. They did a great job adjusting to the things we wanted to take advantage of. You have to give credit to their defense. They played a great game."

On the offensive miscues:
"It happens sometimes. It's football and unfortunately those things happen back to back to back. They scored on their first drive. We get a couple holding penalties to stall our drive. Before you know it, you're down 14-0. Unfortunately those things just happened back to back for us."

On the passing game:
"They did a good job of taking the run away. But when we were forced to pass, we did some good things. Obviously, not enough. I could have made some better plays. We all could have made some better plays. Obviously, the passing game starts with me. I'm the quarterback. You could put that on me and we'll keep on working at it."

On the disparity in the wins and losses:
"It's just a matter of being consistent. We just got to focus more and make sure that we don't get too low when things go bad or too high when things go well. I think today we had some things go wrong and we couldn't catch up. I think Cal just outplayed us. We're going to continue to strive to be better and be more consistent."