MacIntyre, Fisher, Winfree Preview UCLA
September 26, 2017 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre
Opening Statement
"The sun came out, which is good. I was glad to see that. Our guys had a good day at practice. The UCLA football team is very talented. They have a heck of a team with Josh Rosen. I think they're averaging like 100 points a game right now it seems like. Every time I turn on the film it seems like they scored another touchdown. We're going to have to slow them down and we're going to have to score points to be able to hang with UCLA. Playing at the Rose Bowl is always a lot of fun for our guys. We have a lot of guys from that area. We need to go there and play well."
On If UCLA Is Becoming A Rival
"I think it's always a good game to tune in to watch. Usually it's been close, most of the time it's been high scoring. Last year it wasn't as high scoring. They're very talented. A lot of our guys know a lot of their guys, so that's part of it. Coach [Jim] Mora and their staff does a phenomenal job. He's a heck of a coach and he's done well in the NFL and he's done well and college. They're always well coached and it's always a tough game. The last few games it seems like we match up and it's back and forth. I imagine that this Saturday it'll be the same way."
On Wanting To Play Against A Team That Throws It A Lot As A Defensive Back
"What I did that week if it happened is I'd keep giving my D-linemen extra water. I said, 'Go get the quarterback, please.' As good as Josh [Rosen] is, if he's able to sit back there all the time – and he will some – hopefully our front four can rush him a little bit. The thing that I've been amazed with this year than when we played him two years ago is he's right on target; he's so accurate. No. 81 – the big tall tight end – Caleb Wilson is just making play after play. He's also finding No. 7, Darren Andrews, who's a player and a half. He's making all kinds of plays. Jordan [Lasley] – the outside guy – No. 2 is playing really well. The thing that makes them able to pass it so well is that their offensive line is very talented. They're excellent pass-protectors. Their center, [Scott] Quessenberry, who I know well; his brother played for me at San Jose State. He's one of the best centers in the country and he gets them redirected and gets them on the right page all the time. This is fifth year. I've been really impressed with their offense. If you're a DB, some of these guys I would have been scared to cover. I liked covering the running back when they didn't throw it to him. Put me down in the box as a safety. Our guys are excited about playing against them and I know they'll be excited about playing against us."
On Defensive Linemen Being Able To Pass Rush
"It depends on different schemes and different matchups sometimes. It depends on how long the quarterback holds onto the ball. We try to disrupt routes to give our guys another step to the quarterback. I think that all matches up. I think our guys up front are getting better and better at pass-rushing. We've got some guys that have a knack at it. Some of those guys are young. Jacob Callier is one that's really young, but he really has a knack for being a pass-rusher and I think he's getting better and better. We're going to have to be able to get after the passer a little bit to be able to have a chance at the game and hopefully we can."
On Protecting Quarterback Steven Montez From Sacks
"You want less hits on your quarterback when he doesn't see it coming. On our sacks, some of them were the offensive line's fault for sure and some of them were Steven's fault and some of them were coverage sacks. You'd like to have zero sacks and get rid of the ball. Steven's starting to understand that better and better and he's getting better at it. When he was younger, he could side-step everybody. He can't side-step everybody now and he's starting to understand that and he's starting to step up in the pocket and make some throws with the linemen going past him instead of rolling out. I think all that goes hand-in-hand. They've got some excellent pass-rushers at UCLA. One of them is young, No. 15 [Jaelan Phillips], the freshman. Boy, is he talented? They have pass-rushers all over the place. It seems like they always have a great pass-rusher at UCLA – a first or second round type guy. He looks special. The other guy is inside. [Matt] Dickerson, he's big and long. He can rush the passer from the inside too. We're going to have to protect and Steven's going to have to know where to throw the ball. That's the thing Josh [Rosen] has done so well that he's gotten better at as he's gotten older. He knows right where to go with it. That split-second type situation makes a big difference and Steven's getting there."
On Coaching The Team's Small Mistakes
"As long as you're not having to be physical, effort, hustling to the ball, the ability to run, catch and throw it, we're doing all those things. If you have to coach that, then you can't ever get the little details fixed and you can't ever get to that point. Those things don't really pop up, because you don't really get the opportunity to see them as much. Everything's in the details, in anything in life. If you want to be successful in anything in life, it's the attention to the little details that end up being the big things. We're just off here and just off there and all of a sudden that's 14 points. That makes a huge difference. We'll start clicking on that and I sure hope it's Saturday. We've had glimpses of it, be we need to do that throughout four quarters against a good football team. Some of it is not giving the team another situation, not making a small mistake that ends up being a big mistake and you turn the momentum. On different Saturdays it happens in different ways. When I was a secondary coach for all those years, I always told my wife that a good day as a secondary coach is when you play really, really good and the quarterback misses two open guys on you. We need to do that offensively. We've been playing against – especially as we get into Pac-12 – really good teams. It just happens at different times."
On Concerns Over The Production From The Offense
"During the game against Washington I was concerned. We were all concerned on that. You're not going to click all the time. That's just the way offense is. The defense has to rise in those situations all the time for the entire time. We'll have games this year where the offense will score a ton and get it done and we'll have games when we'll stifle a little bit and the defense will have to stop them. We've got to find a way to win it. I want our guys to score every drive. That's not realistic. We'll keep making progress. That night, you get kind of frustrated. You move the ball, move the ball and get bogged down at the 40-yard line. You're just that close to putting 17 more points on the board quickly in first two quarters. That's when you get frustrated. It wasn't like we were just totally stifled. We just didn't get it done."
On If The Offense Is Close To Breaking Through, Specifically Against Washington
"When you watch our game against Washington compared to the Pac-12 Championship game, we had more opportunities to make plays and have a chance to win that game than we did in the Pac-12 Championship game. There's four plays there that you easily could have had a touchdown or two or a couple big plays and it might be a different game. We didn't create those opportunities – I felt like – when we played them. I honestly think they're better than they were then. The quarterback's better and I think their running game's a bit better. They were missing one of their top receivers too and that No. 21 [Quinten Pounds] came in and what a catch did he make? I don't know how he caught it still. We had our hands in there and he was bobbling it and it was a heck of a catch. They had to change up a few things they do defensively against us, because we were doing some things to them and we didn't handle the changes as well as we wanted to. That was a good coaching job by their coaches. That showed a little bit too."
On Giving More Playing Time To Other Running Backs Other Than Phillip Lindsay
"Phillip's been running really well. We'll get different guys in there at different times. It's just what we're thinking at the time. Just like the end of the year last year, we road out Phillip and I think Phillip's done pretty good. They'll be times when we need to get other guys in there. We feel good about all those guys."
On Worrying About Wearing Out Running Back Phillip Lindsay
"Yes and no. He's hard to wear down. Yes, there could be one hit that wears him down and no, we'll keep playing him. There's a lot of great running backs out there that keep playing and keep playing. We feel good about the other guys too. We'll just see how it goes. The other side of it is we haven't played as many plays on offense as we'd like. A lot of those games we'd like to be in the 80's and 90's and we've been in the 60's and low 70's. That's 25 more plays, so that's part of it too. We'd like to get a few more first downs and a few more points."
On The Team's Turnover Margin And Penalties
"The biggest deal is turnover margin. Of course you don't want the penalties, but sometimes those penalties are judgement calls. I don't think we've had a ton of offsides or things like that. It's been more targeting – which they need to call – and more aggressive-type penalties. We've caused a few turnovers on defense, but we've had too many on offense. That's the biggest key. The other night, that was a prime example in that football game. We caused one for them and they caused three for us. The punt block could be one too the way I see it. They were four to one. With four to one – if teams are even – they're going to win, bottom line. If you reverse that, we would have won, I really believe that. We've got to be able to take care of that and do better. You have crazy ones every once in a while. On one, Lindsay should have caught it – because he usually catches everything – and it slips through his hands and the ball just hits the guy in the chest and he catches it. Those types of things happen. We've got to change the turnover ratio."
On Wide Receiver Jay MacIntyre's Injury
"He's day-to-day. The good thing is he is making progress. He'll be day-to-day and we won't know until Saturday if he'll play."
On Uniform Combination And The Selection Process
"The way we do it is in the summer, I have all the captains and seniors over to my house to barbecue and hang-out. And then, we lay out every uniform combination and our equipment manager tells us what he thinks the other teams are going to wear. Then the kids just match them all. They really enjoy doing that. It does help us in recruiting. The guys like it, they like coming up with different ideas. I let them do it. They come up with a few ideas and I go, 'ahh' but they're picking it, putting it together and choosing it. For this game coming up, UCLA told us they're going to wear all white. I asked our guys if they were okay with UCLA wearing all white, they said yes. So if it was an afternoon game we weren't going to wear all black, we we're going to wear all grey because it's so hot there. But at night we're going to wear all black. We picked a night uniform and a day uniform. It's fun with the kids and they enjoy having a part of it. I think it definitely helps us in recruiting. Go watch kids from six years old to thirty and when they sit down to play Xbox, they spend at least twenty to thirty minutes doing what? Designing their uniform, designing their stadium, the weather they want and all that. So it's a big deal. I do have some input if it's something crazy but I let the kids do it. Also, we talk a little bit with our marketing group about different things on that. But mainly our guys do it and I let them run with it."
On Players From California Going Back To Play In their Home State
"I think that they enjoy going back there and playing. Number one, their family are all there. Number two, they know a ton of guys on those teams because I'd say 80% of UCLA's and USC's players are from that area. There are so many good athletes there. They played against them, they went to high school with them, they played pee-wee football with them and they probably played AAU basketball with them. That gives them an added incentive to do well."
On Tim Lynott's Snaps And Jonathan Huckins' Injury Status
"Huckins is feeling better, we played Huckins a little bit in that game. He's a guy we can always count on and do. The weather did have a little bit to do with it. That was his first game with some really good talent up front. So when they stun on you, you get a little bit more nervous. They're a little bit quicker and a little bit stronger. And that bothered his snaps a little bit. He understands it, we keep working on it. His ability to hold up in there and block, he did really well. He's a really good guard and center, but you've got to have really consistent snaps or you can't play center. So hopefully he'll keep improving there."
On UCLA Quarterback Josh Rosen's Stats
"They definitely jump out. When I was watching the tape I was saying, 'oh my goodness'. He's just so accurate right now. I mean, he's not missing anything. His pocket is clean a lot which helps him to be accurate. I was joking with our staff and said, 'can they have a supplemental draft today because he could start for half of the NFL teams I think.' Maybe he could leave Saturday and go play for somebody Sunday. He looks really good, he's healthy now, I think he's confident. He's got good weapons and I think he completely understand their passing system. That gives him confidence to go in there and do well. He's got some ridiculous numbers there's no doubt about it. So, hopefully if we could just cut those numbers in half he'd still have pretty good numbers, but not ridiculous."
On If Josh Rosen Is The Best Quarterback In The Country
"I don't know about that, I definitely think he's an NFL quarterback there's no doubt about that. He can make all the throws. He can move well too. He can escape out of the pocket and keep himself alive. When he sets up in the pocket, he just has that look and carry to himself. He flips his eyes and has a quick release. He's really good, he'll be a high draft choice there's no doubt."
On If He Wants Josh Rosen To Throw The Ball Close To 60 Times Against CU
"I'm pretty sure they want more balance. They would not like to have the opponent score 40 points on them. That's why they had to keep throwing. If it's a lower scoring game, they won't throw it as much. They'll run it and do some other things to keep the opponent from scoring. My thought process is that Jim [Mora] is a defensive guy, I'm a defensive guy, If they can do those types of things to help out their defense. You definitely don't want to be that lopsided. They're more run-oriented. They have a lot 21 and 12 personnel run-type sets. But when they got behind, they had to keep scoring. The Memphis game was like a pinball game, both teams just kept scoring on each other. In the Stanford game, they got up on them and Stanford came back. Then boom-boom-boom they were down 21 and they had to throw to catch up. They just threw it every down. So that skewed it a little bit. But I would imagine that they would like to be more 50-50."
On His Message To The Team Regarding The Tense Social Climate In The US
"Everybody has their own individual choices, their own beliefs on that side of it. I think it's definitely an interesting time in our country right now. All the different platforms that people can use to express themselves, there are so many different ways. It's something that we've talked a little bit about, but not in great depth. In college, these young men are developing their thoughts, their processes, their values on those different types of things. I know their talking about it in their classes, trying to express and figure things out. And I think that's a good way for them to do it, it's a good classroom situation for them. They can grow, develop and learn their own thoughts and values from those things."
On The Development Of Quarterback Steven Montez
"None of them (players) are as far along as I'd like them to be and I'm not as far along as I'd like to be yet. I talked to Steven [Montez], went back and watched the film. The first one wasn't really his fault. The last one, they did a really good job and it's something you learn from. And you hate to learn from it on a pick-six. They walked up in the box the series before, pressured, he felt it, threw the slant, perfect read. The next series, they walked up, and they dropped out. He didn't see it long enough to see them drop out, then he went to throw the slant and the guy just cut in front of it. So that was a great scheme by Washington. That's just a process you learn from. Next time he'll see it, they'll blitz and he'll throw it. Next time they'll drop out, he'll see it, and boom. You see it in the NFL and you see it in college. But he will learn from that. The other one he just overthrew the guy. He still had a good percentage throwing the football, he knew where he was going with it but they just got him. That's going to happen and we need to get the opponent more than we did. He had a higher percentage than our opponent but we threw a few picks. The good thing about it is that they were really good teachable moments. He could really see it and understand it."
On Montez's Ability To Bounce Back After Throwing The Pick-6
"After he threw that pick he got back in the game and kept playing. The thing I loved about his reaction to that play is when he threw the pick he didn't just sit there. He ran and tried to get the guy. That showed a great competitiveness. I was really glad to see that. I hate when I see a guy throw a pick and he's pointing and blaming. As tough as he is he would have gotten him down. I liked that reaction and that competitive nature in the heat of battle in a big situation. That's a horrible feeling. To have the fortitude to try to go make a play, I thought was good by him."
On Montez Locking In On Bryce Bobo During The Pick-6
"They blitzed inside, so you knew he had to get rid of it quick, so he's understanding the timing. We've been telling him about the timing of things. They blitzed before, so he felt them coming. Now, he saw them walk up and he thought they were coming again, so he just took it and went right where he was going to go. He should take it and for a split-second keep his eyes right here. If they're coming, you really don't have time to look off when an all-out blitz is coming. Those are the types of decisions that you've got to make in a split-second in the heat of the battle when the pressure's coming at first. "
"The sun came out, which is good. I was glad to see that. Our guys had a good day at practice. The UCLA football team is very talented. They have a heck of a team with Josh Rosen. I think they're averaging like 100 points a game right now it seems like. Every time I turn on the film it seems like they scored another touchdown. We're going to have to slow them down and we're going to have to score points to be able to hang with UCLA. Playing at the Rose Bowl is always a lot of fun for our guys. We have a lot of guys from that area. We need to go there and play well."
On If UCLA Is Becoming A Rival
"I think it's always a good game to tune in to watch. Usually it's been close, most of the time it's been high scoring. Last year it wasn't as high scoring. They're very talented. A lot of our guys know a lot of their guys, so that's part of it. Coach [Jim] Mora and their staff does a phenomenal job. He's a heck of a coach and he's done well in the NFL and he's done well and college. They're always well coached and it's always a tough game. The last few games it seems like we match up and it's back and forth. I imagine that this Saturday it'll be the same way."
On Wanting To Play Against A Team That Throws It A Lot As A Defensive Back
"What I did that week if it happened is I'd keep giving my D-linemen extra water. I said, 'Go get the quarterback, please.' As good as Josh [Rosen] is, if he's able to sit back there all the time – and he will some – hopefully our front four can rush him a little bit. The thing that I've been amazed with this year than when we played him two years ago is he's right on target; he's so accurate. No. 81 – the big tall tight end – Caleb Wilson is just making play after play. He's also finding No. 7, Darren Andrews, who's a player and a half. He's making all kinds of plays. Jordan [Lasley] – the outside guy – No. 2 is playing really well. The thing that makes them able to pass it so well is that their offensive line is very talented. They're excellent pass-protectors. Their center, [Scott] Quessenberry, who I know well; his brother played for me at San Jose State. He's one of the best centers in the country and he gets them redirected and gets them on the right page all the time. This is fifth year. I've been really impressed with their offense. If you're a DB, some of these guys I would have been scared to cover. I liked covering the running back when they didn't throw it to him. Put me down in the box as a safety. Our guys are excited about playing against them and I know they'll be excited about playing against us."
On Defensive Linemen Being Able To Pass Rush
"It depends on different schemes and different matchups sometimes. It depends on how long the quarterback holds onto the ball. We try to disrupt routes to give our guys another step to the quarterback. I think that all matches up. I think our guys up front are getting better and better at pass-rushing. We've got some guys that have a knack at it. Some of those guys are young. Jacob Callier is one that's really young, but he really has a knack for being a pass-rusher and I think he's getting better and better. We're going to have to be able to get after the passer a little bit to be able to have a chance at the game and hopefully we can."
On Protecting Quarterback Steven Montez From Sacks
"You want less hits on your quarterback when he doesn't see it coming. On our sacks, some of them were the offensive line's fault for sure and some of them were Steven's fault and some of them were coverage sacks. You'd like to have zero sacks and get rid of the ball. Steven's starting to understand that better and better and he's getting better at it. When he was younger, he could side-step everybody. He can't side-step everybody now and he's starting to understand that and he's starting to step up in the pocket and make some throws with the linemen going past him instead of rolling out. I think all that goes hand-in-hand. They've got some excellent pass-rushers at UCLA. One of them is young, No. 15 [Jaelan Phillips], the freshman. Boy, is he talented? They have pass-rushers all over the place. It seems like they always have a great pass-rusher at UCLA – a first or second round type guy. He looks special. The other guy is inside. [Matt] Dickerson, he's big and long. He can rush the passer from the inside too. We're going to have to protect and Steven's going to have to know where to throw the ball. That's the thing Josh [Rosen] has done so well that he's gotten better at as he's gotten older. He knows right where to go with it. That split-second type situation makes a big difference and Steven's getting there."
On Coaching The Team's Small Mistakes
"As long as you're not having to be physical, effort, hustling to the ball, the ability to run, catch and throw it, we're doing all those things. If you have to coach that, then you can't ever get the little details fixed and you can't ever get to that point. Those things don't really pop up, because you don't really get the opportunity to see them as much. Everything's in the details, in anything in life. If you want to be successful in anything in life, it's the attention to the little details that end up being the big things. We're just off here and just off there and all of a sudden that's 14 points. That makes a huge difference. We'll start clicking on that and I sure hope it's Saturday. We've had glimpses of it, be we need to do that throughout four quarters against a good football team. Some of it is not giving the team another situation, not making a small mistake that ends up being a big mistake and you turn the momentum. On different Saturdays it happens in different ways. When I was a secondary coach for all those years, I always told my wife that a good day as a secondary coach is when you play really, really good and the quarterback misses two open guys on you. We need to do that offensively. We've been playing against – especially as we get into Pac-12 – really good teams. It just happens at different times."
On Concerns Over The Production From The Offense
"During the game against Washington I was concerned. We were all concerned on that. You're not going to click all the time. That's just the way offense is. The defense has to rise in those situations all the time for the entire time. We'll have games this year where the offense will score a ton and get it done and we'll have games when we'll stifle a little bit and the defense will have to stop them. We've got to find a way to win it. I want our guys to score every drive. That's not realistic. We'll keep making progress. That night, you get kind of frustrated. You move the ball, move the ball and get bogged down at the 40-yard line. You're just that close to putting 17 more points on the board quickly in first two quarters. That's when you get frustrated. It wasn't like we were just totally stifled. We just didn't get it done."
On If The Offense Is Close To Breaking Through, Specifically Against Washington
"When you watch our game against Washington compared to the Pac-12 Championship game, we had more opportunities to make plays and have a chance to win that game than we did in the Pac-12 Championship game. There's four plays there that you easily could have had a touchdown or two or a couple big plays and it might be a different game. We didn't create those opportunities – I felt like – when we played them. I honestly think they're better than they were then. The quarterback's better and I think their running game's a bit better. They were missing one of their top receivers too and that No. 21 [Quinten Pounds] came in and what a catch did he make? I don't know how he caught it still. We had our hands in there and he was bobbling it and it was a heck of a catch. They had to change up a few things they do defensively against us, because we were doing some things to them and we didn't handle the changes as well as we wanted to. That was a good coaching job by their coaches. That showed a little bit too."
On Giving More Playing Time To Other Running Backs Other Than Phillip Lindsay
"Phillip's been running really well. We'll get different guys in there at different times. It's just what we're thinking at the time. Just like the end of the year last year, we road out Phillip and I think Phillip's done pretty good. They'll be times when we need to get other guys in there. We feel good about all those guys."
On Worrying About Wearing Out Running Back Phillip Lindsay
"Yes and no. He's hard to wear down. Yes, there could be one hit that wears him down and no, we'll keep playing him. There's a lot of great running backs out there that keep playing and keep playing. We feel good about the other guys too. We'll just see how it goes. The other side of it is we haven't played as many plays on offense as we'd like. A lot of those games we'd like to be in the 80's and 90's and we've been in the 60's and low 70's. That's 25 more plays, so that's part of it too. We'd like to get a few more first downs and a few more points."
On The Team's Turnover Margin And Penalties
"The biggest deal is turnover margin. Of course you don't want the penalties, but sometimes those penalties are judgement calls. I don't think we've had a ton of offsides or things like that. It's been more targeting – which they need to call – and more aggressive-type penalties. We've caused a few turnovers on defense, but we've had too many on offense. That's the biggest key. The other night, that was a prime example in that football game. We caused one for them and they caused three for us. The punt block could be one too the way I see it. They were four to one. With four to one – if teams are even – they're going to win, bottom line. If you reverse that, we would have won, I really believe that. We've got to be able to take care of that and do better. You have crazy ones every once in a while. On one, Lindsay should have caught it – because he usually catches everything – and it slips through his hands and the ball just hits the guy in the chest and he catches it. Those types of things happen. We've got to change the turnover ratio."
On Wide Receiver Jay MacIntyre's Injury
"He's day-to-day. The good thing is he is making progress. He'll be day-to-day and we won't know until Saturday if he'll play."
On Uniform Combination And The Selection Process
"The way we do it is in the summer, I have all the captains and seniors over to my house to barbecue and hang-out. And then, we lay out every uniform combination and our equipment manager tells us what he thinks the other teams are going to wear. Then the kids just match them all. They really enjoy doing that. It does help us in recruiting. The guys like it, they like coming up with different ideas. I let them do it. They come up with a few ideas and I go, 'ahh' but they're picking it, putting it together and choosing it. For this game coming up, UCLA told us they're going to wear all white. I asked our guys if they were okay with UCLA wearing all white, they said yes. So if it was an afternoon game we weren't going to wear all black, we we're going to wear all grey because it's so hot there. But at night we're going to wear all black. We picked a night uniform and a day uniform. It's fun with the kids and they enjoy having a part of it. I think it definitely helps us in recruiting. Go watch kids from six years old to thirty and when they sit down to play Xbox, they spend at least twenty to thirty minutes doing what? Designing their uniform, designing their stadium, the weather they want and all that. So it's a big deal. I do have some input if it's something crazy but I let the kids do it. Also, we talk a little bit with our marketing group about different things on that. But mainly our guys do it and I let them run with it."
On Players From California Going Back To Play In their Home State
"I think that they enjoy going back there and playing. Number one, their family are all there. Number two, they know a ton of guys on those teams because I'd say 80% of UCLA's and USC's players are from that area. There are so many good athletes there. They played against them, they went to high school with them, they played pee-wee football with them and they probably played AAU basketball with them. That gives them an added incentive to do well."
On Tim Lynott's Snaps And Jonathan Huckins' Injury Status
"Huckins is feeling better, we played Huckins a little bit in that game. He's a guy we can always count on and do. The weather did have a little bit to do with it. That was his first game with some really good talent up front. So when they stun on you, you get a little bit more nervous. They're a little bit quicker and a little bit stronger. And that bothered his snaps a little bit. He understands it, we keep working on it. His ability to hold up in there and block, he did really well. He's a really good guard and center, but you've got to have really consistent snaps or you can't play center. So hopefully he'll keep improving there."
On UCLA Quarterback Josh Rosen's Stats
"They definitely jump out. When I was watching the tape I was saying, 'oh my goodness'. He's just so accurate right now. I mean, he's not missing anything. His pocket is clean a lot which helps him to be accurate. I was joking with our staff and said, 'can they have a supplemental draft today because he could start for half of the NFL teams I think.' Maybe he could leave Saturday and go play for somebody Sunday. He looks really good, he's healthy now, I think he's confident. He's got good weapons and I think he completely understand their passing system. That gives him confidence to go in there and do well. He's got some ridiculous numbers there's no doubt about it. So, hopefully if we could just cut those numbers in half he'd still have pretty good numbers, but not ridiculous."
On If Josh Rosen Is The Best Quarterback In The Country
"I don't know about that, I definitely think he's an NFL quarterback there's no doubt about that. He can make all the throws. He can move well too. He can escape out of the pocket and keep himself alive. When he sets up in the pocket, he just has that look and carry to himself. He flips his eyes and has a quick release. He's really good, he'll be a high draft choice there's no doubt."
On If He Wants Josh Rosen To Throw The Ball Close To 60 Times Against CU
"I'm pretty sure they want more balance. They would not like to have the opponent score 40 points on them. That's why they had to keep throwing. If it's a lower scoring game, they won't throw it as much. They'll run it and do some other things to keep the opponent from scoring. My thought process is that Jim [Mora] is a defensive guy, I'm a defensive guy, If they can do those types of things to help out their defense. You definitely don't want to be that lopsided. They're more run-oriented. They have a lot 21 and 12 personnel run-type sets. But when they got behind, they had to keep scoring. The Memphis game was like a pinball game, both teams just kept scoring on each other. In the Stanford game, they got up on them and Stanford came back. Then boom-boom-boom they were down 21 and they had to throw to catch up. They just threw it every down. So that skewed it a little bit. But I would imagine that they would like to be more 50-50."
On His Message To The Team Regarding The Tense Social Climate In The US
"Everybody has their own individual choices, their own beliefs on that side of it. I think it's definitely an interesting time in our country right now. All the different platforms that people can use to express themselves, there are so many different ways. It's something that we've talked a little bit about, but not in great depth. In college, these young men are developing their thoughts, their processes, their values on those different types of things. I know their talking about it in their classes, trying to express and figure things out. And I think that's a good way for them to do it, it's a good classroom situation for them. They can grow, develop and learn their own thoughts and values from those things."
On The Development Of Quarterback Steven Montez
"None of them (players) are as far along as I'd like them to be and I'm not as far along as I'd like to be yet. I talked to Steven [Montez], went back and watched the film. The first one wasn't really his fault. The last one, they did a really good job and it's something you learn from. And you hate to learn from it on a pick-six. They walked up in the box the series before, pressured, he felt it, threw the slant, perfect read. The next series, they walked up, and they dropped out. He didn't see it long enough to see them drop out, then he went to throw the slant and the guy just cut in front of it. So that was a great scheme by Washington. That's just a process you learn from. Next time he'll see it, they'll blitz and he'll throw it. Next time they'll drop out, he'll see it, and boom. You see it in the NFL and you see it in college. But he will learn from that. The other one he just overthrew the guy. He still had a good percentage throwing the football, he knew where he was going with it but they just got him. That's going to happen and we need to get the opponent more than we did. He had a higher percentage than our opponent but we threw a few picks. The good thing about it is that they were really good teachable moments. He could really see it and understand it."
On Montez's Ability To Bounce Back After Throwing The Pick-6
"After he threw that pick he got back in the game and kept playing. The thing I loved about his reaction to that play is when he threw the pick he didn't just sit there. He ran and tried to get the guy. That showed a great competitiveness. I was really glad to see that. I hate when I see a guy throw a pick and he's pointing and blaming. As tough as he is he would have gotten him down. I liked that reaction and that competitive nature in the heat of battle in a big situation. That's a horrible feeling. To have the fortitude to try to go make a play, I thought was good by him."
On Montez Locking In On Bryce Bobo During The Pick-6
"They blitzed inside, so you knew he had to get rid of it quick, so he's understanding the timing. We've been telling him about the timing of things. They blitzed before, so he felt them coming. Now, he saw them walk up and he thought they were coming again, so he just took it and went right where he was going to go. He should take it and for a split-second keep his eyes right here. If they're coming, you really don't have time to look off when an all-out blitz is coming. Those are the types of decisions that you've got to make in a split-second in the heat of the battle when the pressure's coming at first. "
Defensive Back Nick Fisher
On What He's Seen On Film From UCLA QB Josh Rosen
"He takes what you give him. He's really good at looking people off when we're in single high (coverage), getting the safety off the middle, going one way then coming back the other way, opening it up."
On Whether Practicing Against CU's Offense Every Day Has Prepared Him For UCLA's Talented Receivers
"It helps tremendously. Even on the scout team, we have guys that are showing us up. We get good reps no matter where, whether it's scouts, twos, threes, or ones. When you get out there and you're facing other players, you feel more calm going against them."
On Whether He Likes Facing A Pass-Happy QB Like Josh Rosen
"That's something we have to be able to do, defend the pass. One-hundred and how many (pass attempts)…? That's crazy. When you hear that, you just think that you're going to get multiple chances to make plays on the ball so that's definitely exciting."
On Getting Back To Speed After Missing Time Early In The Season With A Hamstring Injury
"(I feel) more comfortable, my body is feeling great. It feels like I didn't even have the hamstring problem. I'm feeling good. For me, I have to make sure I'm still in the training room, still stretching and doing all that stuff every day."
On The Overall Team Reaction To Saturday's Loss
"Just to not look at it and to approach UCLA. We've still got a lot of football left. You can lose one game in these first four and then go undefeated, it's so early in the season we just have to keep looking forward. That's been the main focus."
On Offensive Performance Through Four Games
"They're not concerned. Some day we get a little lazy, some days we're not catching, we're not looking with our eyes, some wide open passes they might miss and some things we might slip on, having bad eyes or not covering a guy. For both (sides of the ball), the biggest thing right now is just focus. Once we get that down, we're about to bust through and do what we've been practicing to do. I don't think they're nervous at all, we have mistakes that keep on holding us back on both sides of the ball."
On CSU's New "State Pride" Alternate Uniforms
"I wouldn't want to wear the Colorado flag because I'm from California so I don't care."
On CU's Alternate Uniforms
"Definitely (there's some excitement to wear them.) I mean, sometimes some of the guys don't like traditional but it doesn't get any better than (the traditional look) for me. Definitely, one of my favorites is this all black look. I think any time you get to wear something else, it's exciting, because we do wear a lot of traditional."
On Key To Success On The Road In The Pac-12
"The key on the road is definitely staying focused. Coach Mac talks a lot about this being a business trip. We can't go over there thinking we're going to get an easy win because everyone in the Pac-12 is good, anyone can win on any given day. That's the biggest thing, making sure we go in there with a purpose to win."
On Whether He Has A Chip On His Shoulder Returning To His Home State To Play UCLA
"Of course I'm excited to go back home. I don't think I've been back there since last December. (It's) not so much a chip, but it's always fun playing against guys that you grew up with, so you definitely want to beat them. I have friends all over the Pac, but I do have friends at UCLA so I really want to beat them."
On Whether Josh Rosen Throwing 50-60 Times Is A Recipe For Success
"I think that whatever they do, we'll line up and play to. We're betting that he's going to throw that many times, so we've focused on covering a lot of pass routes. If he throws it that much, I believe in our defense."
"He takes what you give him. He's really good at looking people off when we're in single high (coverage), getting the safety off the middle, going one way then coming back the other way, opening it up."
On Whether Practicing Against CU's Offense Every Day Has Prepared Him For UCLA's Talented Receivers
"It helps tremendously. Even on the scout team, we have guys that are showing us up. We get good reps no matter where, whether it's scouts, twos, threes, or ones. When you get out there and you're facing other players, you feel more calm going against them."
On Whether He Likes Facing A Pass-Happy QB Like Josh Rosen
"That's something we have to be able to do, defend the pass. One-hundred and how many (pass attempts)…? That's crazy. When you hear that, you just think that you're going to get multiple chances to make plays on the ball so that's definitely exciting."
On Getting Back To Speed After Missing Time Early In The Season With A Hamstring Injury
"(I feel) more comfortable, my body is feeling great. It feels like I didn't even have the hamstring problem. I'm feeling good. For me, I have to make sure I'm still in the training room, still stretching and doing all that stuff every day."
On The Overall Team Reaction To Saturday's Loss
"Just to not look at it and to approach UCLA. We've still got a lot of football left. You can lose one game in these first four and then go undefeated, it's so early in the season we just have to keep looking forward. That's been the main focus."
On Offensive Performance Through Four Games
"They're not concerned. Some day we get a little lazy, some days we're not catching, we're not looking with our eyes, some wide open passes they might miss and some things we might slip on, having bad eyes or not covering a guy. For both (sides of the ball), the biggest thing right now is just focus. Once we get that down, we're about to bust through and do what we've been practicing to do. I don't think they're nervous at all, we have mistakes that keep on holding us back on both sides of the ball."
On CSU's New "State Pride" Alternate Uniforms
"I wouldn't want to wear the Colorado flag because I'm from California so I don't care."
On CU's Alternate Uniforms
"Definitely (there's some excitement to wear them.) I mean, sometimes some of the guys don't like traditional but it doesn't get any better than (the traditional look) for me. Definitely, one of my favorites is this all black look. I think any time you get to wear something else, it's exciting, because we do wear a lot of traditional."
On Key To Success On The Road In The Pac-12
"The key on the road is definitely staying focused. Coach Mac talks a lot about this being a business trip. We can't go over there thinking we're going to get an easy win because everyone in the Pac-12 is good, anyone can win on any given day. That's the biggest thing, making sure we go in there with a purpose to win."
On Whether He Has A Chip On His Shoulder Returning To His Home State To Play UCLA
"Of course I'm excited to go back home. I don't think I've been back there since last December. (It's) not so much a chip, but it's always fun playing against guys that you grew up with, so you definitely want to beat them. I have friends all over the Pac, but I do have friends at UCLA so I really want to beat them."
On Whether Josh Rosen Throwing 50-60 Times Is A Recipe For Success
"I think that whatever they do, we'll line up and play to. We're betting that he's going to throw that many times, so we've focused on covering a lot of pass routes. If he throws it that much, I believe in our defense."
Wide Receiver Juwann Winfree
On Shedding His Knee Brace And Returning From ACL Injury
"The trainers had told me that I had a year in (the knee brace), so a year post-surgery was September 6th. After that I was clear to take it off. When I first took it off I didn't know how to feel, but after one day of practice I felt comfortable."
On Getting Increased Playing Time
"It was exciting for me. That's something I've been dreaming about since I was growing up and I actually got opportunity, finally, and it felt great. It just felt good to make plays and be a contributor to the team. I felt amazing."
On Offense's Performance Through Four Games
"We're not concerned at all. We're keeping our heads high but it is a little frustrating, because we're so close to breaking out and exploding. It's just the little mistakes that hold us back each time. I feel that we're really close to breaking out and this week we need to put it all together, and I feel that we will."
On How Lining Up In The Slot Has Been Different Than Playing Outside
"It wasn't much different. I want to be a receiver that can be used anywhere on the field, and I feel that I can be. It felt a little easier because on the outside you have to deal with a lot of contact and defenders up in your face early, and in the slot you get a lot of free releases. For me, if you're going to give me a free release, I feel that I'm going to take advantage of it. The fact that I was given free releases for most of the day (against Washington), I tried to make the most of my opportunities. It felt great playing in the slot."
On Whether He Felt That The Offense Got Away From What Was Working Early In Saturday's Game
"I have no say in the play calling. We weren't expecting some of the defense that they ran, we were working on certain things in practice and during the game things turned out a little different. I had no say in any of that, so I just tried to play my part."
On Getting Back To Game-Speed After Missing Last Season
"Definitely (it takes some time). Even though I was working out the whole offseason, it still felt a little different just to be back in there. Missing a whole spring of football, a whole camp and season, it's big on muscle memory as well, getting your legs back and body back into running routes the same way and being there when the quarterback expects. There are still going to be minor things that you need to work on that you may feel like you have, but you don't really see what other people see. It's been a year and about two weeks since surgery for me, so I definitely feel it's there."
On Whether He Gets Jealous Watching A Pass-Happy Offense Like UCLA
"I mean our main goal is to win. That's the main thing we want to do, but of course everybody wants to eat, everybody wants the opportunity to get the ball. It does look nice on the stat sheet, but then again I think they've lost their two games. At the end of the day you want to win, but stats do look nice on the sheet."
On What He's Seen On Film From A UCLA Defense That's Giving Up Over 40 Points A Game
"You can see that they're a really good team, they're athletic. We have to take advantage where they slip, they may be tired, they may bite on certain routes, things like that. We want to make sure that we try to take advantage of their flaws, because they're a really athletic team and they're going to try to stay with you."
"The trainers had told me that I had a year in (the knee brace), so a year post-surgery was September 6th. After that I was clear to take it off. When I first took it off I didn't know how to feel, but after one day of practice I felt comfortable."
On Getting Increased Playing Time
"It was exciting for me. That's something I've been dreaming about since I was growing up and I actually got opportunity, finally, and it felt great. It just felt good to make plays and be a contributor to the team. I felt amazing."
On Offense's Performance Through Four Games
"We're not concerned at all. We're keeping our heads high but it is a little frustrating, because we're so close to breaking out and exploding. It's just the little mistakes that hold us back each time. I feel that we're really close to breaking out and this week we need to put it all together, and I feel that we will."
On How Lining Up In The Slot Has Been Different Than Playing Outside
"It wasn't much different. I want to be a receiver that can be used anywhere on the field, and I feel that I can be. It felt a little easier because on the outside you have to deal with a lot of contact and defenders up in your face early, and in the slot you get a lot of free releases. For me, if you're going to give me a free release, I feel that I'm going to take advantage of it. The fact that I was given free releases for most of the day (against Washington), I tried to make the most of my opportunities. It felt great playing in the slot."
On Whether He Felt That The Offense Got Away From What Was Working Early In Saturday's Game
"I have no say in the play calling. We weren't expecting some of the defense that they ran, we were working on certain things in practice and during the game things turned out a little different. I had no say in any of that, so I just tried to play my part."
On Getting Back To Game-Speed After Missing Last Season
"Definitely (it takes some time). Even though I was working out the whole offseason, it still felt a little different just to be back in there. Missing a whole spring of football, a whole camp and season, it's big on muscle memory as well, getting your legs back and body back into running routes the same way and being there when the quarterback expects. There are still going to be minor things that you need to work on that you may feel like you have, but you don't really see what other people see. It's been a year and about two weeks since surgery for me, so I definitely feel it's there."
On Whether He Gets Jealous Watching A Pass-Happy Offense Like UCLA
"I mean our main goal is to win. That's the main thing we want to do, but of course everybody wants to eat, everybody wants the opportunity to get the ball. It does look nice on the stat sheet, but then again I think they've lost their two games. At the end of the day you want to win, but stats do look nice on the sheet."
On What He's Seen On Film From A UCLA Defense That's Giving Up Over 40 Points A Game
"You can see that they're a really good team, they're athletic. We have to take advantage where they slip, they may be tired, they may bite on certain routes, things like that. We want to make sure that we try to take advantage of their flaws, because they're a really athletic team and they're going to try to stay with you."
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