⚡ CFB Dashboard

UCLA head coach Bob Chesney met with the media Tuesday ahead of the Bruins' Big Ten opener against Purdue. Here is everything Chesney had to say during his press conference: Opening statement "Good start. Big Ten week, obviously, so play's a little bit different right now as we move forward. So we just got to make sure we're a little different, and I thought today was a really good start to the week." Q: Outside-the-box question. I'm sure you saw or heard what happened in Oregon with tipping plays with Dante Moore. Do you have a scouting department or self-scouting department that kind of looks for things like that and tries to analyze to make sure your players are not doing something similar? "Yes, we do. Yes." Q: How does that work? "I think the most places you see it is with offensive tackles against a good speed rusher. That's a lot of times when that happens. You notice some receivers sometimes tighten their gloves or wet their hands — all little tiny things that might exist out there that they don't even know they're doing. "So that's something that, again, we just try to self-scout ourselves not only on our formations, our plays and everything we do, but also on that type of thing. So you hope you don't have any, but there are situations where everybody knows you're passing and, you know, it's not a bad thing to be over-set in your kick, but then you mix in a screen or something that throws it away, or a play-action pass or draw or any of those things that all of a sudden negate the fact that that's it. So whether you can break every single habit or whether you adjust for that and put yourself in positions that don't — that have the counter to it — are the important things. It's also linebackers, identifying linebackers. It's what checks do you make at the line? What signals did you give away? Every single week, we got to do those things and clean it up." Q: How many people would you say are doing that? "I think everybody. Other people have entire scouting departments that are trying to get signals, and there's an underground world of people that share the books on everybody and what the boards meant when they help. I mean, there's a whole bunch of stuff out there that, you know, I think we were a little bit enlightened with not too long ago." Q: When you identify something, do you ever use that maybe the next week where you tell your offensive tackle, "Hey, on this…"? "Yes. Yes." Q: Can you talk about how important it is to be a good observer, and just the conversation — what was happening with Nico today? Him kind of working with Jon Boyer and just what he was doing to kind of work his hips a little bit. It seemed like off the ball. "Yeah, I think that's a lot of his warm-up stuff that we try to do in there, you know, and make sure that we're all in position. I don't know that there was anything else to that other than, you know, warming him up and him taking just a little bit longer this week as we get the week started." Q: Are you managing him at all? We didn't see him in the team period. "He was in the team period, he was everywhere. Yeah, no, he was good. He's good." Q: Can you talk about the challenges that Fame Ijeboi has for you against Purdue and the physicality that he runs with? "Yeah, I mean, he's really good. Like, he's like a Wayne feel to him, you know, like where he's low to the ground. His body balance is phenomenal. His leg drive on contact is unbelievable. You don't really see him get tackled a lot. He often gets moved towards the sideline, and even then he doesn't step out of bounds. He's always looking for a soft shoulder to find any crease where he can get his body away from the contact. And he does an unbelievable job of, first, putting his pads down if he has to, but second of all, slipping things at the last second. "And to be a smaller target like that in the middle of the line, you know, our D-line has to really work this week on staying low and getting surface area on this kid, because an arm tackle is not going to happen. And he catches the ball in the backfield, as you've seen him do. So there's a lot of good in his game. He's a Pennsylvania kid. We knew about him, just didn't have a lot of film, and I think he's proven to the world just how good of a player he is." Q: Can you talk about the importance of special teams? We noticed that a lot of your linemen were catching the ball, catching punts, catching kickoff returns — part of the Beamer Ball style that they use? "Yeah. I wouldn't say it's our offensive linemen, but, yeah, we have a D-end and tight ends and stuff out there doing that for sure, because those are the guys that are playing in the upback position. And as you start to have a couple returns that go in your favor, you're going to start seeing some skies and some squibs, and you've got to be prepared for that. "So every single — I mean, from camp on, they've probably logged hundreds, and I don't even — I couldn't even tell you the number, you know, of how many they have. But every Tuesday and Thursday, they're out there for, you know, everybody's getting a good seven to 10 of them. You just accumulate that overall at camp and the season, it's going to be a lot. So when that moment shows up, I think they'll be overly prepared." Q: With conference play starting, is there a different message now that the stakes are raised a little bit? I heard your Pops out there telling them, "Kick down the door, don't knock." What is your message, if it is different? "Yeah no, I think it's still the same process you're in. You just got to understand that now it just means a little bit more. And that doesn't change anything from the way we go about things. But at the same point in time, we've got to make sure we keep getting it buttoned up and sharpen our edges in every single thing we do, from hydration to rest to recovery to extra film to walkthrough. Everything they could possibly do, they've got to make sure they're buttoned up on, just because of the fact that it all means a whole lot more as you move forward." Q: Coach, can you talk a little bit about the challenges Purdue's defensive line will pose to the offensive line, the things that they do and what makes them kind of special? "Yeah, first of all, they're talented in who they are as individual players. There's, like, game wreckers in there, and they are as vertical as can be. They jump out of their stances. They're jumping snap counts and they are violent. They pose a giant problem, and we're not going to be able to push them around, and we're not going to be able to find ourselves in a spot where I think they wear or tire. I think this is going to be just a battle on the inside throughout the entire course of that game, because they're very, very capable." Q: Will you do anything to adjust for the 8 p.m. kickoff? "No, not really. I think we had a similar one at Cal, so we have our normal way we go through our game day. They're up, breakfast, walkthroughs, meetings. Then they have a little what we call optimal nap time, right? That they have a window in which they could go get off their feet and relax, and then get up and restart it all, and trying to keep it all really calm throughout that Saturday until they come back down for pregame meal. At that point, it's go time."