UCLA head coach Jim Mora spoke with the media Sunday evening to break down the news and notes from the UNLV game. Here were the quotes:
On Jordan Payton:
"He's a big target, No. 1. Very dependable hands. He does an excellent job of shielding the defender away from the ball. And they've got a very good synergy between them. And josh has a very good amount of confidence throwing the ball to Jordan. They've worked a lot together."
On what Jordan helps Josh with off the field:
"He's very, very intelligent in terms of his ability to understand the game and the different scenarios and situations. He's intense, but at the same time he's a good communicator. He invokes a sense of confidence in all those around him and I think if you're a young quarterback, that's really important to have a guy that you can kind of trust. Not just to throw the ball to, but you can trust his opinion on how to handle certain things, whether it's on the field or off the field. I just feel like Josh really trusts everything that comes out of Jordan's mouth. Whether it has to do with school or football or social things, he's got credibility."
On the D-line's play:
"They did great. They couldn't move the ball a lick on us. They had what, 200 yards or something like that?"
On Paul Perkins' night being so Paul Perkins:
"Like pound it away, pound it away, break one? Yeah. He's shown to be a guy that gets stronger as the game goes on. He's very patient, he doesn't press and when nothing is there, he typically gets the most out of it that he can get. And it just seems like often times, he's good for breaking a long one, and he did it again last night."
On Perkins getting stronger as the season progresses, like he does in games:
"I think that is the case. For a couple reasons: No. 1, he does a tremendous job of taking care of his body, which is important when you're taking that many hits as a running back. And No. 2, our strength and conditioning program, it's not unusual for our guys to get strongera s the year goes on. And then the third thing I think is having guys that can go in and take snaps from him during the course of a game, that allows him to be relatively sharp at the end of the game. Which To me, as you go through the season, it ends up manifesting itself in a young man that gets stronger as the season goes along."
On Chris Clark:
"He did not travel with us yesterday. I'm not going to talk about Chris Clark right now."
On Tevita Halalilo:
"Not good, it's a break. They're going to have to put a plate in it, but he'll make a full recovery and he'll be ready to go next year, hopefully in the spring. It's a fibula fracture. He'll be out about three months."
On Jake Brendel's injured foot:
"He's fine. He got stepped on last Wednesday in practice. So we limited his reps on Thursday and Friday and the plan all along was to get in a position where we could take him out of the game at halftime and get Alex some reps at center and get Kolton in there. And so at halftime, he got stepped on again, and it just was painful, so we got him out. But they'll pad it up and he'll be limited at the start of the week, but he should be fine by game time. It's just a bruise. If it doesn't get better, then we'll go in and look at it. Right now,a ll indications are it's just a bruise."
The final point worth noting from Mora here is he really stressed the importance of playing players late down the stretch of last night's game once again: "The real positive for me was getting 70 different players to play. When you can do that, that's a big deal, especially in college football."
On Jordan Payton:
"He's a big target, No. 1. Very dependable hands. He does an excellent job of shielding the defender away from the ball. And they've got a very good synergy between them. And josh has a very good amount of confidence throwing the ball to Jordan. They've worked a lot together."
On what Jordan helps Josh with off the field:
"He's very, very intelligent in terms of his ability to understand the game and the different scenarios and situations. He's intense, but at the same time he's a good communicator. He invokes a sense of confidence in all those around him and I think if you're a young quarterback, that's really important to have a guy that you can kind of trust. Not just to throw the ball to, but you can trust his opinion on how to handle certain things, whether it's on the field or off the field. I just feel like Josh really trusts everything that comes out of Jordan's mouth. Whether it has to do with school or football or social things, he's got credibility."
On the D-line's play:
"They did great. They couldn't move the ball a lick on us. They had what, 200 yards or something like that?"
On Paul Perkins' night being so Paul Perkins:
"Like pound it away, pound it away, break one? Yeah. He's shown to be a guy that gets stronger as the game goes on. He's very patient, he doesn't press and when nothing is there, he typically gets the most out of it that he can get. And it just seems like often times, he's good for breaking a long one, and he did it again last night."
On Perkins getting stronger as the season progresses, like he does in games:
"I think that is the case. For a couple reasons: No. 1, he does a tremendous job of taking care of his body, which is important when you're taking that many hits as a running back. And No. 2, our strength and conditioning program, it's not unusual for our guys to get strongera s the year goes on. And then the third thing I think is having guys that can go in and take snaps from him during the course of a game, that allows him to be relatively sharp at the end of the game. Which To me, as you go through the season, it ends up manifesting itself in a young man that gets stronger as the season goes along."
On Chris Clark:
"He did not travel with us yesterday. I'm not going to talk about Chris Clark right now."
On Tevita Halalilo:
"Not good, it's a break. They're going to have to put a plate in it, but he'll make a full recovery and he'll be ready to go next year, hopefully in the spring. It's a fibula fracture. He'll be out about three months."
On Jake Brendel's injured foot:
"He's fine. He got stepped on last Wednesday in practice. So we limited his reps on Thursday and Friday and the plan all along was to get in a position where we could take him out of the game at halftime and get Alex some reps at center and get Kolton in there. And so at halftime, he got stepped on again, and it just was painful, so we got him out. But they'll pad it up and he'll be limited at the start of the week, but he should be fine by game time. It's just a bruise. If it doesn't get better, then we'll go in and look at it. Right now,a ll indications are it's just a bruise."
The final point worth noting from Mora here is he really stressed the importance of playing players late down the stretch of last night's game once again: "The real positive for me was getting 70 different players to play. When you can do that, that's a big deal, especially in college football."
