In the wake of UCLA’s uninspiring 40-37 victory over struggling Colorado Saturday, one which Bruin fans would likely want to forget, coach Jim Mora spent the next day reminding them, and everyone else, of one thing:
It could be worse.
“As much gloom and doom as there is out there, I would challenge anybody to go find a UCLA team in the history of UCLA that has done what this group has done in two and a half years with youth and the turnover we’ve had,” Mora said in a teleconference with reporters Sunday.
Mora pointed to the 24-8 record the team has compiled over the last two and a half seasons, as well as the 13 players the team is without this season due to injury.
But following No. 25 UCLA’s letdown in Boulder, many point to a different set of numbers – namely the 15 incompletions from a surprisingly inaccurate redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley and the 14 penalties the Bruins committed against the Buffs.
“It’s just getting kind of redundant … we talk about it, we talk about it, we talk about it – how do we put it into action,” said junior wide receiver Jordan Payton of the Bruins’ penalty problem. “We definitely have to figure that out because we have a huge test this week against Arizona and those types of mistakes we can’t have.”
And yet, by and large, they have been the type of mistakes that UCLA seemingly can’t shake. Hundley committed yet another turnover in Bruins’ territory against the Buffs after doing the same each of the last three games, while the defense let a largely dormant Colorado offense come alive for 17 points in the fourth quarter.
But despite that, Hundley and the Bruins have been quick to remind everyone, and themselves, of another key stat: UCLA will enter its pivotal November slate at 6-2 and still very much in contention in a wild Pac-12 South.
“We still have the opportunity to do what we need to do and to get to where we want to go, which is the Pac-12 championship,” Hundley said. “For the leadership to step up on this team and say ‘Hey, everything we’ve done previous [to this point], don’t worry about it, don’t stress on it, don’t care about any of that’. We have to focus on this game, which is U of A.”
UCLA linebackers honored
UCLA linebackers redshirt senior Eric Kendricks and sophomore Myles Jack were two of 15 players named as semifinalists for the Butkus Award, which is given to the nation’s top linebacker every year.
Kendricks leads the Bruins with 93 total tackles and has intercepted two passes on the year, including one Saturday against Colorado. It was a performance Mora considers among the linebacker’s best this season.
“What a game he played. He’s had some great games this year, he’s had some productive games this year where when you looked back at the film you said ‘man, great game, except for … ‘”Mora said. “This week he had no great game ‘except for’ plays, he just had a great game.”
Jack, meanwhile, trails Kendricks with 62 tackles on the year – good for second on the team – and has been particularly effective in coverage, recording six pass breakups on the season.