Advertisement

UCLA happy to not discuss turnover problem

UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley fumbles the ball after being hit by Oregon linebacker Tony Washington.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Share

Offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone doesn’t like to talk about turnovers. He’ll talk about anything from marriage to Uber, but turnovers? He’d prefer to leave those alone.

“It’s like that thing you don’t talk about, and hope it goes away,” Mazzone said on Wednesday. “It’s been one of those things, protecting the football is all about the ball, right? Our group of guys have always done a really good job of that, but over the last two weeks, they just kind of hit us and we’ve had some turnovers. That’s something we have to be real conscious of. We’ve got to hang onto the football.

“I always tell them that we always have to preserve the right to punt the football. That’s one play that we’re guaranteed we can do, punt it, so we’ve got to have that.”

Advertisement

UCLA has 10 turnovers this season — six fumbles and four interceptions. The Bruins rank 88th nationally in turnover margin, and have really hurt themselves with costly turnovers the last two weeks.

Quarterback Brett Hundley, in particular, has been hit by the fumble bug. The Bruins have fumbled 12 times this season (recovering six), and three of those have come from Hundley in the last two weeks. Against Oregon, he was sacked hard and gave the Ducks great position for their first score of the game.

Against Cal last weekend, Hundley fumbled twice, losing one. The oddity? Both fumbles were caused by running into his own teammates.

Those are things a coach can’t control, no matter how much he stresses the importance of holding onto the ball.

So for now, Mazzone is content with just leaving the topic alone.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Mazzone said with a laugh. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore.”

For more Bruin observations, follow Everett Cook on Twitter @everettcook

Advertisement
Advertisement