Tuesday’s sound bites from UCLA practice

Just a couple of weeks ago, this weekend’s Oregon-UCLA game looked a lot better than it does now. Both teams are dealing with horrendous offensive line play and are coming off their first losses of the season. While losing on Saturday would almost certainly knock either team out of the College Football Playoff, it doesn’t seem as likely anymore that the Bruins or Ducks are going to get that far regardless.

Or maybe they will come out Saturday, play up to their potential and look like world-beaters. Who knows? College football has been insane this year.

Besides the quotes below, we have an introspective story on Myles Jack, a look at Eddie Vanderdoes enjoying the underdog role, and Jim Mora making big statements. Plus, a notebook about the offensive line from Chris Foster.

Coach Jim Mora

On college football in general: “I mean, it is competitive. You look at this week’s games across the country, and it’s awesome. If I’m a fan of college football, I love it. If I’m a fan of a particular team, I’m a little bit nervous.”

On giving up 10 sacks against Utah: “It’s the individuals that needed to play better, it was us in the staff putting them in a better position when they were struggling, it’s staying out of situations that tend to work out bad for us, by having successful downs earlier, it was the quarterback getting rid of the ball quicker and not drifting out sometimes. It was all those things, just like it usually is. It’s never one thing, especially when there’s 10 of them. It’s usually a number of different things.”

On UCLA’s flaws: “There are no perfect teams in any competitive sport. It’s just impossible to have. What is not impossible to have is the will to get better, the will to win, and the will to come out and compete again, which this team has.”

Sophomore linebacker Myles Jack

On Utah running back Devontae Booker: “He was the real deal. He’s a good player. I had to go up to him after the game and tell him, ‘You’re a good player and it was fun playing against you.’ He just presented a challenge we haven’t seen this year. Not to say the other running backs weren’t good, he was just on that night. I was impressed by him.”

Redshirt senior defensive end Owamagbe Odighizuwa

On youthful mistakes on defense: “That’s going to be an issue with young guys, as the game gets going, you feel like the guy who has to make the play. Then you start losing your assignment and not doing your job. I think sometimes that can get the best of us, but we’re trying to improve upon that and help our young guys do their jobs.”

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