Head coach Mike Riley
On UCLA as an opponent - “This has always been a good
defensive team. If you don’t capitalize and you’re kicking field
goals and you’re leaving them not far behind, then in a couple of plays,
they’re right there. To their credit, they kept playing right until the
end and I thought that was a great moment for their team to do that. I was proud
of our composure to go down and score. We made some plays and scored the touchdown
and that part of it was good. In no way did we ever think going it that it was
going to be easy moving the ball against that defense.”
On the James Rodgers’ touchdown - “It was perfect
timing because at that time, they were anticipating that we would run the ball
toward the middle of the field and set it up for the best position for Justin
[Kahut] to try that field goal and their outside linebacker was blitzing right
in on Quizz [Rodgers] as James [Rodgers] was running in for a touchdown. It
was a great [play] call and terrific timing for what they thought we were going
to do and what we needed to do.”
On penalties - “We did all the things to self-destruct
and luckily we won the game despite how we played in a lot of it. We’ll
celebrate the win for a couple of hours but there are a lot of things to look
at tomorrow, and that’s just not the kind of stuff you should be doing.
We earned it, we won the game, but we can play a lot better than that.”
On the “Wild Beaver” - “That has been in
the lab for a while. It was another great-timed call by Danny [Langsdorf]. Quizz
[Rodgers] told me a couple weeks ago that he was good up to 40 yards. We didn’t
even need to have that arm today, but he threw a good ball, a nice tight spiral.
The guys were giving him a hard time the other day because it wasn’t quite
that good looking as it was out there, but it’s a good play and now people
know we have it, but we still have to defend it.”
On Sean Canfield’s performance - “He made a couple
big throws. Those were crucial, big throws for field position, even to get out
there and punt the ball in better position. He made those plays in tough times
and overall, a very good day.”
On next week’s game against Cal - “It’ll
be another tough Pac-10 game. They’re all going to be like that, very
competitive, but it’s good to get another win and get the opportunity
to build on that and compete with them. It is a good team, a good program. It’s
a great game for this time of year.”
Running Back Jacquizz Rodgers
On his touchdown pass - “We’ve been working on
that play for like three weeks now, and coach said we were going to call it
this week. It was nice because Brady (Camp) was wide open so it was an easy
throw for me.”
On having a nice spiral throw - “Yesterday, during walk
through, I threw a nice throw, too, so I guess it translated to the game.”
On what this win means for the team - “It was really
important for us to get this win, but we have to do better instead of kicking
field goals.”
Quarterback Sean Canfield
On field goals - "Those have to be touchdowns and we
saw at the end how close it came. I don't know what I can say before I've seen
the film but it's probably just the little things again."
On the "wild beaver", Jacquizz Rodgers’ touchdown pass
- "We've had that in for a while. The ‘Wild Beaver’ is what
we call it, the ‘Wild Beaver’ package. Coach (Danny) Langsdorf thought
it looked good in that situation and called it and it worked. The first time
we ran that he threw a terrible ball and that was months ago but every week
he has gotten better at it and it paid off for him. I went to him on the bench
and asked him if he was trying to take my job."
On quarterback Lyle Moevao - "It's very unfortunate.
We were in the two-minute drill on Tuesday and his foot got in a weird position
and was stepped on. It’s very unfortunate for him and for the team but
you saw him obviously today on the sideline and what he represents for this
team and as a player and how he played. He just means a lot for the team. I
was hurt my sophomore year and I know how that was and to be in the midst of
recovering from a shoulder surgery and have that happen, I can’t imagine
what he's going through."
Wide Receiver James Rodgers
On UCLA’s coverage of him - “That is their defense
and that is how they play.”
On what OSU was able to do late in the game - “We knew
that we had to come out and make a drive, and we did that.”
On knowing if they would score on the last drive - “We
came out and played hard. During practice we worked on this two-minute offense
all the time which came into play today.”
On seeing something in UCLA’s defense they could exploit
- “Their defense is good, there was nothing really you could take advantage
of. Our guys have been practicing really hard and we took care of business.”
Linebacker Dwight Roberson
On the defense in the fourth quarter - “We kept playing,
and held our heads high. Giving up was not an option. We battled it out and
knew that we would not give up the win.”
On what UCLA did in the fourth quarter - “They kept
the same play calls that they did the first half. Teams will make plays sometimes
and we just need to keep going without any effect on us.”
Tight End Brady Camp
On hearing the play for Jaquizz Rodgers’ TD throw -
“It took until I got back to the line to process the play, and I was like
‘wait a minute, is this for real?’ It opened up perfectly and I
was wide open. It was good, good play.”
On the feeling when UCLA coming back and tying the game -
“I kept my head up, just tried to keep going. We knew what we had to do.
We had to go down and get in field goal range or get a touchdown.”
On being wide open for his touchdown catch - “I didn’t
want to run it too deep, I wanted to make it an easier throw for him. I saw
I was wide open, and he threw it perfectly. It seemed like an eternity that
the ball was in the air. I was more excited for Quizz throwing a touchdown pass
than I was for myself getting a touchdown. I can’t believe that actually
worked. He was pretty excited, jumping around. We were talking and laughing
about it, it was a great play.”
On the up and down season - “We’ve been through
that. Down at UNLV, they got back in it. We just need to start turning those
field goals into touchdowns. It gets to you a little bit, but we stay composed.”