BruinBlitz.com - Neuheisel continues to be optimistic

November 3, 2009

Max Epstein
BruinBlitz.com Senior Writer

Putting an odious month of October behind him, UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel was back to being his relentlessly positive self at Monday's press conference. The Bruins had a rough month, but the team is looking optimistically to righting the ship in the month of November.

Neuheisel: "We try again for that elusive first Pac 10 victory. Disappointed in the outcome the other day but certainly we are feeling good about the effort especially in the fourth quarter to get back into the game and try to steal a victory from the Beavers.

"Obviously the team has been in a dry spell, but the effort is continuing to be there and we have to continue to work to be more consistent on both sides of the ball and in so doing we will try to earn our first win and then see where it goes and see where it leads us.

"Again, I'm encouraged from the standpoint of the effort. Sometimes when you are in a skid like we find ourselves in you can see signs of people throwing in the towel and nothing can be further from the truth with respect to our football team. I'm encouraged by that.

"In the coaching business, when you are in the midst of some tough times, you always look for some direction and so I read a little bit from John Wooden over the last day or so and read again where, while winning is important, it's not the way you judge yourself. You keep judging yourself by how hard you try and how hard you are working and how you are improving and so forth.

"I think it is important that our players, especially the really young ones in the program remember that as long as we're improving and continue to work hard, those wins will come.

"I still believe that's on the horizon and hopefully as soon as this week against the University of Washington. We have a great deal of respect for their program and they have gotten things going under their new regime and they come in here with one of the finer quarterbacks in the country in Jake Locker, so we understand the task at hand and we are looking forward our own homecoming this weekend we will wear in honor of our past a throwback jersey from the Gary Beban era.

"It will be fun to see the Bruins take the field in these old jerseys and hopefully it will hearken back to us playing like they did back then too and get back to the winning ways.

"I want to make sure that everybody understands that I am not discouraged by the effort. The effort is going to be good. It has been good and will continue to be there and we will find ourselves getting out of this deal (losing streak), hopefully as soon as this week."

On the way the defense has been playing?

Neuheisel: "Well we have played some pretty good offenses, but yes we have to play better on defense, as well as we have to play better on offense. Those are things that have to happen for us to get to where we want to go."

On the what the defense needs to do?

Neuheisel: "I don't know if you can point at one thing. There is a variety of things that have to get better. Assignments, tackling and just needing to be where we need to be and then making plays when they are there to be made."

On Aaron Hester's status?

Neuheisel: "I don't know if he will be available. We are hopeful that he will be available. As I have said on the phone last night the x-rays were negative so hopefully he will be able to get back out there and continue his reemergence."

On Oregon State going after Sheldon Price and is that a concern?

Neuheisel: "Until we stop them, we're going to have to face the facts there and Sheldon (Price) is going to have to continue to improve and we're going to have to continue to try and create competition there."

On depth chart at corner?

Neuheisel: "As I have said we're going to have competition. We're going to play the guys who play the best in practice. We are not down on Sheldon, he's a young player trying to help the team and he's playing hard, but we have to understand that we have to play better and not give up the easy yards."

On what they are seeing in Price over Courtney Viney?

Neuheisel: "That may be a better question to ask Carnell Lake and Chuck Bullough, but I know they feel comfortable that Sheldon provides a chance to be successful and a chance to win on Saturday. We just have to make sure that we get a few more stops."

On the coming up to the softer part of the schedule?

Neuheisel: "You know I haven't been asked that, but I think the focus just needs to be on just playing well and hopefully we broke the lid off of our offense a little bit in the fourth quarter against Oregon State and come out and play like that for four quarters and find ways to score more points and give our defense a shot in the arm with respect to their expectations and get the defense to play like they played early in the season. If we can get all that put together, we're going to be a good team in the month of November."

On the offensive success in the fourth quarter?

Neuheisel: "I think the quarterback (Kevin Prince) in particular settled down and kind of found himself if you will in terms of his rhythm, his poise and his ability to stand in there and make throws down the field, both intermediate and long and coming up with two point conversions. That's not easy to do and to do it given the circumstances with the game on the road, those are all building blocks. Hopefully we will use that as great momentum this week at practice and then we will go out there and have a great game in front of a home crowd this weekend."

More on the schedule?

Neuheisel: "The schedule is, what the schedule is. I just know we get a chance to play each Saturday and regardless of who is on the other sideline we have to play our best and we found out the month of October when you don't play your best nothing good is going to happen and so if we can correct that and become a much more consistent team in the month of November then I assume and I hope good things will come our way."

On stopping the passing game?

Neuheisel: "You have two ways of playing pass. You can get pressure on the quarterback and get him to throw it before he wants to or you can drop back in coverage and give the quarterback very few places to throw the ball. We have to do a better job of mixing that up and not just going after him and still not getting home. You have to be right when you choose to pressure a quarterback so that you are not giving up big plays on the other end and you have to do a great job when you are in coverage making sure that you are doing just that, you are covering. So those things can all be improved upon."

On Jake Locker?

Neuheisel: "I think he's the complete player. Obviously he has flourished with Coach Steve Sarkisian. We didn't play against him a year ago because he was injured, but I had an opportunity before I got this job here at UCLA to spend a few days out with him in Louisiana at the Manning Passing Camp and I am very, very impressed with him. He's a great young guy and obviously a very talented player. I was coaching in high school football when he played against a team that I was coaching as a junior so I knew as a junior in high school that he was special."

On Neuheisel's record as Washington's coach against UCLA?

Neuheisel: "I think we only won one time. We were 1-3. All the games were competitive with the exception for the game when we came down here and DeShaun Foster went for about 300 yards. I think he was right at 300, so it's a good series and been for a long time.

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