Sept. 11, 2004

Illinois coach Ron Turner...

...on Illinois' play overall:
"We had some opportunities early, and we didn't take advantage of them. We didn't tackle very well, especially early. We've got to tackle much better than that. We made mistakes that we didn't make a week ago: turning the ball over, pre-snap penalties. So it's a totally different ballgame. We've got a lot of things to correct. I still believe in this football team. We've got a lot of good football players, and we'll need to continue to work on our fundamentals, continue to trust what we're doing and not do too much. I thought we had some guys today who tried to do too much. They've got to understand that they need to just do their job and play football and good things will happen."

...on Brad Bower's performance:
"I was pleased with Brad's poise coming in; we had a limited package for him. He didn't get very many reps during the week in practice. I liked the poise he had. He's got great running ability and that's a weapon that if he continues to be in there we'll look at utilizing more. He did some good things out there."

...on Jon Beutjer's condition...
"They're going to do a scan on him. It was a shot to the sternum, so they don't know exactly the extent of it until they do some scans."

...on the positive side:
"I think a lot of good things happened. There were some positive things out there, and we've got a lot of good young football players that are going to learn from this, that are going to grow from this and that are going to be good. I thought we ran the ball pretty well. Kendrick Jones made some great plays."

...on areas to improve:
"But we made some mistakes and put the ball on the ground. Defensively we've got to tackle better. That was probably the most disappointing thing. We told them that UCLA's a physical team. We've got to do a better job getting off blocks and do a better job of tackling when we have the opportunity."

...on missed opportunities:
"Early in the game we have a fourth and one inside the 5 yard line and we don't convert that. Defensively we need to go get a stop. We let them get out of a hole and they drove it down and scored. And those kind of things hurt you."

...on the future:
"We're going to focus on Western Michigan right now. We'll start preparing for them on Tuesday. Tomorrow all of our preparation is going to be on ourselves and to improve the areas we need to improve on and get back on track. It's a very disappointing loss, but our guys are going to hold their heads up high; we're going to come in tomorrow and get things corrected because we have a lot of good players who are going to get it corrected."

Illinois Players

QB Brad Bower...

...on playing for the first time:
"Today I felt the team needed me. I got a lot of confidence from the coaches and players, but we would have liked the outcome to be different. I made sure I was prepared in case anything happened. I had a few rookie mistakes, the one interception should have been thrown out of bounds, but I'll get it down for next week."

...on the team's effort:
"We definitely have high expectations, and this one hurt. We put together that first drive, but we didn't get it done. That should give us some confidence for next week, though. We made some mistakes early, penalties and turnovers, but in the second half we didn't make those mistakes."

WR Mark Kornfeld...

...on today's loss:
"Any loss is tough. You've got to take your hats off to those guys. But, offensively we moved the ball. We just beat ourselves. I think we've got a good team, a great team, but if you turn it over three times, you can't beat anyone. We're frustrated, but we know we're a good team."

...on the Illini's first drive:
"That was the turning point of the game, even though it was the first drive. We moved the ball all day and the first drive would have been huge if we could have put it in there. It just took us a little too long to get going. We just didn't capitalize when we were in the game."

UCLA coach Karl Dorrell...

...on the first scoring drive:
"We did a nice job operating our plan, going into an environment like this on the road. I'm really excited about what the offense did early on in the game, having an opportunity to go 96 yards for a touchdown. Our defense did a nice job on the very first drive of the game with stopping (Illinois) on the fourth and one inside our five-yard line. Those were the issues that really catapulted our team."

...on the offense:
"Offensively, we can do some good things. We can still improve, and that's what is exciting about what our offense is capable of. They're getting more and more confident each day and each week."

...on turnovers:
"Defensively, I thought we played well. We created some turnovers, particularly the turnover on downs at the beginning of the game. We had some turnovers to end some of the drives from Illinois. Then our offense did a nice job of capitalizing on some of those turnovers."

...on the win:
"I think that any win is a gratifying win. Even if it's a one-point win, or the margin we had today. We're excited. This is a great win for us to begin our wins of the season on the road. This is a great environment. Illinois' fans are great. They do a nice job of staying involved in the game. We did a nice job of keeping it sort of neutral out there. To come into someone's place like this and to be able to win a game like we did was exciting."

...on the second half:
"We got a little bit tired. They came in the second half and really tried to run the ball and do a lot of play action passes against us and were having some success. They were better. We're not quite at full strength on the defensive front, yet. We're getting those guys who had been hurt back in the fold a little bit, and they did some good things. We still have some work to do."

UCLA players

Drew Olson, QB:

...on the offense today:
"Today part of the game plan was to get ahold of the line of scrimmage and dominate that and then take our shots downfield. We did that for the most part, took our shots and we ran the ball great today."

...on the offense's upside:
We could've been a lot better. There was an interception deflected when we were marching down. I went the wrong way on a hand off on the one yard line. We can get a lot better. We know that if we keep working hard, we'll be all right."

...on his three touchdowns:
"Our plan was to come out and play-action, take advantage of the quarter coverage. We felt like we could get behind the safeties and that's what we did and it turned out to work."

Maurice Drew, RB

...on his big run:
"We noticed that they were playing more inside for our inside runs, so we decided to run an outside play and what happened was I cut up the middle, so I ran behind the guard and tackle pulling and they made their blocks and I had to do the rest."

...on picking up a win:
"It feels great right now and we'll enjoy it on the plane ride home and tonight. Tomorrow we'll be right back at it preparing for Washington, which will be a tough game up in Seattle."

...on the environment:
"It was very hostile and it was a great environment to play in. We wanted to come out and quiet the crowd and that's what we did."

Craig Bragg, WR

...on first TD catch:
"I'm always expecting a pass. You work on deep posts and as a receiver that's got to be one of the balls you really focus on. That's what you play football for: Being a receiver, catching those long, deep ones. I just put my hands out there, looked it in and made the play."

...on his second TD:
"I don't know what they did. I think they double-teamed the guy on the outside and they left me alone."

...on the environment:
"It was a good college atmosphere. Their fans were excited. They seemed like they were happy with their team, coming off a 40-point victory. We wanted to take them out of the game early, so we made some big plays and that's what changed the momentum for us."