Colorado head coach Mel Tucker spoke today after practice, detailing the Buffs' response in practice after a deflating 35-31 loss to USC last Friday in which they led the Trojans for the majority of the game and held a 10-point advantage going into the fourth quarter.
The Buffaloes (3-5, 1-4 Pac-12) face UCLA (3-5, 3-2 Pac-12) in Los Angeles this Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. MST.
"Quite frankly (the aftermath of the USC loss) is still very painful even a couple days later," Tucker said. "I've seen the film four, five six times ...it's still very disappointing. However, there's really two ways you can go — you can say screw it, or you can make the corrections, set a direction, build on the positives, work to eliminate the negatives and that's what we're doing."
***A lot of the negatives revolve around the 13 penalties that cost Colorado 109 yards on Friday. False start flags continue to be an issue for the Buffs, as four more were thrown during the USC game. Dating back to the aftermath of the Oregon game, players have voiced their opinions about the false starts, crediting opposing defensive lines' constant movement and yelling as contributing factors in throwing off CU's o-linemen.
"Everyone does it," Tucker said. "We've done that on defense in the past. That's no excuse. Every week it seems like (teams) are doing that. We simulate in in practice with out scout teams but it rally comes down to individual focus. We come out of a time stoppage or in a short yardage situation, everyone's reminding everyone that (the defense) is going to stem and (try to) get us to jump."
***Tucker was also asked about two separate chances Colorado had to recover forced fumbles, one of which was in the second quarter and the other in the fourth. As you can see by the images below, CU's Nu'umotu Falo seems in prime position to recover both balls, but ultimately, the Trojans recovered it each time.
The result of the two lucky breaks? Both drives that featured fumbles eventually turned into USC points.
"They were missed opportunities," Tucker said. "We talked about that for a couple of weeks. Two weeks ago., we talked about having three runners after the quarterback and not being able to get (Oregon's Justin Herbert) to the ground. We got one week better in that regard — we were actually able to get to (the QB) and get the ball off of him. The next step is (recovering) the ball."
***As close-but-no-cigar of a situation both of those blown opportunities to recover fumbles were, Tucker is right in that Colorado's pass rush looked better last Friday. A compliment to Jalen Sami and Mustafa Johnson, who both, after battling the injury bug this year, looked pretty good against USC.
Tucker on playing the role of team psychologist as the Buffs battle a four-game losing streak: "We deal in the truths — seeing (things) for what they are and not sugarcoating everything. It's not all bad. Even when you win, there's so many things you need to correct, things that could have cost you the game, so you work to correct those and in a losing effort, it's the same thing. It's not all bad, there's some positives. That's where we need to keep the focus. How do you teach, motivate and develop? That's the job of a coach. I was brought here to change the culture and win games. We're not going to stop until we get that done.
Quote of the day:
As he mentioned, Tucker reviewed the game footage extensively in the aftermath of CU's loss to Southern Cal. He went on to say that while it was no doubt a mistake-filled game featuring penalties and an inability to close the door on the Trojans late, the game showed the Buffs are still capable of giving teams their best shot.
"There wasn't any time during the game when we looked at the film and said '(USC) is just better than us. They just made a good play and hats off to them — it was not like that. That can put a little strain on you mentally but it also can be a positive to say these (mistakes) are correctable."
Onward to UCLA:
"They're really hanging their hat on being able to run the ball," Tucker said of the Bruins. "That opens up everything for them. They've done a good job, they're playing hard and they've got guys who are getting better...they know who they can count on and have really good schemes and packages."
UCLA rides a two-game win streak, having produced convincing wins over Stanford and ASU in recent weeks.
Versus Stanford, UCLA ran the ball 43 times and averaged 6.1 YPC and this past weekend against ASU, the Bruins ran it a whopping 57 times. Joshua Kelley took the handoff on 34 of those plays, rushing for 164 yards and four TDs.
Needless to say this Saturday will test Colorado's toughness and ability to contain the run.
