WATCH: Bo Calvert Talks Veteran Status, New UCLA Football Defensive Coaching Staff

UCLA football linebacker Bo Calvert spoke to reporters Tuesday morning on the first day of spring practice. Calvert talked about his relationship with some of the younger players as such an experienced veteran, where he sees the identity of the defense going and what he thinks of the new defensive coaching staff featuring Bill McGovern, Ikaika Malloe and Ken Norton Jr.

How does it feel to be here for your fourth spring, fifth year, being so much older than a lot of these guys?

Yeah, it’s kind of a weird experience. I mean, a lot of my best friends, obviously they were here, have gone, are going onto the NFL or the draft process right now. Talk about Kyle and Greg, those guys, Otito, so you get to this point. It’s kind of weird. New guys come in and they kind of think, this guy’s a GA or is this guy an assistant on the strength staff? Soon enough they realize I’m out here going out there with them. Obviously like you said, I got a mustache going on, some of these guys are asking how old I am, whatever. But I think it’s just nice to be able to go out here and coach people up. I think one of the nice things is when you get to this point, you start, I’ve had so many snaps and whatnot, just being able to be comfortable in the heat of the moment helps so much and going through with new coaches and the new staff, it’s just nice to being able to have that football knowledge and be able to share it with younger guys, be able to be there for them. Obviously, everybody throughout their process at one point or another was a new guy so now being here in this role where I get to help younger guys, it’s just really rewarding and it helps me a lot too. When you have to teach somebody what you’re learning yourself, it helps you learn even better.

Transition with new scheme?

Yeah, I mean, we’re trying new things. Spring ball, putting a bunch of people in. We’re not sure obviously where all the new guys are going to fit in, how the defense is going to work out with the new staff and what not. So we’re trying a bunch of different stuff. Obviously today was day one. so very simple things. We were just flying around. I was pretty surprised with how quickly we got into it. It felt like, how Dorian was saying, it felt like we were in a mid-season practice, everyone was just running around going crazy and the speed was really up, the tempo was really up. Throwing a bunch of calls out, going very quickly. We didn’t really slow things down. When you have guys on both sides that are in leadership positions on the field on the team, those guys can kind of rally around those people and if you have guys on the field, I think coach Kelly trusts us to kind of get after it right away so we saw that today, which we did Friday and hit the ground running.

New terminology?

I mean, both and neither to be honest. There’s a lot of general things you use in football that you’re going to use in any defense. Obviously we’re throwing those things around here. There’s general pick ups that you’re going to teach in Day 1 install that you’re going to teach anywhere else. So we’ll see how it goes as spring ball unfolds but right now, we’re still pretty early into it and we’re kind of throwing everything out and see what sticks.

Early impressions on McGovern, Malloe and Norton?

I think they’re all great guys. I’ve gotten able to be with them for the past month now or so, seeing them around the facility and whatnot. Obviously in the beginning, everyone was kind of feeling each other out, trying to get a face to a name and whatnot. But now we’re at the point where we’re trying to build that trust with each other and getting deeper. Obviously trying to figure out the philosophies of those coaches and what their scheme is and what they’re thinking. Every coach has a different opinion on situational football and what they want to do in certain situations so getting able to know those guys and see what they want to do helps you on the backend when you’re in the game and kind of able to figure out maybe what’s coming, you know what he’s thinking.

Norton's history as a Bruin?

That guy’s a beast. You talk about total – THE UCLA linebacker, you think of him. And many others, obviously but he’s a total legend and you kind of gotta pinch yourself when you’re out here with a guy like that. He’s has so much experience, obviously balling out in college, the NFL, coaching on both sides, all over the country and coaching big time guys with the Seahawks and whatnot. So being able to have him out here is a huge plus and it’s going to be great for us. Obviously we’re going to utilize a lot of different guys who are going to be coaching through him and just excited to have him out here. And really thankful that he chose UCLA and he’s able to be out here with us.

USC stuff come up?

(laughs) Not yet. Might tease him every now and then in the hallway, but not yet. Right now, he’s a Bruin and we’re trying to keep him that way.

Defensive identity the coaches want?

Tough, fast physical guys. Guys that are going to run to the ball. I think last year, one of the things we did well was we were able to all rally to the ball and be able to get there. If you can get all 11 guys in the frame at the end of the tackle, I think you’re doing something really well so obviously that’s something we want to carry over. Getting everybody to work together as a team. Obviously that’s very general and it’s kind of a cliché, but that’s hard to do in practice and to get that thing every single day, to get everybody on the same page, so being able to do that and just having great communication and being able to rely on each other and trust each other. When you have a lot of new faces that come in and switching up, different positions, moving around, you kind of have to build up that trust and figure out how the communication’s going to work with different guys. So I think that’s one of the things early on, is over communicating things and hustling to the ball (mumbling the last words).

Advice you're giving to the young guys?

I would say just give your best every single day and I always say that’s kind of a John Wooden quote too. Just give 100% of whatever you got that day. If you can do that every single day, day in and day out, you’re going to be alright at the end. You may not be 100%, but give 105 whatever you got and that’s going to take you really, really far in life, in everything you do.

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