WATCH: Dorian Thompson-Robinson Talks UCLA's Fumbles, Colorado Prep
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UCLA football quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson spoke with reporters following Monday morning's practice session at the Wasserman Football Center. Thompson-Robinson broke down what went wrong on the Bruins' pair of fumbles against South Alabama, what kind of intensity he expects out of Colorado, his relationship with Jake Bobo and the other first-year wideouts and the benefits of running an up-tempo offense.
What did you see when you looked at the film of the South Alabama game?
A lot of stuff to clean up, a lot of stuff to correct. You know, obviously I don’t get to see the defensive film but offensive-wise, we’ve got to clean some stuff up execution-wise, making sure we’re getting guys in the right spots, making sure guys are running the right routes, I’m going through my reads correctly, I’m having my same footwork and just being consistent. I felt like we were sporadic at times and I just need to from start to finish make it a clean game.
Handoffs one of the issues you saw?
Uh, the one to Zach on the goal line, he’s seen how close we were to the end zone. You know, I think in his mind he’s thinking he can just ram it in there, I’m still trying to go through my read, my read told me to pull it on that play and then that look, so yeah, a little bit of miscommunication on that play but the fumble to Keegan, again, my read, it’s about a 50-50 on whether I should pull it or give it to him. He thought based on where my read was that he wasn’t going to get the ball—that’s probably why he didn’t look, so just a miscommunication thing. So, again, just execution-wise, trying to make sure we’re cleaning those things up. Again, two plays is not the end-all-be-all but it also can be the end-all-be-all when you look at the final score, so just making sure we clean up those things for sure.
Are read options tougher at the goal line when everyone's on top of each other like that?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think everything’s tougher on the offense just because the defense doesn’t have very far to go and so the windows definitely get a little tighter. Fitting that ball in there to Zach on one of those drives and just yeah, I think everything’s a little bit tighter, especially with the run game.
Three receivers had their first touchdown of the season Saturday, speak to the depth of the receiver room?
Yeah, they’re all hungry, they all know that anybody and everybody can get the ball on any specific play, and so I think the best thing about having this group as well as having my experience is in previous years, maybe guys weren’t running routes as hard because you know you’re not going to get the ball where as this year everybody has a chance to really get the ball or putting guys in different guys in different spots and positions to make plays, so I think everybody’s hungry to go out there and make plays, everybody’s hungry to go out there and get the ball and I think I’m putting the ball in the right spots for sure.
Colorado might be desperate at 0-3, need to match their intensity?
Shoot, we’ve been there before. My freshman and sophomore season, we were starting out the season 0-3 or 0-4 or whatever, so we know the type of feeling that they have in their locker room right now. They’re going to be a real hungry team, like you said, so I wouldn’t say we have to match their energy but play our game, still, go out there and execute our game at a high level and see if they can run with us, but I think for sure we are definitely aware of the stakes that they have at hand too.
Feel like the offense if more effective when it's going up-tempo?
I mean, you know what you’re going to get on defense. They’re not going to go out there and run a bunch of blitzes and a bunch of coverages, it’s tempo and they’ve got to line up as fast as possible, so you’re going to get real vanilla looks, so I think that’s the best thing about when we run tempo, but at the end of the day we’ve still got to be able to execute, but I’d say yeah, tempo’s a very good tool that we use for sure.
Mafi been one of the top-graded O-linemen in the Pac-12, reformulating his body help with his dominance?
Yeah, for sure. I think the way he’s worked this off-season as well as just the mental side of things, you know, at guard you really don’t have a lot of space to cover—you’ve got guys to the right and the left of you to be able to help you out so I think he knows that and understands the position now, he understands how to be an offensive player and not be a D-lineman anymore and stuff like that and I think what’s even more great about him is now he’s teaching Tyler the same things even though Ty is in a different position than him at tackle, but having to make that switch from D-line to O-line, I think he’s learned the word ‘patience’ and letting things come to him and not trying to force things.
Had a connection with Philips, take a while to build that up again with someone else like Jake Bobo?
Um, I’d say usually but with him, Titus and the rest of the guys in the room, they make it really easy on me. Again, they’re smart football players—Bobo’s played a lot of ball and so it makes my job really easy when they know how to play football, they know what routes align with what situations, how we’re trying to attack the coverages, where they need to be at what time, so I think that all relates to timing and getting the ball out fast everything and making sure I’m getting it in the right spot. As long as they’re on the same page as me, I think it makes chemistry really easy, so.
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