WATCH: Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Greg Dulcich on chunk plays, chemistry against LSU
UCLA football quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and tight end Greg Dulcich talk to the press following the Bruins’ big win over LSU on Saturday.
Feeling after beating LSU?
Greg Dulcich: Just another game to us, we prepare the same way. What we’ve been doing since fall camp is just focusing on winning day to day and we came out, we did that today, was excited about what our team put together and we’re going to do that moving forward.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson: Just to piggy off what Greg said, I’m proud of this team, we knew we could do it all along. We didn’t listen to the noise, blocked all that out and it really showed tonight. I’m really proud of the guys.
Impressions of Greg, Kyle, others?
DTR: Yeah, definitely. This guy being my roommate, our chemistry is unbelievable. And he was open all night as well as run support, up front was doing a hell of a job and I’m very proud of the way we played tonight.
Celebrating at the end, emotions of the win?
DTR: I’m so happy for this community, I’m so happy for this team, it’s a long time coming. I know the Bruin fans had to wait a little while, but we got things going in the right direction now and I’m happy we could get the win for Bruin nation.
Is this team different this year?
DTR: I feel like we’re heading in the right direction, we have a lot of senior leaders, a lot of veteran leaders on this team that are going to keep everyone’s heads on straight. But it’s just another game in the books and we’re going to look forward to next week and the weeks after that.
Confidence rising?
DTR: Yeah, definitely, that all comes from the guys around me. I’ve been preaching we not me from the start of this thing so just using the guys around me, guys like him, kyle and Chase around me as well as the guys up front and you got the two-headed monster in the backfield so with all that put together, it makes my job a lot easier.
75-yard touchdown?
GD: Yeah, i mean, it opened up exactly how we thought it would, did a lot of game planning so happy that it worked out that way. Coach sage says you catch the ball, it’s first down or touchdown. I kind of think touchdown then first down. And i know he’s happy about that, i know he’s happy about the way our tight ends run and all of us, bouncing off tackles, Zach, you can’t tackle, Brittain you can’t tackle, Kyle, so it’s tough to stop that.
DTR: He was so wide open, I was just making sure i didn’t overthrow the ball or underthrow the ball. I’m glad I could get it to him and Greg’s going to do the rest for me. I know what he can do with the ball.
Using your running backs?
DTR: Our run game’s been great, it’s always been great. Coach Foster does a great job with that, but in big games, big players step up and so even though I didn’t have many opportunities, we had to maximize those that we got which is a big thing I talked about last week so i feel like we made plays when they needed to be made and came out on top so i’m proud of my team today.
Making big throws, what's going through your mind?
DTR: Staying in my zone, taking my deep breaths and just executing what’s given to me. That’s pretty much the whole thing right there. Just making my reads and making the plays that were presented to me.
Does this give the players validation in the locker room?
DTR: I think so, i think everyone in the locker room was confident going into this game. Everybody expected to win this game and that just proves our expectations. And we got more to come, so.
Benefit of this win?
DTR: I still think even though we won this game, there’s a lot to improve on, i still had a turnover, I still had sacks going backwards, still some things to clean up, but we’ll definitely enjoy this one while we can.
Being 2-0?
DTR: In our years of being here, we haven’t won a nonconference game under Chip Kelly so to be starting out the season 2-0 is definitely something special, but it’s just a building block to somewhere we want to go. We don’t want to beat LSU, we want to win the pac-12 championship so this is just a step in that direction.
GD: It speaks a lot to the work ethic of this group, how we come in. coach Sage always talks about hard hat, lunch pail type of mentality, blue collar type of guys. Coming in working, making sure we’re going our job. There’s light at the end of the tunnel because iif you know you win every day it’s going to be a good one.
Mental boost from game?
DTR: Yeah, LSU’s a great program, Coach O does a great job over there with those boys, but you know, all credit to my team. The work that we’ve put in over the summer, the work that we’ve put in fall camp, it’s all paying off now but again, this is not our goal to beat LSU, it’s our goal to win the whole thing so this is just a stepping stone into that direction.
75-yard TD, did you practice that this week?
GD: We kind of thought we would get a good look in that kind of play and it turned out to be right. It’s something we picked up on film, that’s pretty much what we’re big on, studying out component, making sure we’re as prepared as we can be. So that aspect of that game, the mental aspect, that’s obviously important and executing and i think it paid off.
Knew you would run the play tonight?
GD: Well you never know exactly.
Harder to maker open passes than contested ones?
DTR: Yeah, definitely when a receiver is wide open, you don’t want to tense up or anything and drop the ball, right, so the easy ones are always the hard ones so you have to focus even more and make sure your intent up top is even more.
Playing for hometown team?
GD: It’s so awesome. My high school, St. Francis is like a five-minute drive away. Same atmosphere i’m kind of used to my whole life, same weather, same air that i’m breathing so it means a lot to me to have all the support that I do because i’m so local. A lot of friends and family showing a lot of love and that really propels me so much in my life. Coming and playing in your backyard, there’s no better feeling.
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