WATCH: Cam Johnson, Kain Medrano Talk UCLA Relying on Pressure, Winning 1-on-1 Battles
Cornerback Cam Johnson and linebacker Kain Medrano both with members of the media following UCLA football's practice Tuesday.
Johnson talked about the impact of safeties Quentin Lake and Kenny Churchwell III going out Saturday against Arizona State, as well as the importance of a pass rush to UCLA's secondary. Medrano detailed the Bruins' emphasis on special teams and field position and seconded Johnson's thoughts on pass rushers and upcoming opponent Arizona.
CAM JOHNSON
ASU winning battles over the top because of 1-on-1 matchups that went their way or something else?
Ultimately, we felt like we could send a lot of pressure to their quarterback. They had a way to combat that and it really came down to our one-on-one battles because when you send pressure, you’ve got to win your one on ones, so just typically settling things down and locking things down on the back end would have helped but just those one-on-one battles are things we have to win.
Quentin Lake and Kenny Churchwell being out impact on secondary?
Um, Kenny and Q-Lake, they’re both very experienced guys, we’re always great at communicating, but at the end of the day, we’ve just all got to do our jobs and our jobs only. We can’t get mixed up, we’ve just got to lock into the game plan, which is what we’ve been doing this past week to prepare for this next opponent.
What wasn't working in 1-on-1s? How do you improve?
I think it all just comes down to the fundamentals, the technique, not getting outside of what we usually do, just sticking to the basics of things that we’ve been doing. We’ve always been a pressure team. When there’s pressure, it’s just you and the man in front of you, so just locking in on the fundamentals and techniques of things is definitely something that will be beneficial to us in the future.
How critical to get pressure on QB when in 1-on-1s?
It definitely helps a lot because it makes the quarterback throw passes that he doesn’t necessarily want to throw, or bad throws. But on our end, the back end, we have to do our job holding our man for a couple of seconds, enough time for the D-line to get there and put that pressure on the quarterback, allowing us to make plays.
Thoughts of moving to safety to back up Lake?
There has been no thought of that from me. We’ve got a lot of guys on this team that play safety as well, so just bringing those guys in and bringing them up and bringing them along and getting back to our fundamentals and the things we normally do and have been doing since the beginning of the season is something we’ve been doing this week and we’re going to back to.
Arizona offense?
Offensively, they have a solid wide receiver. We respect all opponents, it’s never anything toward the record or anything, I mean, they’re just, respect all, fear none, so we’ve got to come as far as we can and get things back rolling here.
What does Arizona do when they're playing well like they did vs. BYU and Oregon?
From the film that we’ve watched, they’re able to make some of the explosive plays and we’ve really honed in on combating those explosive plays and doing what we need to do to be successful against them. Understanding that they're a team with a not so good record, they’re still a team that is out to come and beat us and we're gonna come hard as we can so we can win and get back on track.
KAIN MEDRANO
Muffed punt recovery? Emphasis on special teams?
Special teams for this team is a big thing, it's always change the field. "Change the field" is our saying, change the field and change the game in a way and I really think that fumble recovery is what that did for that game, especially going into the half with four seconds, three/four seconds left. That fumble recovery was big, it allowed us to put a field goal, put up three points on the board. And so any little thing that we could get done to give us the momentum or whatever, that was what we had to do. And we knew going into that game that he was gonna be risky with the ball and he was gonna try and do some uncharacteristic things, so we just had to take advantage of that.
How to return to being disruptive in backfield?
We just have to, for all of us, we just have to do our job, that's really what it is. We gotta win the 1-on-1 battles up front and our pressure has to hit home. So it's just back to technique and fundamentals for us and going back to what was getting us there in the first place. We've kinda been shying away from that, and so we just gotta get our head back on straight and get everything back on line and do what we do, I guess. That's what we do, we're a pressure team. So we just gotta get back to doing us and ultimately just making sure everything hits home.
Concerned about mindset of team going against an opponent that hasn't won a game?
Not at all, we're coming in here like it's any other game, record does not matter to us. We respect all and fear none, just like Cam said. So respect is given to every team that we go out there and play, we just gotta go out there and play tough and fast. That's our motto – tough, fast and finish – and that's exactly how we gotta go out there and play. So our mindset is on straight and we just gotta go out there and do us.
Reason for straying like you said?
It's just, in the heat of the moment, we all know how things go. Some players want to do a little bit more than what they gotta do and for this team to work, we just have to do our job and nothing but our job – nothing more, nothing less. So as long as everybody, all 11 of us on the field, are doing our job, we're gonna be perfectly fine.
Adjust to max pass protections?
Max pro, for us, we just gotta – our 1-on-1s up front really, truly, our pressures just have to get home, we have to win our 1-on-1 battles. They're bringing max protection so we're gonna try and send more guys than what they can protect with, ultimately. So we just gotta win up front and get there in a timely fashion so we can not have as much time for the DBs to cover cause you know how that goes. The more time the quarterback has, the more time the route has to get open, so we need to just get our rushes and our blitzes home just faster, and that's just what we gotta do.
Quickness and speed lend well to MLB, areas you need to work on for finishing?
I think, one thing for me that I need to work on and get better is just my hands and reading my keys because as soon as you get to reading your keys, everything else comes so easy whether it's run, pass, guard pull, tackle pull, whatever it is. So as soon as I get my eyes right and my keys on the right keys, I can go from there. And then also, like I said, my hands, being able to defeat the block and stuff like that. So it's just a couple things that I have to work on and I'm working on it day in and day out.
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