WATCH: Carl Jones, Shea Pitts discuss athletic dynamism, leadership abilities

Linebacker Carl Jones and safety Shea Pitts were the pair of players selected to talk to reporters Sunday.

Jones spoke about his and others' ability to move around and play multiple positions on the field, as well as how he's changed his body to fit in more on the line. Pitts, who was named to the Wuerffel Trophy watch list several weeks ago, talked about how important leadership and community service are to him, in addition to how UCLA has changed across his five seasons in Westwood.

CARL JONES

Trying to get more pressure from four-man rushes?

As far as our scheme, it’s just been a scheme that Azz has been doing so we’ll just continue going after it and continuing to blitz as we need to.

Did you imagine playing this consistently on the line of scrimmage?

No, I haven’t, but it’s a switch. Azz always told us to be mindful and be able to switch whenever we need to so I’ve just been getting tools and I’ve been rocking with it.

Wanted to put on weight this offseason?

It’s been a big goal to gain weight. For the team, if I’m going to be on the line, I gotta gain weight so just doing it for the team, anything I can for the team. So it has been a big push for this year.

So many versatile players, what does that say about your defense?

That’s a good question. For us, being able to be versatile has been a big factor for our defense. So as many people as possible who can be versatile, it just helps the team and with COVID, you don’t know when somebody’s going to go down, so it’s best to have a lot of people who can do a lot of different things.

Personal or physical changes moving from safety to linebacker to raider?

As a player, it’s definitely been the versatility. I’ve been learning new tools from Coach Kaufusi, even Otito has been teaching me a lot of different tools out on the D-line. So as a player, I feel like I’ve been growing. And for myself, it’s really taking the time to know what I’m doing, knowing my body and that’s really been a big thing this year.

How much weight did you put on?

A good amount to be able to do my job. That’s all I can say.

What was your method for that?

Definitely protein. Been doing a lot of drinking shakes, making milkshakes, anything I possibly can to gain weight so that’s been a big, big thing for this offseason.

How do you stay fast while adding weight?

Coach KB, our new strength coach, he’s been having us get after it no matter what so that’s been a big key factor of just keep going, even if you’re gaining weight, I’m going to lose the weight that I gain and then I’m going to put it back in my body. So that’s been good.

Motivated by last year's close losses?

We definitely keep it in the back of our head, but for the most part, we’re just thinking about the next day. Stacking good days on good days, having good practices and just building that all together. We can’t dwell on the past, even though we can always have that as a reminder.

How do you close the gap between run D and pass D?

Come in here every day practicing as hard as we can. That’s literally been our motto. Mudita when we make a play. Just not stopping, even if a pass does get caught, we look at the stuff of last year, we see it, we know what we have to fix and that’s what we plan on doing this year.

How close is defense to that now?

I feel like the defense is good, as (well) as the offense too. All around, I feel like we’re in a good spot this year. Definitely, we got some ball hawks on both sides of the ball and we’re just ready to play.

Perspective on QBs?

Quarterbacks are doing well, each and every one of them. So we just ready to bow up and strap up.

Running backs?

Zach is great, Charbonnet is a wonderful back. We got Brittain Brown, Brittain Brown is doing what he’s doing, just like y’all seen last year. Keegan, same thing. And we got some new guys too, so all of them are ready to bow up.

SHEA PITTS

Role on defense restricted to striker?

I don't really have a specific role. I'm just kind of playing anywhere, honestly, anywhere I can plug and play and help this team win. That's pretty much what I'm doing, just anywhere. I can make plays for my team and it's kind of nice, you can be really versatile and pop in a bunch of different positions.

How fun is it to play in this defense?

It's a lot of fun, especially when you got guys like Qwuantrezz Knight, that's my guy. He just brings so much juice to practice every day. We’re in the dog days of camp, everyone's tired and I'll just hear a quiet gentle push and hear, ‘Shea you ready to go,’ and I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, I am ready to go.’ We've got guys like that and when you got guys pass rushing like Otito, you feel really comfortable. When you look up you have Otito, you got Daytona Jackson, you got Mitch Agude, when they all rush it makes your job in the back end when you're there a lot easier, so it is really fun. We got guys that play with energy and I've been on teams here in the past where it's a little dull, everyone's a little dull. But everyone here is very, like they’re characters. And it's fun to run around and play with these guys so I'm having a good time playing at practice every day. Even though you're in the dog days of camp and everyone's tired. it's not bad.

"Get to" vs. "Have to" team?

That's pretty much it, you just can't take this for granted. I'm going into my fifth year here and just every single day, you can’t take it for granted. You can't take it for granted because we had this COVID situation. Last year we're all at home not knowing when we're going to play football next. We want to come out here and be healthy and run around and fly around every day. It's really a blessing when you think about it in that aspect. It's not like like I said these practices are getting long and hard but they go by quicker and they’re more fun because everyone's bringing juice, everyone's bringing energy and I think coach Belton, he's helping establish that a lot because he's out here yelling at us, I’ve seen coach do a backflip before practice so when your coach comes out doing a backflip before practice that makes you pretty excited to be able to go and get out there. So I think this team is just very excited with the opportunity that we have out here flying around every day and it's definitely a ‘get to’ not ‘have to’ and I wouldn't just say that to say that, I would let you know if I was not having a good time but it's definitely against me right now. I don't I don't come into practice dull at all. I come out here like wow, ‘This is a blessing, we’re in Westwood, can't get better than this.'

Your personal leadership role?

Yeah, so with myself, it's more like, I'm not gonna be on the field as much yelling and screaming around guys being a vocal on the field type guy, but I'm the type of thing where I'll see someone having a bad day I'll pull him over to the side and talk to him in a locker room. I'll talk to him in the field and give those little talks like, if you see a kid that is not getting as many reps as he wants to in practice and he's down about it, I'm not going to be on the field screaming and yelling, that's just not who I am. I'm gonna go talk to him in the locker room and tell him and attack how he can get better and how he can get more reps to not really complain and what you can do to help that because I've been in that position before when I was younger, like I wasn't getting reps in practice like I wanted to, and things just weren't going my way. So I kind of know how those young kids are feeling because a lot of young guys get here and they expect it to be like a movie, to sort of get here and start as a true freshman. And the reality is, that's just not it so being able to talk to those younger guys and kind of getting guys to understand what the process is, on the low end like less vocal, I'm assuming that's kind of where I'm at now.

Higher expectations for this team?

I think less than the expectation side, we're just more together this year. Last year, I was playing with guys that were pretty close, but I met a lot of those guys that I was strapping up with on the field two months before that. So we got a lot of new guys coming in, and now we had a year of training together. And those losses last year, losing four days by a combined total of 15 points, that hurts,you really have to do some self reflection. But when you lose like that, and you suffer for that hurt together, it allows you guys to really grow and understand it like I'm not here in the locker room after the SC game just hurting and we remember that hurt, we know what it feels like, so that builds us together. And this year, we all know each other and were really well put together. And it's like we took all that hurt and all that pain that we've kind of dealt with through last year and we learned from it and now putting it all together, we all know each other really well so that we can fly around and play with each other. I know my teammates on a certain level now. So the bond on the field, it's way different than just the experience we had, our bond is a lot different now. So I think that's going to be able to push us moving forward. And we're just going to take it game by game and we're not going to think, ‘Oh, we got to win this amount of games’. We're gonna play each game and try to go one to know every week, and then go from there.

Reaction to being on the Wuerffel Trophy watch list?

Yeah, I take a lot of pride in that because I just want to be seen as someone more than a football player, that's my biggest thing. I know a lot of people get stereotyped doing certain things as a football player and I just want to branch and show I can be more than that and I mean more to people and I mean more than just someone you can watch on TV. So I take pride in that a lot, always being involved in community service stuff, it's been something I love doing. Just to be able to get that recognition, it's nice recognition, it's just something I like to do naturally. I never expected to get recognized for any of that stuff. It's nice when people say something about it, it's just I feel like it's something I feel obligated to do, just be able to help people in the community because at UCLA, you kind of have a platform around a lot of places. I know growing up as a kid, I looked up to a lot of UCLA football players, so to be able to outreach in the community and really help people in any way I can, that's just something I'm really blessed to be able to do.

How did your teammates/coaches react, do they follow your lead at all or congratulate you?

Yeah, the coaches will say good job, everyone says congratulations and just my teammates have been gassing me up, there are some good people on this team. There are some dudes, they would just jump me, start hugging – not *jump* me – just jump on me, start hugging me. I felt the love a little bit, so it was good stuff.

What discussions happen on the field on defense in learning situations?

Yeah, it's just a lot of things, it's something they'll do a little bit wrong with their technique, but it's mainly just their mindsets and what they're doing. So it's learning like, I just said, they're not getting as many reps as they want to in practice, or they're upset about something going on on the field, guys gotta break it down, let them see the bigger picture and know what's going on in their heads pretty much. So it's less what's really going on on the field, but it's more just seeing the bigger picture and being able to understand what your role is to keep people motivated. Because all it takes is for one person – we need every single person on this team. I don't know how many people we have, I think it's like 100 – it's a lot of people – and it doesn't matter if someone's a scout team player or someone's a full time starter, but we gotta let everyone know that we need every single person to make this operation work. So that's the type of conversations we have with people on the field, and when I see people down on the sidelines, it'll be just a subtle talk and I'm gonna try and emphasize that.

Seeing steady progression from Mora year all the way to Chip year four?

Yeah, I think kind of what we're doing, it's just building and building and building. Coach made the reference, there was an apartment building being built outside of Wasserman, I don't know what it's called but it's down the street from here. And when I came here as a freshman, there was really nothing there, and then each year, it built more, it built more, built more, and now it's a full building. So I kind of think about that as a reference to our team. Each year we've kind of been building, building, building and I felt like each year's got a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better, and this year, we're all veterans now. I talk to Q Lake, Mo Osling about it all the time, like we don't want to look back at our UCLA legacy and be like 'Wow, we didn't win anything for five years when we're here?' So we kind of talk to each other like this is gonna be something we remember for a long time and let's remember us a good way. Because we don't want to go through everything, look back and not having been successful about it. So we've kind of just been building each year, building each year. And it could be looked at as a breakout year, but we just know we gotta handle it each game at a time, we don't try to look at the year, we try to look at it as what we're doing now. So it starts with, in order to have a good week 1, we gotta have a good practice tomorrow, we gotta have a good practice the next day. So kind of building it steady and not looking at – having the big picture in mind, but just taking it day by day and building on top of that and eventually, we'll have the apartment buildings like were built outside of here. But I'm confident in what we have going on, it's – we got out of practice 30 minutes ago, Mo Osling's on the field now doing extra work, we've just got guys that love the work. I see Devin Kirkwood doing extra work on the field too, so I keep saying this, but I've never seen 20, 30 minutes after a hard, long practice, we've got guys still doing work still, so it's just crazy the way people have elevated and people see other people working and just keep elevating. So I'm excited, I think the results will take care of themselves as long as we take care of us.

Mom putting you up for NIL deals?

Yeah, I haven't talked to my mom about that. I kind of just try not to look at her tweets because she posts so much. But yeah, I haven't talked to her anything about that, I just I talk to her about how my day's going and how's practice going but I don't really talk to her about anything outside of that.

Shea Pitts show every day on her feed

I gotta love her support, but I might tell her to calm down a little bit, but I love the support. I'm thankful for that, yeah.

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