Sept. 18, 2010

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UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel
(opening remarks) "Certainly, we are excited with a victory. When you start the season as we have with some difficult losses and embarrassing features within those losses, there is only one way to dig your way out of it. It's important for everybody to understand how important it is to give everything you've got as a team. We had a great amount of passion leaving the locker room tonight. Certainly, it wasn't error free. To play against that offense and to play the way we did on defense and fly around was exciting for me. To see us establish a running game and have Kevin [Prince] engineer drives and hit third down passes early in the game, it was very exciting stuff and is hopefully a precursor of what's to come. I'll look exactly as to why we got a little over our skis in terms of excitement - we had three turnovers inside the scoring area, within 25 yards - with an interception and two fumbles. We have got to correct that. We stalled on offense when we got conservative with the big lead - although you do need the victory, and you're milking the clock. We extend our best wishes for Case Keenum and the backup quarterback. Houston is a very fine team, and we hope those kids are available as soon as possible. It's exciting to be sitting here with a victory. But I will wake up tomorrow knowing that there's a lot to be done. I'm excited about waking up and coming to work tomorrow."

(on UCLA's defense) "We were primarily in a nickel configuration, which put more speed on the field. While we were going to mix pressures and coverages, the one thing you saw was that we played fast. Rahim [Moore] and Akeem [Ayers] made some big plays that changed things. They scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, and we were playing some of our younger players. That is who we are. We have to play some younger players so that when they're called to play again, they'll be ready and will be even better than they played tonight. It's a great learning game for our players on both sides of the ball."

(on rebounding from an 0-2 start) "What happens when you suffer a demoralizing loss like we did to Stanford, you have to remember that you're in a foxhole with a bunch of guys you can count on. The only way to get out is for everybody to get a shovel and start digging. We would have the right to be free and play with everything instead of being nervous. You stack your days and know that you've got everything done to prepare, you're much more able to go play. Then we got to a place where we stopped concentrating and the momentum changed and the game changed. Hopefully, that will be a great emphasis as we keep going."

(on UCLA's running game) "We worked hard in the offseason to get to a place where we felt like we knew where we were going. It's obviously a big improvement from the last two years. But now we have to focus on passing with it so that we can continue to stay on the field. We need to take of advantage of big plays when they present themselves, but we are moving in the right direction and I think we made another step toward that tonight."

(on the big hits from UCLA's defense) "Physical is always a part when you are being sure tacklers. You have to tackle this team. They've got so much speed and space. You have to get there and you have to get guys down. Once we went down there and scored a touchdown, the crowd got into it. The defense fed off of that, and the game changed at that point. Now we have to learn how to keep it there and not let it fall off."

(on going to Texas next Saturday) "The positives are clear - you need a victory. You need to understand how hard it is and to yearn for more. We'll look at the tape and be really critical - that's what coaches do. We're going to have to fix a lot of things. It will call for a different plan. We understand the challenge of going to play a top 10 team. It's an undefeated team with great tradition, and we've got to make sure that we're not caught looking at all the people wearing burnt orange. This will be twice that crowd that we saw [at Kansas State]."

(on Jonathan Franklin) "Jonathan has been terrific. He just had a little trouble a year ago hanging onto the rock. Maybe more so the reason I'm so proud is that he's really taken a leadership role. On Sundays, the offensive team goes in to lift and he'd get everybody in there 15 minutes early. That's the kind of leadership you need from a tailback, and I'm sure he's got a lot more big runs in him."

Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin
(opening remarks) "We're disappointed in how we played. We played in spurts, and that's not good enough, particularly when you are on the road. I thought UCLA played very well. They are a talented football team. They were trying to find themselves. I hoped that it wouldn't happen this week, and it did. They were opportunistic. We established the run, and then they tightened things up. Any time you play a good team on the road, you can't turn the ball over. You also need to score touchdowns and not field goals."

(on Terrance Broadway) "If there are any positives from tonight - and there aren't many - it's how he handled that situation. He didn't have many reps coming into this game."

Houston wide receiver James Cleveland
"We kept shooting ourselves in the foot offensively. We just have to overcome ourselves. That was a good team, nonetheless. You have to look at the bright side. We just have to look forward to next week. We have to leave this game in California. Any team can beat anybody. It's very disheartening. That's not what we came out here for."