Cal Keeping Normal Sense of Urgency as UCLA Approaches

A lot of what Justin Wilcox tells his team is to never be too high, never be too low, and when asked about potentially having more of a sense of urgency towards a win, coming off two straight losses, Wilcox had this to say.

"You have to have a sense of urgency all the time," Wilcox said, "the way we practice, no matter what our record is, our expectations on how they practice on a Wednesday are the same. You wouldn't notice it in meetings or anything like that. That's the expectation, we want to win. Everything we do is in order to win the game on Saturday. We haven't done well enough to do that the last two weeks, so we give them solutions in the meetings , and we practice with great effort, intensity and focus, and they have."

That's what has had to happen for Wilcox's squad as they go into a matchup with a UCLA team that every single coach and player has said is better than their record of 0-5. Within that knowledge is familiarity. Cal's pretty familiar with Jerry Azzinaro, their defensive line coach a year ago, and Wilcox noted that the players on this team know UCLA's players

"Our guys know a lot of those players," Wilcox said, "They played against them in high school, they know how talented they are , they know what kind of coaching staff they have."

"I see tremendous growth," defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter added in talking about the UCLA offense, "you go from game one to last week against a really good Washington team, I see tremendous improvement, particularly from the quarterback, which is understandable. He's a freshman, and every week, he's getting more confident, and I think they're understanding who their playmakers are as they go along."

Starting safety Jaylinn Hawkins is out for the first half of the UCLA due to a late targeting penalty against Arizona on the final onside kick. In his place will be Quentin Tartabull, a redshirt senior who's been through injuries and coaching changes to make an impact, opening 2017 as the starter at a safety spot while also starting against Idaho State earlier this season.

"Quentin played quite a bit for us last year and there's a lot of guys playing at a high level at that position," Wilcox said. "He hasn't gotten as many opportunities, but he has done a great job on special teams. Just really been impressed with how he's approached the season, his meeting room work, and he was banged up a couple weeks ago. He's a tough guy, he loves all this, and we really appreciate the attitude he brings."

DeRuyter took it a step further in his praise of Tartabull.

"Q's been the same guy since we've been here," DeRuyter said, "very physical, he's been making all kinds of plays, he was probably our special teams MVP. Before J-Hawk had the penalty, we were looking for roles to get him on the field last week. We were working him as an outside linebacker in certain personnel groupings. He's a guy we have a lot of confidence in, and this is his opportunity. We live in a next man up sport, and he's ready to go."

With that, Tartabull's been someone who Gerald Alexander has had to tell to slow down and not hit as hard during practice, but his contributions in that regard will be appreciated in slowing down UCLA's growing attack.

Other Note:

- With the RBs, Marcel Dancy is available, per Wilcox, along with Chris Brown Jr to back up Patrick Laird

Wilcox

On Dorian Thompson-Robinson

"We see what kind of athlete he is, and he's playing really good football, getting a freshman that's played a lot early, you see his skills, they're evident."

On RB Joshua Kelley

"They have a big back, he's powerful, we know we're going to have to play really good team defense, tackle well, no different than any other week."

DeRuyter

On what this game means

"It's for bragging rights. We're playing the University of California, Los Angeles, we're the University of California. You can throw the records out in this one, our guys are ready to play, especially coming home, Joe Roth, and after last weekend."

Alex Funches

On this being the Joe Roth Memorial Game

"Everything that he stood for, that's what we're trying to embody as a culture."

On starting faster defensively

"Just a matter of coming out how we want to come out, there's no specific cookie cutter plays, no specific cookie cutter answer to that, we've just got to come out, stop them, a three and out every drive."

On 'beating the other defense'

"Coach DeRuyter, he talks about beating the other defense, we're not playing the other defense, but a big part of us being the best defense we can be is outplaying the other defense. We didn't get two pick-sixes (against Arizona) to help our offense, we got a pick, we got a fumble, but if they got all those turnovers, why can't we get all those turnovers."

On wanting to hold a team to no points

"Every game (we want to hold them to no points). If we could get them in the negatives somehow, we would do that, if that was a thing."

On whether he's happy with the pass rush

"I don't think I'll ever be satisfied, coach Tuioti talks about trapping the quarterback and making sure he doesn't escape, and it's something I think we need to emphasize a little bit harder upon ourselves, just stress the fact that we need to get him trapped. It doesn't matter who gets the sack, as long as somebody gets it, I just think our production could just better as a whole, even if we had 10 sacks in a game, we could get 20."