UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster talks about the opener against Hawaii, pregame speeches, and more.

what's say Wednesday Wednesday had another good padded practice uh made it out clean no injuries um just excited for our guys you can tell that they're they're kind of getting a little bit more amped up ready to play another opponent so you know we leave tomorrow then you know to this game Saturday desan what do that travel situation look like are you taking everybody or yeah it's a noncon every unless they're um they're inj per but also Carson Cox ising got me Carson L of cars yeah I got a lot of cars Carson steel Cox Gordon Carson Gordon is in Peru um yeah competing for the I think it's the Junior Olympics triple triple how does his schedule work with you know him doing track compared to maybe somebody like John joh obviously their Sports in you know different part of the year um I don't think we have this situation again I think it was because of the Olympic so the timing of it is right now so maybe in 28 again we should have that on but he's going to jump here UCL he a can't stop big time saw Kanye doing a little cross training with the safeties and nickels is that a position switch or is that just cross training at just cross training just in case you know just something happens are your how would you describe the feeling and anticipation heading into your first game just just excited you know um I I would kind of compare it to my first time playing varsity football like you're excited you have a little bit of butterflies you know but um that's it you know I haven't had that feel in a while I didn't get it as a freshman here and I didn't have it as a rookie NE so it's kind of cool to you know it's like Christmas I'm just anticipating I'm ready for to have you thought about what that first pregame speech is going to be like or is there a coach that you would model after um you know maybe ending even Sunday I'm just kidding that's a pretty good one do your job noly but um it's just going to be mostly it's going to come from my heart that's that's me I got to speak just how I feel and and just come uh one one odise on the dep chart that was released uh you had uh Rico Flores above Logan laer can you talk about that um Rico just came out had good spring and follow that up with a great Camp um Logan's rotating with the starter so it's not like he's not a starter but he's rotating there's probably a good chance he might get more SS a it's a it's a it's a big rotation with four guys playing saw maybe like gorgio in the way is he okay yeah just um just got nicked up a little bit yesterday so kind of took it easy on Ethan in his time here has really earned this role and this opportunity is that fact that sort of like everything he's been through and everything sticking sticking it out resonate with his teammate I mean you can just tell the way that they follow Ethan the way that they talk about him uh just like you said everybody has seen what he's been through and what he's gone through here UCLA and just to continue to be resilient and come out on top is just good so I'm excited for Ethan you know looking forward to this first game um you know we're from the same county so special OC representing OC representing most definitely most definitely he seven months since you took the job until now has it gone like you expected better same I would say it's Prett gone as much as I it could expected um you know we I just wanted to open it up you know yeah around 2,000 come through spring and hosted a lot of guys on officials you know we just wanted to open up let let it be seen let it be known what UCLA has and what we have to offer and you know I think we did a good job with that and then you know we we didn't lose to me guys to the portal so they believed in what we're doing and you know that's all you can ask you feel like you're better positioned for your first year maybe compared to cuz you were an assistant in 18 Chip's first year basically things were you you've got talent and the roster I think is in a better situation compared to then yeah I mean you could say that um but you know we still got to get out there and play you know it's not a if you want off talent that you know there be certain team that stay at the top all the time you know we still got to get out there and play and I just think that these guys kind of have the right mentality going into this season you know new coach even though I am a familiar face but they're approaching it different than I think that they did in their team why do you think this feels more like game um I don't know cuz it's just a a feeling you know you you're excited to play varsity football your first time like when I was a sophomore I was excited for it but I was still nervous you know so um it might be just because you know anytime I was playing I knew I was in control you know I'm in control but they still have to so I think that's the the the difference in my feel how much does it have for you first year head coach having a veteran returning quarterback to this program and also Justin is the backup to maybe compared to 18 that's huge just having a veteran quarterback that that's been here has played in b games um and a backup that has been here for a while too so just that's huge that's a I didn't even think about that te you say but that's huge you know just just being able to have a familiar face and know somebody that you can trust and keep the offense on track that's a positive you think G's healthy is a major priority this season you're going up against Kawai who had five sacks last week what have you seen from the offensive line through camp and how are you feeling head that um they've come together really well you know um they're probably about 8 you know and just building good camaraderie and just being able to trust each other so I think that the old line did a great job this fall and I know they're they're pretty much ready to go against somebody other than these white jerse so I'm just looking forward to the guys being out there just playing hard you know I want to see them play hard play with enthusiasm respect game and play with discipline coach piggy backing off that question what have you seen from Hawaii's defense on film they have a couple of young high high energe high energy guys uh what are some of the key things you see from Hawaii's defens and how to kind of prevent them you always got to neutralize the dine that's the first thing you got to do like you said they have a lot of guys that play with energy they have safety that runs around L the um you know so these better be fired up you know this is a big game for them you know they're looking forward to it just hopefully you know my team gets out matches they have to match all we're not looking past this and we know that this is a huge game for them so I just feel like my players know bad I want to win this game so I think it kind of I think everyone's you know pretty intrigued to see what this offense looks like in a game uh for the first time in an Ideal World how much of the Playbook do you hope to use and how much do you hope to you know be able to keep a secret for future weeks as least as possible you can go get out of here without running all the plays and that's awesome but you know it's football we just got to see how you guys show up and how they line up I'm feel pretty pretty confident with offense and what they've been doing just how they the growth that they took they've taken and made so I'm exited how do you feel defensively I mean only two starters returned from last year yeah that's true too but um a familiar face in Coach K you know most of the defensive side of the ball is back so I think that's just good then have continuity what was it four years in a row you yeah four in a row exactly four years in a row so I just think that it was good that they able to have a coordinated B with before just to get the growth even if some of those guys are new it's still the same terminology how much does it help with an opener doing a long trip granted it's 3 hours the other way but maybe just in terms of distance J lag and everything for what you're going to have to face later in the year this is actually perfect for us to do to what we're doing this season so I think it's just good the guys got to you know figure out how to travel um a whole different time and just finding ways to self starting yourself ready to play you know that's that's the thing you know we can only do so much as coaches but these guys got to figure out their routine on game day and get it going and hopefully they can carry that throughout the rest of the season for like Penn State and record would you go out on Thursday or we haven't decided yet but potentially potentially we're still not in school we're not in school on p p state we're not in school St so that could be possible faite football movie favorite football movie we're going to go with I mean any given Sunday's pretty high up there um yeah I'm going and get I was thinking of a running back movie but I couldn't have to go with that maybe Gail sers movie I don't know name there you go what did you say okay how about The Longest Yard you had the longest yard uh when you were against the Eagles so we'll go with my movie as the longest yard and not s is there a coach favorite coach in terms of pregame approaches with speeches or kind of back g day getting everything ready um I'm not sure somebody that I was with um coary had some good speeches when I was in San FR you know just cuz he's intense you know he's ex player so he know it's kind of try to push it back but coach Fox always got us ready to go so wasn't it wasn't like just a speech that he's just given us but he always had us prepared so you know I just want to make sure that they're prepared in the right situation the right mind frame and you know I have some gyms for get ready thanks thank you