Monday’s UCLA sound bites

UCLA got a 28-20 victory over Virginia on Saturday but it wasn’t pretty. The offense scored only one touchdown and Virginia made a run at the Bruins toward the end. So, unsurprisingly, the mood among the Bruins was happy but not overjoyed Monday.

Quotes from the day are below, but also check out a post about Jordan Payton and his connection with Brett Hundley, as well as a quick hit on Eric Kendricks being weirdly dissapointed with his very good performance against Virginia.

Redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley

On his third-quarter touchdown run: “Sometimes, man, you just have to take off and hope for the best. Sometimes you just have to will yourself into the end zone.”

On missing center Jake Brendel: “We were talking about this, and I haven’t taken a snap from another center since, uh, never. He’s been there from day one.”

On the time difference in Virginia: “We took off Thursday, so we got an adjustment to it and we had things broken down on when to sleep and stuff like that, just to get your body ready for that game time schedule. So we were pretty solid on that.”

Junior wide receiver Jordan Payton

On mental errors against Virginia: “I’m glad we saw it now rather than a few weeks down the line. Everything is going to turn out pretty good, man.”

On offense turning it around in the third quarter: “We just kinda believed in the whole system, you know. Throughout the game, we were so sporadic in trying to do so much, and do so much with each other. We have a simple offense, we do simple things, and it was, ‘All right, let’s just go.’ You saw that in that drive.”

Redshirt senior linebacker Eric Kendricks

On sophomore linebacker Myles Jack: “He was salty in the run gap. He really took pride in his run fits and he was there. He had 13 tackles? He was feeling nice. I felt his presence on the other side, and that was cool.”

Junior defensive back Ishmael Adams

On Virginia: “You never want to underestimate them, but they were way better than what their record was last year. They came out on fire this year, and when that new quarterback came in, you could really see a perk in their team. They started challenging us downfield and had a little more confidence behind them. I feel like they can give some people some run with that new quarterback in.”

On Priest Willis, who earned a penalty that got an Adams’ punt return for a touchdown nullified: “I saw it on his face that he was a little dissapointed, but as any football player would, he put that helmet back on and kept playing. I didn’t shame him in any way. It happens sometimes, you just have to take what happens and keep playing. I got a gift to me from Owa [Owamagbe Odighizuwa, who tipped a pass that Adams intercepted and returned for a touchdown], so it made up for it.”

On giving the offense grief for the defense outscoring them: “A little bit. You have to let them know it, a little bit, but obviously, it’s not going to be like that every time. Obviously we don’t want it to be.”

Redshirt senior defensive lineman Owamagbe Odighizuwa

On playing a lot of snaps: “I didn’t realize how many plays I actually played in the game until we were watching films and I was counting all the plays. I was like, ‘Dang, that was a lot of plays!’ I had no clue I was out there that long, but I was just excited to help the team as much as possible.”

For more Bruin observations, follow Everett Cook on Twitter: @everettcook