Tuesday’s sound bites from UCLA practice

For me, one of the best stories of the year is Takkarist McKinley. Here is a player who began his UCLA career in mid-September, but started against California and played more than 50 snaps. There was a story on him yesterday, plus a post on Nelson Spruce of Colorado and a notebook from Chris Foster.

We have injury updates below, and quotes. Happy hump day.

Coach Jim Mora

On the health of running back Paul Perkins (wrist): “He’s doing well.”

On whether wide receiver Thomas Duarte will play this weekend (hamstring): “We’ll see on Saturday.”

On defensive back Fabian Moreau (stinger): “Fabian is doing well.”

On offensive tackle Simon Goines (leg): “He’s doing well.”

On offensive guard Alex Redmond (ankle): “He’s doing great. We had everybody out here today.”

On adjusting to altitude this weekend against Colorado: “The altitude didn’t seem to affect us two years ago. It’s not something we’ll even address with our players. It doesn’t matter, it’s irrelevant. We can’t change it, we’re not going to wear oxygen masks, it doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter. It’s a non-entity.”

On his defense last weekend: “We played the run a lot better than we have. We were more sound in our fits, absolutely. I thought we were as physical on defense as we’ve been all year.”

Defensive line coach Angus McClure

On defensive lineman Ellis McCarthy: “Ellis has been steadily improving throughout the year. His conditioning has really improved. He’s dropped weight, which has helped him. He’s feeling just better. He’s feeling healthy finally, and I think you sort of see that on the field.”

For more Bruins observations, follow Everett Cook on Twitter @everettcook