UCLA Football: Dante Moore Unpacks Loss Of Ethan Garbers In Cal Finale

The freshman couldn't get the job done.

UCLA Bruins starting quarterback Ethan Garbers left the team’s game against the Cal Golden Bears early on Saturday due to injury, and it ended up hurting the team. Freshman quarterback Dante Moore took over for Garbers, but the team couldn’t recover from his injury and fell to Cal by a score of 33-7.

Moore threw for 266 years with one touchdown and two interceptions. It was another poor showing for the freshman, and he knows that he can play better. Moore spoke about the game afterward, knowing that he has to clean up the mistakes going forward.

“It kind of reminds me of my freshman year of high school. I had a lot of mistakes. I had a lot of picks, actually. My picks went down, lower and lower and lower, because I just learned the speed coming from Little League to high school, and of course going through the same thing in college. I just have to adapt and adjust to things.”

Per Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times

The true freshman did what he could due to the situation, but he has had issues with turnovers all year long. It’s the reason that Garbers became the starter in the first place, and he couldn’t overcome them again.

#UCLA's Dante Moore and Alex Johnson talked after the loss to Cal about losing Ethan Garbers, moving on from the loss, and getting ready for the bowl game:https://t.co/6vwbTtK343 pic.twitter.com/Vyi1AObmxc

— Bruin Report Online (@BruinReport) November 26, 2023

Moving forward, Moore will need to show that he can be a reliable option for this team, otherwise, his college career could spiral out of control. He will need to focus this offseason on honing the skills that make him successful, and maybe he can win the job in camp next season.

Head coach Chip Kelly didn’t blame the loss on the injury to Garbers but rather said that guys needed to step up.

“That’s just, that’s football.” Kelly said. “I mean, you can’t make an excuse that we lost a player. That’s just the way the game goes sometimes and you have to have next-man-up mentality, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Per Chip Kelly via The LA Times

It was an unfortunate occurrence for this team, and we won’t even know what could have been if he stayed healthy. UCLA now enters into the offseason having dropped three of their last four games, and they are left with the feeling of missed opportunities.

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