WATCH: Carl Jones on UCLA's Pass Rush, Laiatu Latu Facing Washington
UCLA football edge rusher Carl Jones Jr. spoke to the media following the team's Tuesday morning practice session at the Wasserman Football Center. Jones talked about how the Bruins plan to slow down Washington's pass attack, the development of his teammate John Humphrey, the internal competition among the edge rushers and how Laiatau Latu is helping them prepare to face his old team.
How do you go about disrupting Washington's passing game?
Uh, same thing as all the weeks, you know? Our front, our four front, we're just gonna go after them, that's pretty much what we gotta do. That's been the intention every week, just to go after them no matter who it is, faceless opponents, that's what we're thinking.
John Humphrey got his first career start?
Oh yeah, John Humph, a lot of guys are rotating in. Truly, we just play whoever we're gonna play and see who's on fire at the moment and if we people get rotated, we get rotated, but John Humph, congratulations. Jaylin, from Oregon, he hopped in there amongst all our DBs, got to play that we traveled against Colorado, so.
Growth in Humphrey's game?
John Humph, he's one of the guys that have just come out here by himself and just go through like a whole game, series. Like covering a ghost, basically, but actually coming downhill, tapping off against nobody. So John Humph, he's really a detailed and mentally prepared for every week for himself, so.
Difficult to keep the "faceless opponent" mentality in a high-profile game like this?
Um, I believe they're 3-0, we're 4-0. They're No. 15, I'm pretty sure we're not ranked, but it doesn't really matter. We come out here just like they went out there in Washington in practice. We're out here practicing, we just got done so, you know, it's gonna be a great game on Friday. Two good teams, two good teams coming together, we're just gonna see who's more prepared.
Internal competition among the edge rushers for getting to the QB?
Yeah, most definitely. You know, Latu Latu came from UW, coach Malloe came from UW, and that's our coach, so the outside linebacker group, we're taking it really personal and we just gonna wait til Friday to see how it goes. But yeah, we definitely do try and see who can get the most but at the end of the day, we're happy for whoever gets them.
Any talk about Pennix not taking a sack yet this year?
Oh, we're not worried about that. Our group, we're sack hungry. We're really envy on our moves and our pass rush, so we're just gonna get after them. Once again, their O-line has to go against us, not us going against them.
Could you see Latu
Latu, like I've worked 1-on-1 with Latu and Latu, he's a guy. Everything that he does is just so fluid and him already having experience against all those O-linemen down at UW, you know, he's letting us know what could work, what couldn't work. But you know, he's beat every single one of those guys at practice so hopefully, that'll be the same thing during the game, which it will, I see it happening.
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