WATCH: Hudson Habermehl Talks Washington Game, DTR Relationship

One of the Bruins' emerging tight ends has hauled in two touchdown grabs from star quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
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UCLA football tight end Hudson Habermehl spoke to the media following the team's Tuesday morning practice session at the Wasserman Football Center. Habermehl talked about the Bruins' tendency to hurdle defenders, what it's like to go up against a team with such a high-scoring offense, the chemistry he's developed with quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and how the tight ends plan to help stop Washington's accomplished pass rush.

How would you rate Michael's hurdling?

Oh, sweet. Got to see the slo-mo too. No, it was cool from the sideline, seeing that, and he did that stuff in high school, so it's nothing new from him.

Any chance we see that from you?

Yeah, throw it in there every once in a while. You gotta wait for the moment, but you might see something like that.

Team thing now with Dorian...

I know. Dorian loves it. Yeah, he's given us little tips – nah, I'm kidding. Yeah, it was cool seeing Mike do that though.

Playing a team that will probably put up a lot of points – put pressure on you guys to score a lot of points too?

Um, no. We have confidence in our defense, and every drive, we want to put points on the board, so it doesn't change anything for the offense. We're really confident in how our defense is gonna stop them and really just how we respond as an offense every drive.

How important is it to get out to a quick start?

Yeah, it's huge, really set the tone. Every team tries to get off to a quick start defensively, offensively, so I think this game, we come out swinging, I think that would be a really good advantage.

Built chemistry with Dorian?

Yeah, it actually started two years ago. All the summer workouts, we conducted on our own, come out here and just try to work chemistry in passing. So it's been a long time coming, it's not like it just snapped this year. He's really, really good at getting us all together, 'Hey, we gotta work this,' timing, all that stuff. So he's a great leader, he really knows how to get the offense all in cohesion with each other. So it's been a long, long trust within the offensive scheme, and with him at quarterback, he's leading us the right way.

Tight ends paying more attention to blocking because of Washington's pass rush?

Yeah, Washington, they have a really good front seven, aggressive. Our offensive line, they've been doing really good this year, so we're not too worried in terms of changing up the scheme or anything. We are expecting a more aggressive rush from them, but I think we can handle it.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.