WATCH: Mo Osling III Talks UCLA Staying Positive, Communicating
UCLA football defensive back Mo Osling III spoke with the media following Tuesday morning's practice session at Wasserman Football Center. Osling talked about his positive attitude, what his 17 tackles against Oregon really meant, how the Bruins' defense performed on third down Saturday, the different challenges Tanner McKee presents and the lasting effects of Stanford's 11-game winning streak against UCLA from 2009 to 2018.
You're a naturally positive guy – how does that help in a week like this when you're coming back from a tough loss?
Uh, it helps a lot just trying to uplift my teammates, you know, it’s just loss, you can’t put too much on it, you can’t dwell over a loss, you have to move on to the next week, so I feel like the love and the energy within the team, it’s going to come back, everything that we went through, so.
Where does your positive demeanor come from?
Uh, God first and foremost and then my family—we’ve been through a lot, so I’m blessed to be in this position, so I can’t never really dwell on the past, so just being happy, everything is pretty good for me at this moment.
How does your body feel after 17 tackles?
I feel good. I’m ready to go play again next week, so, yes, sir.
Kind of good to get 17 tackles, but it also means the defense may not have been doing it's job – how does it feel to have a big day personally but the defense didn't have it best day?
For me, I really don’t care about the tackles, I care about winning, so for me like after, the game, my family was happy for me—like, you was out there tackling—but we still lost, so I didn’t really do anything to contribute to helping us win, so it didn’t go hand in hand.
Anything stand out on film that made it tougher to get off the field on third down?
I would just say our communication wasn’t the best during the game, so we have to communicate a lot better as a defense, as a team, as coaches, as players, just communicating. I feel like we’re doing a better job in practice this week communicating, so.
Was that because of the environment or Oregon showing something different than what you saw on film?
Just the flow of the game, people start to get tired, you know, we’re in a different place, so it could be a number of issues but we’ve just got to communicate better as a team, so.
Is that partially your responsibility?
Yeah, I put the loss on me, so I didn’t go out there and make plays, I didn’t communicate correctly with my teammates, I didn’t get any turnovers so you know I put the loss on me, on myself.
How hard is it as a defense to be reliant on creating turnovers and needing to grind out stops when you aren't?
Yeah, we’ve just got to go out there and get stops, man. It’s hard to, it’s a top-10 team, so they’re a really good team over there, they’re coached very well, so if we don’t go out there and get stops it’s going to be very hard for the offense to go out there and score, so it was a race that we were in that we were losing, so.
How do DeShaun Foster and Jerry Neuheisel set the tone and culture for you guys?
They set the standard, man, so they raise the bar every day. Coach Jerry Neuheisel, he’s a great coach, he coaches the wide receivers, the gunners too on special teams and coach Foster has been here for a decade, played here, so we’re real close and I talk to coach Foster every day and he’s a really great guy who can help raise the standard over here.
What is something you've learned from Foster?
Well, I don’t play offense, but you know, wrist above elbow—whenever you get that ball, you know you want to take care of it, so first and foremost, take care of the ball, ball security is everything.
How do you avoid a letdown this week coming out of a big top-10 showdown?
We just go out there and do our jobs first and foremost, don’t make the game bigger than what it is. Stanford’s a very good team, they’re on a two-game winning streak right now, so we can’t go out there and overlook them, so go out there and communicate better and tackle them and make our plays out there.
What have you seen from Tanner McKee?
He’s a great quarterback, he puts the ball where it needs to be, they have some great receivers over there, great coaches, they’ve been running the same system for years now, so you can expect the same type of plays they’ve been running from last year initially.
Different type of challenge to face an offense that doesn't do as many quick-hit plays as Oregon?
Uh, nah. We don’t have to expect him trying to run a lot, but he might get out of the pocket so just containing him, he's going to sit back there and throw the ball and try to pick apart our defense, so just play in coverage, just get the ball out when he throws the ball up with the receiver and stuff like that.
Do you like it when the plays are slower to develop?
I just love playing football regardless of whether it’s fast or slow, you know you have to go out there and play.
You were here during Stanford's streak of beating you 11 times in a row – is there still dome residual revenge for some of the older guys?
I’ve got a chip on my shoulder with every team in the Pac-12, so we want to beat them all.
We've seen the waterworks celebration after wins, but what was a losing locker room like?
Uh, you know, it was hard, it was our first loss of the season so I’m not going to sit here and act like it didn’t feel us, but we have a 24-hour rule, we put it to bed, we’re on to the next week, so.
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