LOS ANGELES — The UCLA football team hasn’t forgotten about what happened in Saturday’s 42-13 loss to Indiana.
But there’s no time to dwell on the past. A road test against No. 16 LSU awaits this Saturday.
“We got a big game this week on the road, so we can’t just hang our heads low about last game,” running back T.J. Harden said after Monday’s practice. “We can’t just harp on this last game so much, we just have to move on. It’s still early in the season, we still have a chance to redeem ourselves and move forward.”
Still, there are lessons to be learned in defeat.
Coach DeShaun Foster wants the team to remember that feeling of frustration in the locker room after the game against Indiana.
The first-year head coach implored his players to “bottle it up,” so they remember what that emotion felt like.
The hope is that the desire to avoid that feeling again will motivate the team not just against LSU this weekend, but for the rest of the season.
“We’re all competitors on this team. We just don’t want to feel that way again. Just using that pain, driving off of that,” defensive tackle Sitiveni Havili Kaufusi said. “Like how coach Foster says, just bottle that emotion and use it every day to drive you for the rest of the year.”
Kaufusi said the players were despondent for a short time after the game, but then leaned on one another to pick up everyone’s spirits.
Jay Toia, one of the leaders on defense, gathered the group to discuss the outcome further after the coaches were finished delivering their post-game speeches.
Toia emphasized to his teammates that they have to play for each other and remember the pain of losing, so as not to experience it again.
“Everyone was upset, it wasn’t a happy locker room. A lot of guys were sad, frustrated, but I think the good thing is that we came together as a team,” Kaufusi said. “Jay (Toia) brought us together after the game, after we were done talking to the coaches. We had all the leaders just talk and put in their two cents about what it is that we have to change moving forward and make sure we never have that feeling again.”
The players had the day off Sunday, but Foster said a majority of the team came to the facility to review film from the previous day’s game.
He was pleased that they took it upon themselves to come in on an off day, wanting to improve on game plan execution.
“They’re really eager to get back out here. Just the fact that most of the guys came in here and finished the film yesterday on their day off, I was excited that they did that,” Foster said. “We didn’t have to call them up to come in, they were all eager to do it themselves. We have the right type of kids. I just think it was an unfortunate game, it happens.”
So UCLA turns toward preparation for LSU (2-1), an SEC power that has beat Nicholls State and South Carolina (barely) since dropping its opener to USC, 27-20. And the schedule only gets tougher with No. 9 Oregon and No. 10 Penn State in the following weeks.
“We all feel it, everyone in the building, so leaning on the players. We always tell each other just lean on each other when you feel like you’re down,” Kaufusi said. “We’ve all kind of moved on, we have someone else that’s in the way this week. But anytime we get that feeling, it’s using it in a positive way. I think our team can do that by reminding each other to be positive and uplifting each other.”
