Wednesday’s sound bites from UCLA practice

Welcome to the Pac-12 Conference, Takkarist McKinley.

On Wednesday, the Bruins rookie livened up a routine Wednesday media session by saying Colorado’s offensive line plays dirty, a tactic he said he’s seen from other teams in the conference too.

Besides the McKinley story and the quotes below, we also had a post on Noel Mazzone not talking about turnovers, a story on Ellis McCarthy and his increased role, and a notebook from Chris Foster.

Sophomore defensive lineman Takkarist McKinley

On Owamagbe Odighizuwa: “Me personally, just watching Owa play, to me he’s a freak of nature. Just looking at him, and looking at me, I feel like a little Owa. But he’s a fifth-year senior and I’m only a second-year guy [he played in junior college last season], so hopefully when I become a senior I’ll be as big and strong as him and be able to fight these big offensive lineman off. Here, they’re huge. Like Malcolm Bunche, his forearms are as big as my arms.”

Offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone

On running backs catching the ball: “When we go out and look at running backs, that’s one of the things, you have to have that skill set. You have to be able to catch the football out of the backfield.”

On offensive line depth: “Yeah, it’s nice. We might be getting some of these guys back. I told our offensive line this yesterday -- over the last three weeks or so, that’s where I’ve seen probably our biggest progress ... in our offensive line play. ... I was really happy with the progress they’re making.”

Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich

On the improvement of the defensive line: “I think guys are just getting a better understanding of what we’re doing. I think that’s part of it. I think too, it’s just, they want to inflict their will a little bit. They’re tired of the way it’s kind of gone as of late, and they’re creating change. It’s a byproduct of what I get to see every day, which is cool.”

For more Bruins observations, follow Everett Cook on Twitter @everettcook