UCLA football head coach DeShaun Foster has been using heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson as a source of motivation for the Bruins throughout this season.
He hosted a screening of Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson before the LSU game and Michael Spinks vs. Tyson prior to Oregon.
“We’re showing them heavyweight fights,” Foster told reporters. “It’s huge because it’s about us. I don’t think that we’ve reached our full potential, so I’m trying to just get them focused on ourselves and get going. I think we can play really well.”
The Bruins, who have yet to say who will start at quarterback Saturday, will square up with one of the toughest heavyweights on their schedule when they travel to Happy Valley in Pennsylvania for a 9 a.m. PT kickoff against No. 7 Penn State. They’re finding motivation anywhere they can as the struggle to win a Big Ten Conference game continues.
“They got some good cats,” Bruins receiver Rico Flores Jr. said of Penn State. “They got a hell of a defense. But I’m not shying away from nobody at the end of the day because it’s us versus us.”
Flores is confident and showed no signs of nervousness when he addressed the media Wednesday. He played for Notre Dame last season, which exposed him to high-level opponents and rowdy environments.
Most of UCLA’s team this season is experiencing both of those things at a higher level in its foray into the Big Ten. Penn State (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten), which brought in 109,911 fans for its last home game against Illinois, will be no different. Foster has mentioned that his players have experienced jitters and that he wants them to settle in.
“The Pac-12 is not as big as the Big Ten,” Flores said. “It’s a lot of people. That’s probably where (the nerves) stem from but for me, you have got to be calm, cool and relaxed. Treat it like practice. We play football every day. Saturday is nothing different.”
Flores added that watching film reminds him that UCLA (1-3, 0-2) has had competitive…
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