UCLA went shorts and shells Thursday afternoon, and while Jim Mora made the team restart a quarter of the way into practice, all in all, the workout was a sharp one as the team gears up for its scrimmage tomorrow night. Here were the news and notes from the afternoon:
-Starting with injuries, Jim Mora said DE Takkarist McKinley suffered a head injury and they're being cautious with it. He was not on the field today. Other injured guys like Conor McDermott, Jake Brendel and Tevita Halalilo should be back when the team returns to Westwood on Monday, Mora said.
-Mora also addressed the Josh Rosen blowup, basically saying it was all for show yesterday. He said he wants to put his players in difficult situations out on the practice field so it's easy for them on the Rose Bowl turf. He added that he and Rosen are very close, and the freshman QB actually slept on his couch during Christmas while the two were watching a movie. So everything is all good there.
-We learned quite a bit about who will redshirt and who won't today. For starters, Octo Spencer was working with the No. 1 kickoff team as an outside guy, so it looks like he'll play. Nate Meadors, Josh Woods, Keisean Lucier-South and DeChaun Holiday ran with the No. 2 kickoff team, so that's a pretty good indication they'll play as well. Mora praised Fred Ulu-Perry, Bolu Olorunfunmi and Rick Wade in the post-practice presser, so I think they all have a good shot to not redshirt this year as well.
-On the quarterback battle front, Josh Rosen earned reps with the ones, Jerry Neuheisel took them with the twos and Mike Fafaul with the threes. It was not a great day in 11-on-11 for Rosen, whom I had at 2-for-7 with a pick and a touchdown in the workout. The problem for him in the drills was his O-line and the pressure that Tom Bradley brought. Bradley didn't hold anything back, and the consistent pressure flustered Rosen into making bad decisions. On the flip side, Bradley's twos didn't get as much pressure on Neuheisel, whom I had at 6-for-8 in his 11-on-11 throws. Seven-on-seven, or in today's case a little 2-on-3 drill, is where you really saw the separation between these two QBs though. Rosen hit every throw. Neuheisel made some good decisions, but just doesn't have nearly the same arm. So it's basically Neuheisel has the higher floor and isn't going to make as many mistakes against the rush. Rosen is going to get flustered against blitz-heavy teams, but his ceiling is enormous. I'm still taking that, but that's just me.
-Several freshmen really popped today. Most notably, Bolu Olorunfunmi flashed a really intriguing skillset. He's obviously a big bowling ball who runs with good pad level and power, but he had some cuts and jukes today that had me checking his number to make sure he wasn't Nate Starks. He's having a very similar freshman camp to what Paul Perkins had a few years ago. Keisean Lucier-South meanwhile had a few sacks and a few nice plays working against Zach Bateman and Andre James for most of the afternoon, drawing praise from Mora at one point. Octo Spencer had another pick and is probably having the best camp of all the incoming freshmen DBs. Rick Wade got in a tussle with John Lopez and looked strong at DE again. And Fred Ulu-Perry continues to move guys out of the way in the run game, filling in for Alex Redmond who slid down to center to take over Brendel's spot.
-Jacob Tuioti-Mariner earned some reps with the first team with McKinley still out. Matt Dickerson started the afternoon there. Both look more than capable of taking over McKinley's spot if he's out for an extended period of time.
-Jordan Lasley, who's having a rough camp out here in San Bernardino, had the catch of practice. With DeChaun Holiday draped on his left arm, he stuck out his right hand to haul in a pretty one-handed touchdown.
-Ironically, the other catch of the day went to Ishmael Adams. In DB drills, Demetrice Martin had his guys practice defending endzone fades and back-shoulder throws. Adams went against Denzel Fisher and hauled in a beautiful one-hander in the corner of the endzone. He's this team's nickel and that's not changing, but he can clearly play receiver.
-In a playful note, Mora has carried around a pretty sweet lunchbox this camp that's housed all of his goodies like his whistle, practice plans, phone and more. Well, today he stuck it underneath the tire of a scissor lift, and when the scissor lift moved to film a different spot of practice, it ran it over. Mora was pretty devastated and told us after it's definitely done for the season.
UCLA practices again at 8:30 a.m. Friday, scrimmages at 5 p.m. Friday night and then will wrap up camp with a fan appreciation day at 9 a.m. Saturday.
-Starting with injuries, Jim Mora said DE Takkarist McKinley suffered a head injury and they're being cautious with it. He was not on the field today. Other injured guys like Conor McDermott, Jake Brendel and Tevita Halalilo should be back when the team returns to Westwood on Monday, Mora said.
-Mora also addressed the Josh Rosen blowup, basically saying it was all for show yesterday. He said he wants to put his players in difficult situations out on the practice field so it's easy for them on the Rose Bowl turf. He added that he and Rosen are very close, and the freshman QB actually slept on his couch during Christmas while the two were watching a movie. So everything is all good there.
-We learned quite a bit about who will redshirt and who won't today. For starters, Octo Spencer was working with the No. 1 kickoff team as an outside guy, so it looks like he'll play. Nate Meadors, Josh Woods, Keisean Lucier-South and DeChaun Holiday ran with the No. 2 kickoff team, so that's a pretty good indication they'll play as well. Mora praised Fred Ulu-Perry, Bolu Olorunfunmi and Rick Wade in the post-practice presser, so I think they all have a good shot to not redshirt this year as well.
-On the quarterback battle front, Josh Rosen earned reps with the ones, Jerry Neuheisel took them with the twos and Mike Fafaul with the threes. It was not a great day in 11-on-11 for Rosen, whom I had at 2-for-7 with a pick and a touchdown in the workout. The problem for him in the drills was his O-line and the pressure that Tom Bradley brought. Bradley didn't hold anything back, and the consistent pressure flustered Rosen into making bad decisions. On the flip side, Bradley's twos didn't get as much pressure on Neuheisel, whom I had at 6-for-8 in his 11-on-11 throws. Seven-on-seven, or in today's case a little 2-on-3 drill, is where you really saw the separation between these two QBs though. Rosen hit every throw. Neuheisel made some good decisions, but just doesn't have nearly the same arm. So it's basically Neuheisel has the higher floor and isn't going to make as many mistakes against the rush. Rosen is going to get flustered against blitz-heavy teams, but his ceiling is enormous. I'm still taking that, but that's just me.
-Several freshmen really popped today. Most notably, Bolu Olorunfunmi flashed a really intriguing skillset. He's obviously a big bowling ball who runs with good pad level and power, but he had some cuts and jukes today that had me checking his number to make sure he wasn't Nate Starks. He's having a very similar freshman camp to what Paul Perkins had a few years ago. Keisean Lucier-South meanwhile had a few sacks and a few nice plays working against Zach Bateman and Andre James for most of the afternoon, drawing praise from Mora at one point. Octo Spencer had another pick and is probably having the best camp of all the incoming freshmen DBs. Rick Wade got in a tussle with John Lopez and looked strong at DE again. And Fred Ulu-Perry continues to move guys out of the way in the run game, filling in for Alex Redmond who slid down to center to take over Brendel's spot.
-Jacob Tuioti-Mariner earned some reps with the first team with McKinley still out. Matt Dickerson started the afternoon there. Both look more than capable of taking over McKinley's spot if he's out for an extended period of time.
-Jordan Lasley, who's having a rough camp out here in San Bernardino, had the catch of practice. With DeChaun Holiday draped on his left arm, he stuck out his right hand to haul in a pretty one-handed touchdown.
-Ironically, the other catch of the day went to Ishmael Adams. In DB drills, Demetrice Martin had his guys practice defending endzone fades and back-shoulder throws. Adams went against Denzel Fisher and hauled in a beautiful one-hander in the corner of the endzone. He's this team's nickel and that's not changing, but he can clearly play receiver.
-In a playful note, Mora has carried around a pretty sweet lunchbox this camp that's housed all of his goodies like his whistle, practice plans, phone and more. Well, today he stuck it underneath the tire of a scissor lift, and when the scissor lift moved to film a different spot of practice, it ran it over. Mora was pretty devastated and told us after it's definitely done for the season.
UCLA practices again at 8:30 a.m. Friday, scrimmages at 5 p.m. Friday night and then will wrap up camp with a fan appreciation day at 9 a.m. Saturday.
