The Bruins took to the practice fields tonight in full pads as they prepare to return home following this week. With tempo being urged this morning, tonight's message was safety. Here were the notes from the practice:
-Alex Redmond returned to practice today to the reports that his absence from this morning was just a personal issue and it did appear so. He was at right guard to start walkthroughs but when the team began its 11-on-11 portions of practice, Redmond was on the sideline and replaced by Poasi Moala. Now I don't want to speculate and say he was doing his time for missing practice, but it would seem to me that if he were able to return from practice because of injury this morning then he should have been in with the starters. Either way, Moala once again ran with the ones but he wasn't the only new face on the starting line. Jake Brendel was replaced by Fred Ulu-Perry at center and late in practice a gimpy Conor McDermott was replaced by Kolton Miller. All the injuries seem to be minor dings and I don't expect any of the offensive linemen to miss extended time.The idea of camp injuries are not something any coach wants to envision and in an effort to keep players from being injured, none of the tackling is supposed to go to the ground but boys will be boys and coach Jim Mora had Tahaan Goodman benched for a series for tossing a receiver to the ground. UCLA is obviously just trying to get to the start of the season as healthy as possible.
-Josh Rosen took snaps with the ones and, just as he has done the past few days, he had a slow start. He began his 11-on-11 portion of practice by throwing a pick-six to a now healthy Ishmael Adams and was sacked on the next play. On the day I had him at 8-of-13 with one interception, two sacks and what should have been two scores if not for an easy drop by Kenneth Walker. Rosen is going to need to be more consistent and get off to better starts if he hopes to win the job with any confidence. Jerry Neuheisel and Mike Fafaul split their time with the twos and looked OK. Jerry completed around 75 percent of his passes but only around three passes traveled more than 8 yards downfield. He was mostly content to check down and hit the back instead of testing anything deep.
-The starting defense, especially the defensive line was giving the offense fits. Kenny Clark has really improved his pass rush skills and is making life really difficult for those interior linemen. As talented as Ulu-Perry is, he's not quite a match for Clark. All of the changes on the offensive line also made it a little easier to create pressure and the defense took advantage. It speaks volumes about how strong of a group the offensive line is when they're all healthy and together when it looked hectic with a few subs in there. Takkarist McKinley gave McDermott fits before he left with injury, getting into his chest and driving him back. Not to be outdone, Eddie Vanderdoes was an absolute mountain out there, refusing to be moved and causing all kinds of issues in the run game. And it wasn't just those three, Jacob Tuioti-Mariner and Matt Dickerson have really looked good. Najee Toran is stout and even Rick Wade applied pressure tonight. This defense is going to be really scary for opponents as what was once thought as the Bruins' defensive weakness is now turning into a strength.
-Whomever the starting quarterback is will be throwing to a stellar group of wideouts and they proved it again tonight. Mossi Johnson continues to make life that much easier for quarterbacks with his speed, athletic ability and willingness to make the tough catch. Darren Andrews is much improved and even Alex Van Dyke has looked better, although he needs to spend more time on the jugs machine. Jordan Lasley is the only one who seems to have taken a step back in fall camp. He's having some trouble holding onto the ball and has only won about 60 percent of his 1-on-1 reps. On the other hand, guys like Thomas Duarte and Mossi Johnson win about 80 percent of their snaps with Mossi mainly being covered by Myles Jack.
-Jack seems fully recovered from whatever lower extremity issue he had last week and is flying around making stops and pass breakups. He has also exhibited a much better attitude since his blow up last week and although he continues to talk some trash, he seems to let everything go in time for the next snap.
-I thought for sure that with pads on tonight Soso Jamabo would turn it on. Instead, he still is not showing the burst necessary to hit holes consistently. When he gets into the open field, you can see his gliding speed that looks so smooth but he just can't seem to hit it hard when he needs to. Paul Perkins, Bolu Olorunfunmi and Roosevelt Davis have all looked good this camp but Nate Starks has just been another animal. He's either putting moves on people or he is flat out moving them. He and Perkins in tandem are going to be a real treat to watch this year.
-The play of the night came from freshman Octavius Spencer who picked off Fafaul in dramatic fashion by leaping over Tyler Scott as the ball arrived and having his own legs taken out by Scott's helmet before crashing to the ground. The crowd loved it, the defense loved it, but I'm sure Spencer is going to be sore tomorrow.
-UCLA wrapped up practice with field goals from Ka'imi Fairbairn, who was 4-for-4 with a long of around 45 yards. Although he and Matt Mengel were supposed to be in competition for their jobs, it appears they're both going to be the team specialists when the season rolls around.
The Bruins return to the practice field tomorrow at 3 p.m.
-Alex Redmond returned to practice today to the reports that his absence from this morning was just a personal issue and it did appear so. He was at right guard to start walkthroughs but when the team began its 11-on-11 portions of practice, Redmond was on the sideline and replaced by Poasi Moala. Now I don't want to speculate and say he was doing his time for missing practice, but it would seem to me that if he were able to return from practice because of injury this morning then he should have been in with the starters. Either way, Moala once again ran with the ones but he wasn't the only new face on the starting line. Jake Brendel was replaced by Fred Ulu-Perry at center and late in practice a gimpy Conor McDermott was replaced by Kolton Miller. All the injuries seem to be minor dings and I don't expect any of the offensive linemen to miss extended time.The idea of camp injuries are not something any coach wants to envision and in an effort to keep players from being injured, none of the tackling is supposed to go to the ground but boys will be boys and coach Jim Mora had Tahaan Goodman benched for a series for tossing a receiver to the ground. UCLA is obviously just trying to get to the start of the season as healthy as possible.
-Josh Rosen took snaps with the ones and, just as he has done the past few days, he had a slow start. He began his 11-on-11 portion of practice by throwing a pick-six to a now healthy Ishmael Adams and was sacked on the next play. On the day I had him at 8-of-13 with one interception, two sacks and what should have been two scores if not for an easy drop by Kenneth Walker. Rosen is going to need to be more consistent and get off to better starts if he hopes to win the job with any confidence. Jerry Neuheisel and Mike Fafaul split their time with the twos and looked OK. Jerry completed around 75 percent of his passes but only around three passes traveled more than 8 yards downfield. He was mostly content to check down and hit the back instead of testing anything deep.
-The starting defense, especially the defensive line was giving the offense fits. Kenny Clark has really improved his pass rush skills and is making life really difficult for those interior linemen. As talented as Ulu-Perry is, he's not quite a match for Clark. All of the changes on the offensive line also made it a little easier to create pressure and the defense took advantage. It speaks volumes about how strong of a group the offensive line is when they're all healthy and together when it looked hectic with a few subs in there. Takkarist McKinley gave McDermott fits before he left with injury, getting into his chest and driving him back. Not to be outdone, Eddie Vanderdoes was an absolute mountain out there, refusing to be moved and causing all kinds of issues in the run game. And it wasn't just those three, Jacob Tuioti-Mariner and Matt Dickerson have really looked good. Najee Toran is stout and even Rick Wade applied pressure tonight. This defense is going to be really scary for opponents as what was once thought as the Bruins' defensive weakness is now turning into a strength.
-Whomever the starting quarterback is will be throwing to a stellar group of wideouts and they proved it again tonight. Mossi Johnson continues to make life that much easier for quarterbacks with his speed, athletic ability and willingness to make the tough catch. Darren Andrews is much improved and even Alex Van Dyke has looked better, although he needs to spend more time on the jugs machine. Jordan Lasley is the only one who seems to have taken a step back in fall camp. He's having some trouble holding onto the ball and has only won about 60 percent of his 1-on-1 reps. On the other hand, guys like Thomas Duarte and Mossi Johnson win about 80 percent of their snaps with Mossi mainly being covered by Myles Jack.
-Jack seems fully recovered from whatever lower extremity issue he had last week and is flying around making stops and pass breakups. He has also exhibited a much better attitude since his blow up last week and although he continues to talk some trash, he seems to let everything go in time for the next snap.
-I thought for sure that with pads on tonight Soso Jamabo would turn it on. Instead, he still is not showing the burst necessary to hit holes consistently. When he gets into the open field, you can see his gliding speed that looks so smooth but he just can't seem to hit it hard when he needs to. Paul Perkins, Bolu Olorunfunmi and Roosevelt Davis have all looked good this camp but Nate Starks has just been another animal. He's either putting moves on people or he is flat out moving them. He and Perkins in tandem are going to be a real treat to watch this year.
-The play of the night came from freshman Octavius Spencer who picked off Fafaul in dramatic fashion by leaping over Tyler Scott as the ball arrived and having his own legs taken out by Scott's helmet before crashing to the ground. The crowd loved it, the defense loved it, but I'm sure Spencer is going to be sore tomorrow.
-UCLA wrapped up practice with field goals from Ka'imi Fairbairn, who was 4-for-4 with a long of around 45 yards. Although he and Matt Mengel were supposed to be in competition for their jobs, it appears they're both going to be the team specialists when the season rolls around.
The Bruins return to the practice field tomorrow at 3 p.m.
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