UCLA Football: Fall Camp Update Day 10

On the 10th day of Fall camp, the UCLA Football team took to the field in San Bernardino in just spider pads as they work towards the kickoff of the season. Here’s the news and notes from the day.

UCLA Football Camp News and Notes

The UCLA Football team began trickling out around 3pm on Thursday to begin practice. They started with their traditional individual drills and stretching. Still no sign of Mique Juarez.

The starting lineups didn’t have any outstanding shakeups and the starters were as follows
DE-Matt Dickerson, DT-Eddie Vanderdoes, DT-Eli Ankou, DE-Takkarist McKinley
OLB-Cameron Judge, MLB-Kenny Young, OLB-Jayon Brown
CB-Fabian Moreau, CB-Nate Meadors, S-Jaleel Wadood, S-Randall Goforth

The offense however did have a change with guard Kenny Lacy missing with a potential knee injury. However Head Coach Jim Mora said the MRI came back negative and he should return in a number of days. His place was taken by Najee Toran who has really improved his game since his position switch two years ago. The rest of the offense was as follows QB – Josh Rosen, RB – Soso Jamabo, FB – Ainuu Taua, LT – Conor McDermott, LG –Najee Toran, C – Scott Quessenberry, RG – Poasi Moala, RT – Kolton Miller, TE – Nate Iese, WR – Kenny Walker,
WR – Eldridge Massington.

UCLA Bruins /

UCLA Bruins

Despite the team not being in pads, there was plenty of action. The offensive line continue to help themselves as they look better and better. A week or so ago I published a piece where I questioned the ability of Quessenberry at center but after watching him live today I have to say he looks much better. He looked quick, and much bigger than in previous years.

The battle of the day was Ishmael Adams vs Randall Goforth in one on one drills. It was a battle of quicks with Ish showing off his ridiculous athletic ability but Randall wasn’t going to be outdone and was able to keep up for much of the drill.

We also got a chance to see freshman receiver Theo Howard bounce back from his hamstring injury and while he admits he’s not 100% yet he looked very impressive. In an interesting twist Mora pulled Howard from 1v1 to match him against Moreau on back to back attempts and the competition was firey with Moreau beating out his younger rival on both attempts.

During the team portion of of practice Rosen opened up with what looked like a 50 yard strike to Kenny Walker who went up and over Moreau for a huge catch. However that was it for downfield strikes and he was content to dink and dunk his way down the field as he moved the offense.

Backup QB Mike Fafaul was much more apt to stretch the field and threw a gorgeous score to Ish over Adarius Pickett in the back corner of the endzone. I’ve said it before, if Rosen goes down, Faufal can do the job in a pinch.

As far as the young QB’s go, we saw much more of Matt Lynch over Devon Modster and when Modster came in he was erratic and not nearly as decisive. Speaking of being more decisive, freshman RB Brandon Stephens looked much more aggressive in his running and hitting the hole.

We got to see a nice wrinkle with both Eldridge Massington and Ish in the backfield. Massington got the ball on a Jet sweep and Ish was actually used in between the tackles.

Freshman kicker JJ Molson went 4 of 5 on field goals with his only miss coming from near 50 yards and missing wide right.

Injury Notes

Jacob Tuioti-Mariner was not at practice and is actually suffering from appendicitis. Mora said he could have surgery or take antibiotics in order to deal with the problem.
LB Breland Brandt suffered a twisted knee and sat on the trainer’s table with ice around his knee.
Takkarist McKinely suffered a groin injury and was unable to return to the field but the injury didn’t seem like anything major and he should be good for the start of the season.
I saw Soso Jamabo getting his thumb wrapped after injuring it during a pass rush drill in which he was looking to stop pass rushers. It didn’t affect him carrying the ball and he will likely be fine for the start of the season. Alex Van Dyke also suffered a groin injury but that also seems minor.

Next: Polamalu Talks About the Offense

The Bruins will take the field today at both 8:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. which are both open to the public.