UCLA Football: What we learned from the first part of Spring Practice

With two weeks of spring practice in the books, the UCLA football team now has the direction they want for the program, and this is what we learned about the team in that time.

The UCLA football team is currently on a two week break from spring practice. Back on March 6, the Bruins began their first spring with Chip Kelly and even though there were only six practices, there has already been a lot of information coming out of Spaulding Field regarding the direction of the Bruins.

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The essential feel of these first two weeks is that things are fast, precise and Kelly and his coaches are looking at every option for every position. Kelly said that he has not seen film from last season and wants to get his own perspective on the team. That has been evident with how Kelly has been running practices.

Fast and All At Once

With limited time, Kelly has found a way to get everyone a ton of reps all at once. Practice is usually broken up into 10-15 segments of drills and/or 11-on-11s/7-on-7s. For example, to get every quarterback as many reps as possible, he has put five QBs at the line of scrimmage throwing to five receivers (individual to the passer). Defensive linemen are lined up in rows going through stances, fundamentals and contact drills right next to each other. This is to give the coaches more time to coach all at once and more chances to see what everyone can do.

If coaching needs to be done, they do not stop the drill, but rather pull the player out that needs instruction and replace him with another player so that the drill can continue. Whilst with the coach, the player gets the information he requires and is then inserted back into the drill, with the position group not skipping a beat.

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