UCLA Football: What we learned from the first part of Spring Practice
Position changes
Obviously Chip Kelly isn’t afraid to shake things up with this UCLA Football roster. The Bruins ended the 2017 season with Boss Tagaloa as the starting NT and Moses Robinson-Carr providing depth at the TE position. Just a few short months later Tagaloa has been penciled in as the starting offensive center and Robinson-Carr looks to see some serious minutes along the defensive line.
The willingness to move players around is a clear indicator of Kelly’s philosophy when it comes to roster building. He wants bigger and longer players especially along his defensive line. Tagaloa is listed at 6-3, but it wouldn’t surprise if he was two inches shorter than that. Robinson-Carr fits the part much better being listed at 6-5.
It’s a refreshing mindset to see especially since Mora seemed unwilling to shoulder blame and admit mistakes in the latter stages of his time with the Bruins. In our opinion, that showed itself consistently in personnel decisions.
Is this the end of position changes on this roster? There’s no way to know for sure and fall might bring it’s own set of changes. For Kelly, roster-building is a never ending puzzle.
Related Story: Three more Bruins we’d love to see change positions
Players that have left the program
Roster changes didn’t just come in the form of position changes but also in player departures from the program.
DB DeChaun Holiday, DB Octavius Spencer, DB Will Lockett, RB Jalen Starks, OL Stephan Zabie and DB Denzel Fisher have all either left the team or left UCLA at this point. Starks was rumored to be gone before the bowl game as an academic casualty but many times moves likes these come when a coaching staff meets with a player and explains that playing time might be hard to come by. In the case of Fisher, he intends to graduate from UCLA in June and transfer. He’ll have a chance to make an immediate impact as a graduate transfer in another program.
Departing players are often stigmatized. Either they couldn’t stay healthy, didn’t have the talent or were kicked off the team. It isn’t black and white like that though. While every new coach is going to examine his roster and look to streamline it and make it more effective, some players can recognize when they’ve exhausted their opportunity and look to make a move for themselves elsewhere.