UCLA Football Fall Scrimmage Day Roundup: News & Notes

Both QBs had some high points. Prince’s chest bump in the end zone after s play where he couldn’t be tackled may have been a bit much, but it was all in fun. He did have at least two very well thrown downfield shots that seemed to me to be beyond his prior range. Place kicking is a question. Harkey is a giant and Fauria looked good. Both had a downfield pattern up the middle, which is something new. All in all a great day. Looking forward to Houston.

Cod is Huge. If quarterbacks can’t be tackled, what was that with bell?

*RB was the better qb out there today. It seemed as though the team played better with him in charge.
*Baseball may have been more beneficial than everyone thought. He got another “season” under his belt and it’s noticeable on the grid iron. He seemed to have mature and I’m willing to give UCLA Baseball credit for that.
*What you won’t see on the stat sheet is that he led 4 beautiful drives and opened up the defense because of his arm. I know CMJ didn’t open up the playbook and that’s understandable, but whatever was called seemed to be executed well by RB. Except one play when CRN gave it to him pretty good.
*Our WR’s created space!!!! That was very noticeable.
*JJ looked good. The kid finds a lil daylight and hits the hole low and quick.
*For the first time in 5 years the offense did well against the defense.

P.S. if I’m not mistaken RB went against the 1st team D at one point and moved the ball on them.

*RB definately looked like the better QB tonight. KP seemed to struggle against the first team defense but the offense was moving whenever RB was in the game.
*I think it will become apparent this year just how many playmakers we have on offense. I think we have a lot of players on offense who are going to shine this year.
*Joseph Faurina is going to be a huge part of our offense this year. The guy was catching everything that came his way and the QBs seem to be looking for him.
*Malcolm Jones looked really good tonight against the second team defense. On one play it seemed as though he just drug defenders down field. We are really stacked at running back.
*Lastly, its always hard to tell in these scrimmages whether the offense is good or the defense was bad. I have confidence in our defense and in Joe Tresey’s scheme so I am inclined to believe that our offense really is much improved this year……..well find out in 2 weeks

I was at the scrimmage today and only have some general impressions all on the offense. Overall I thought the offense looked good. The running backs in particular looked really good especially Derrick Coleman who seems able to drag multiple defenders for several yards. I thought that both quarterbacks looked fairly sharp today. RB may have been a little more consistent overall. However KP had the single best pass with a long strike that was really thrown on the money. KP also clearly looks like the better runner, although I think we already knew that. Overall I thought the offensive line did well in both pass protection and run blocking.

For the last three years we’ve had a pretty anemic offense particularly in the passing game. I would attribute this to an offensive line very weak on pass blocking and to inconsistent quarterback play due to inexperience compounded by the lack of pass protection. Today I saw what looked like an overall much improved offense with a significantly improved offensive line, a wealth of riches at running back, receivers who look like they can really catch the ball, and two quarterbacks who look more confident and experienced as well as more competent. Let’s hope that this is the offense we will see in real games this year.

I thought the first team D was dominant out of the gate. I spent much of my time watching the OL and they were struggling the first few drives, especially in pass protection. They seemed to settle in against the #2 D and performed better on their second rotation back with the #1 D. I’m not quite sold on who the gaurds should be. Cid didn’t seem to be to slow on his feet and Ward may not be mature enough. Baca is hoping to be back or at least play some against Texas which will be a huge lift for the OL.

The receivers looked better than last year. I thought Shaq Evans and Devin Lucien may be the best looking receivers we have. They seemed to run the best routes to me and were very fluid when catching the ball in stride. The future looks bright for these 2. Ricky Marvray needs to stop celebrating every time he makes a routine catch. If he receives any more UC penalties this year he should be yanked to get the message across to him I sure do like his competitiveness though. The QB decsion is a tough call. You can easily make a case for either one of these kids. The problem is that neither one has been consistent enough with their games to make a clear determination. It was nice to see Brehaut throw the ball away instead of trying to force it and he seems to be running the ball a little better than in the past. Prince clearly runs with the ball much more effectively than Brehaut, it’s just more natural to him. If Prince is throwing the ball accurately he is the better QB IMO, but the problem is that you never know what the ball will do when it leaves his hands. Brehaut seems to understand the offense much better now and throws a more accurate ball. It’s all about decision making for Brehaut who IMO appears to be slightly ahead of Prince in fall camp. I hope they both do great we’ll probably need the both of them. Go Bruins!!!