We will shift our focus today on the Bruin offense and how they are going to handle Oregon’s defense, which leads the conference sacks (19 in 6 games). In order to address Oregon’s pass rush, Bruin OL will have to deal with DE Nick Reed, who leads the conference in sacks and tackles for loss this season. The guy who is going to have the challenge to go up against Nick Reed will be none other than true freshman Jeff Baca. It’s a monster challenge and Chris Foster from the LAT reports on how Palcic plans to put his freshman OL in best position possible to deal with this difficult assignment:

Reed shared the Pacific 10 Conference lead, and was third nationally, with 12 sacks last season. He also led the conference with 22.5 tackles for a loss. This year, he leads the conference with six sacks and is tied for the lead with 9.5 tackles for a loss.

So lining up a freshman that has two college starts against Reed might seem to be cruel and unusual punishment. But UCLA offensive line coach Bob Palcic is cautiously optimistic.

"I think Jeff is up to the task," Palcic said. "I told the entire team that this Reed kid is the real deal. He has all the moves and he's quick. I'm looking forward to seeing how Jeff handles the situation."

Baca has improved dramatically since training camp, overcoming a knee injury. He made his first appearance against Arizona on Sept. 20 and has been in the lineup ever since.

Palcic said that he could throw Baca some support from his teammates this week.

"There are things we can do to help him," Palcic said. "We can slide the protection to him. We can have a back chip the defensive end on the way out of the backfield. We can also put a tight end on his side to constrict rush area. We will do it if we have to."

As we have been discussing all year for Bruins to neutralize the pass rush and pressure on QBs, they will have to generate a legit running game. After taking positive steps fro two straight weeks against Arizona and Fresno State, the running game stalled last week against a determined Washington State team. Dohn reports on how RB coach Wayne Moses is working with our backs to get them to fight for every yard. Mose is teaching them to lean forward:

"Right now, every yard is a yard," Moses said. "We've got to make sure we finish the run and make sure we fall forward. Sometimes you get knocked back, but when they spot the ball you lose a yard. If they're not falling forward, they're not doing the right thing.

"You know how many times I saw it was fourth-and-1, but we got knocked back two plays earlier? There's the 1 yard right there."

The lopsided victory over Washington State - UCLA's first since the opener against Tennessee - made the running game woes not as glaring. Kahlil Bell had 21 carries for 43 yards, but five of those carries were for negative yards. He averaged just 2 yards per carry.

It's not just the running backs, because any good running back typically runs behind a stout offensive line.

"There's lot variables, but the facts are we need to get that (rushing average) up," Moses said. "We need to be more efficient. You make five and lose three (yards). We've got to be more consistent not losing yards. We've got to get the negative runs out of it. If it's a no-gainer, it's a no-gainer. The minus-yards aren't a good thing.  We've got to be more consistent at limiting the minus-runs, because that's what's getting us."

Another tactic coaches have been using is to directly snap the ball our back while lining up KC at WR. From the OC Register:

UCLA continues to work on formations in which quarterback Kevin Craft sprints out to the wide receiver position and the tailback takes a direct snap. The Bruins have used the formation a handful of times in games.

It serves a couple of purposes, giving the runner an extra split second to reach the hole and forcing the other team to spend time in practice preparing for it.

“Whether we do it once or we don't do it at all, we've shown it and they have to see it,” Craft said.

Craft played wide receiver in high school.

I think that tactic will work if we don’t go to it all the time. It has been effective here and there last few weeks when it came as a surprise. I am not sure if it will continue to work if the defense is ready for it and we telegraph it by running KC to the WR spot. Should be interesting to see if we see that formation against Oregon now that we have seen it for two straight weeks.

For more on the offense check out the notes from Press Enterprise, which discusses Chandler getting adjusted to being a TE again. Also the report indicates that the coaches have been trying out Forbath for kickoff, which is good news considering Rotstein has not been very effective in kicking it deep so far this season.

I will try to put together more notes on Oregon’s defense later tonight. They are somewhat under fire up in Eugene, which will make them even more dangerous because they will be anxious to prove themselves against a UCLA offense, which is still in the process of forging identity in CRN and Chow’s first season.

GO BRUINS.

With the training camp scheduled to open tomorrow, I will wind up our analysis of the post spring depth chart by doing a little roundup on our special teams.  I didn’t bother to do this post last couple of years keeping the focus just on offense and defense. But then we got this reminder on the importance of special teams in the very last play of 2007:


Photo Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

CRN gave an indication on how much emphasis he is going to put on special teams by bring in one of the best special teams coaches in the game in Frank Gransz, Jr. Here is a little snippet on Gansz’s extensive professional and college experience:

Gansz, who has an extensive background at the professional and collegiate levels, was the special teams coordinator for the Ravens in 2006 and 2007, coaching with Neuheisel. In 2007, the Ravens placed ninth in the NFL in punt returns (9.7 yards) and 10th in the league in kickoff returns (23.5). In addition, place kicker Matt Stover made 27 of 32 field goals and all 26 PATs. His 27 field goals tied for 10th in the league.

Prior to his stint with the Ravens Gansz also put together some great special teams at Kansas City.

Given the uncertainty with our offense and the lack of experience in defense, special teams is going to be more important than ever as our team will have to scrape for every point and look for every opportunity to grab momentum of games through blocked kicks, punts … whatever it takes to change complexion of the games. 

Luckily for Gansz (and Neuheisel) this is one unit there aren’t as many glaring concerns (notwithstanding the last play the Vegas Bowl) as there are in other areas of the team. From Kevin Pearson at the Press Enterprise:

Specialists - - This is the one area where there shouldn't be any concerns. Kicker Kai Forbath and punter Aaron Perez are among the best in the nation and NFL prospects. Sorting out the return game and making up for the loss of kick returner and special teams stud Matt Slater will be the biggest challenge.

 More from Dohn:

UCLA's best unit could be this one, led by placekicker Kai Forbath. He made 25 of 30 field goal attempts as a freshman and was 5 for 5 from 50 yards or more. And Forbath is expected to add kickoffs to his duties this season.
Punter Aaron Perez had 35 of his 91 punts downed inside the 20-yard line last season, and averaged 42.3 yards as he became a reliable, consistent performer.
What needs to get worked out is the return game, and there figures to be plenty of auditions. Receivers Terrence Austin and Ryan Graves ,and cornerback Courtney Viney are the leading contenders to return punts, but others could materialize.

As Dohn noted in rest of his post suspended RB Christian Ramirez was penciled in as KOR Specialist in the post spring depth chart. It will be interesting who the coaches call on to take over for Christian. Lot of folks think Jonathan – Jet Ski – Franklin would be an ideal candidate to try out for that spot taking advantage of his speed.

Also as the Daily Bruin notes today coaches may call on Kai to take over as the kick-off specialist over senior Jimmy Rotstein and freshman punter Jeff Locke "could also compete for the kick off duties as well. Whatever it takes to get an edge and foster competition.  It will only make the team better. And as mentioned given the questions around both our offense and defense coaches will need explore all options to maximize efficiency of the best unit in this team.

GO BRUINS.