Spaulding Roundup: UCLA Football News and Notes

Let's start with following up on couple of points raised in response to my post concerning secondary depth chart for this spring.  First, uclabruin34 (who apparently was procrastinating here during Finals week) mentioned that we cannot forget about missing Carnell Lake this season, who did a great job mentoring number of our younger DBs this past season. I think that is right because I got the impression Coach Lake made a great impression on kids like Price, Sermons and Pollard.

However, I am comforted by the fact that we will have continuity with this group since we still have coach Todd Hundley around. Hundley was in charge of the entire secondary last year (as well as this year) and he is as qualified as anyone to coach up these guys. In fact, he is talented enough to take over as a defensive coordinator of any major D-1 program. So I think we are going to be ok.

Secondly, timostouts wondered where incoming freshman Anthony Barr fits in the puzzle. Bellerophon pointed to OC Register series of previews that projected Barr as a LB:

Some think Barr fits best at linebacker, which is where he also makes the most sense in terms of need.

To me that probably makes most sense on paper. We will have to see how it all works out on the practice field as lot of this is going to depend on matter of comfort for both Barr and the coaches. Should be fun to see how it all works out because this kid has the athleticism to fit into multiple positions.

Speaking of fitting in it looks like the return of Stanley Hasiak into the program is almost official. More on that and other football related news after the jump.

The LA Times reports (HT uclafan11):

UCLA  guard Stanley Hasiak, in limbo since the end of the season, has been reinstated to the team and will participate in spring practice.

Hasiak, a freshman, was suspended twice last season and has not been part of the program since December, after numerous on-field and off-field verbal confrontations. This is expected to be Hasiak's last opportunity, according to sources inside the program who are not authorized to speak publicly.

This is really good news if true. However, we all have to temper our expectations a bit in terms of this spring because Hasiak has not been participating in team's off-season workouts. So we will have to see what kind of shape he is in. I think it might take a while for him to get back into swing of things.

What is important though is that it is cool to see this kid not give up when he was told to go right before the Bowl game. Many other kids in similar situation (cough*Drew Gordon*cough) would pitch a fit and immediately look to transfer and quit the program. In contrast, it looks Hasiak kept going to school and did what the coaches expected him to do to get himself another opportunity. Hope he makes the best out of it.

As we are on the topic of talented Bruin OL, two of the best ever - Jonathan Ogden and Randy Cross - were recently put on the ballot for induction into college football HOF. Here are their brief bios posted in What's Bruin Blog:

Randy Cross, UCLA-Offensive Guard-Named First Team All-America in 1975. Helped lead UCLA to a victory over top-ranked Ohio State in the 1976 Rose Bowl. First Team All-Conference selection in 1975. Starter in 28 of 34 career games including his final 23.

Jonathan Ogden, UCLA-Offensive Tackle- Named unanimous First Team All-America and Outland Trophy winner in 1995. Led team to 1993 Pac-10 title. Won 1995 Morris Trophy as conference's best offensive lineman, allowing only one quarterback sack that s

Apparently Petey's Poodle was also put on the ballot but I am guessing majority of BN could care less whether he gets in or not because no one considers him a Bruin. At least I will not consider the Poodle as part of the Bruin family, until he issues a formal public apology to CRN for all the public attacks he launched in recent years.

Anyway, let's end with a note on someone who is part of the Bruin family. Former UCLA All American Marcedes Lewis is hosting his annual free football youth camp on June 19 on the campus of his high school alma mater, Long Beach Poly. The camp will be for boys ages 7-17 and you can get more details on it over here.  Marcedes has been a great ambassador for our program and I am sure camps like this will only help CRN's efforts to get UCLA on every kid's radar in the Southland.

GO BRUINS.