Yesterday afternoon saw the third day of Fall practices for the Bruins, and while this was again a full-padless affair, the inability to go at each other full-bore does not excuse the reports of lax effort on the part of the players and the slipping of fundamental play. Jon Gold with his thoughts from the practice field:
Not a very sharp practice on Wednesday, and the coaching staff has to be concerned by some of last season's bad habits creeping in.
Not only were the quarterbacks consistently indecisive and inaccurate, but UCLA wideouts weren't a help with several just crushing drops... Rick Neuheisel specifically mentioned the quarterback-center exchange as being a disappointment on Wednesday, as the Bruins constantly fumbled the snap
Adam Maya noted the lack of separation between Prince and Brehaut as discussed by Coach Neuheisel - though Prince has consistently worked with the first-team offense this week, and Brehaut with the second team. There certainly is time for those practice roles to flip.
While the team did struggle through the afternoon, there were some bright spots carrying through the day, and the week so far. Both the Daily News and LA Times noted Greg Capella move to Guard and his chance at earning a starting spot at the position; Chris Foster framed the positional battle in terms of the Bruins thin depth on the Offensive Line, while Jon Gold wrote a story looking at the changes that Capella made to his personal habits in the offseason, which included an ever-increasing workout schedule with Mike Linn and giving up his favorite Westwood sandwich spot. In his post-practice notes, Gold also mentioned that Malcolm Jones is looking much improved in every facet of his game.
It really could not be a UCLA practice report without some injury news, right? There's some good to go with the bad today. Good news first, Anthony Jefferson told the OC Register that after undergoing surgery for a bulging disk last week, he expects to miss six weeks - leaving the door open for him to possibly return for the opening game of Pac-12 play, September 24 against Oregon State. The early concerns that he would miss the whole season had already been pushed aside, but good to hear from the man himself.With the good, of course comes the bad. Damien Thigpen suffered a strained hamstring during the practice. No word yet on how long Damien will be out of action, though Neuheisel said later in the afternoon that Thigpen will be sidelined indefinitely, but that he does not expect him to be out very long.
After practice, Jon Gold got in a few minutes with one of the newest Bruins, Albert Cid (video available here), while Coach Neuheisel talked with the assembled media (video via the official site). Per the LA Times, Shaq Goodwin was back at practice today, this time bringing along a couple of his friends that you might have heard of: Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson.
The Bruins will be returning to Spaulding Field this afternoon for open practice, at 3pm.