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The Bruins held their 4th practice of spring football yesterday evening in decidedly unspringlike conditions, but Coach Mora found the positive side of the cool 55 degree evening with 20 mph wind gusts.
From the BSR TV YouTube channel:
A little bit different for us. Having to...you know this is Southern California so we're gonna call this wind here "elements". Most part of the country this isn't "elements". But for the quarterbacks and receivers having to deal with a little wind is good. It's not always gonna be a perfect day when you play.
Mora noted that Simon Goines, Alexandru Ceachir, and Kevin McReynolds were all back at practice and working with the offensive line. He then went into the condition of Dietrich Riley and the progress reports on the various names the reporters followed up with ensued.
We'll find out tomorrow when he sees the doctor. I'm hopeful that he'll be back out here . I think he needs to be back out here. I think for him and for his psyche and just getting back into the flow of it and eventually fitting back into contact, that's important for him. We need him. We need him to get work.
Alexandru Ceachir
I think more than anything with Ceach there was a fear factor involved as there would be for any young guy coming off a concussion. There's so much out there right now about concussions, it's such a hot topic, and it should be but I think at times it might scare a young man like that. But he came back today and did well, so that's a positive sign.
We're gonna take it easy with Ellis...taking it easy working him back in. You see him a lot on the side with Coach Alosi, movement stuff. We hope by the end of this week he's in some individual drills...I'd rather have him 100% healthy when we strap it up for real in August. I just think you do the guy a real disservice if we ask him to come out here when he's not 100% healthy. He's still young, he's still developing, he's still trying to fill out his body and I think if we can get him in the summer at 100% that a great objective for us.
We're gonna let him settle in at linebacker for awhile. He's young and he's growing. Hey, there's a chance that someday he's playing defensive end. He's put on a lot of weight, he's still 17 years old. We'll just see where his body takes him, but I think he'll stay on the defensive side of the ball. He's doing a good job at linebacker right now.
We put Nate down at defensive end. We'll let his body take him where it takes him but he'll stay on the defensive side. You know we fiddled around with that and played them at tight end in bowl prep and a little bit on the scout team...but they were running off of a card. They're just more natural on defense right now.
Offensive line
We have seven guys coming in. We've kinda moved through the injury phase so I think today and going forward as long as we can get everyone out here and healthy we'll have a better feel for it. We hope and our expectations are that some of those guys that are coming in at freshmen can push these guys. We're not gonna put limitations on anybody. We're not afraid to play young guys. We're gonna play the best guys, the guys who give us the best chance to win. I'm looking forward to that competition.
I think that he's made progress every day. It think that finally he's feeling more healthy. When he had the problem with his leg a couple years ago I think that finally AJ is getting back to what he once was physically. And I think it's showing in the way he plays and the confidence that he plays with, and it's exciting to see. It's fun to see him having some success.
He was behind schedule for a while but all of sudden he's made a little jump. I think seeing his teammates out here doing this pepped him up a little bit. I don't know at what point he'll be back. It'll be some point during the summer camp hopefully. That's a position where you have to have great confidence in your ability to make that cut and avoid a hit and if you don't its really tough to play that spot, so we gotta make sure he's ok...He's doing well...he's making some breakthroughs there so he's able to move around a lot better. I saw him jogging. It's good to see.
I like what Taylor does there [LB] We moved him there late last year and we call it that mini-backer spot and it seems like a perfect position for him. He's aggressive. He's good down in the box. It's really kind of a rover position and he's been impressive. I think he'll be a factor there. I also think he's an excellent special teams player.
Running backs
[On Paul Perkins long TD run] Step in the right direction. It's one play. I'm sure there were some breakdowns on defense, but it's certainly good to see him make that play. I also thought that Malcolm [Malcolm Jones] made some impressive runs today. When he runs behind his pads which meanss his lowers his cog and gets a little forward lean going, he's an imposing figure coming at you. He's gotta do a better job holding on to the football. He's gotta be consistent doing that. I think between Jordon [Jordon James], and Paul, you know Steven Manfro's not out here yet, and Malcom, and Melvin's [Melvin Emesibe] doing a good job, and Rosy [Roosevelt Davis] we're gonna have a group there that's gonna do a good job for us.
It [playing a standup outside technique on the D line] is so foreign to him. He's never dropped before. Sometime it's completely out of the realm of what he's ever done but he's athletic and he really works at it. He hasn't stood out as a guy that - wow, you can't do that, you gotta move him back down - he looks like a guy that can do it. So he's just gonna keep getting better.
He's an amazing athlete. He's so darn smooth. He's not yet consistent enough catching the ball. He finds himself in traffic sometimes and it's not just natural for him because he hasn't been in that position. He's such an amazing athlete and he runs amazing routes, and when he gets it in his hands he's hard to catch and he's hard to tackle.
Here is yesterday's post practice interview, with thanks to Edward Lewis with Bruin Sports Report.
Jack Wang has been getting some really nice inside looks at our team and the players, and posted has two really nice video interviews after last night's practice on Inside UCLA
The first with Ishmael Adams discusses his return from his shoulder injury and the battle going on in practice between the DB's and the WR's:
In the second interview, Jack speaks with Jordon James about preparing for the top RB spot and competition within the group.
The Bruins next practice is this Wednesday morning at 7am. Like all spring practices, it is open to the public and should run about 2 hours. The entire spring practice can be found here.
GO BRUINS!