UCLA Football: Six Bruins Suspended for Cincinnati Game

With camp over, the UCLA Bruins and head coach Chip Kelly have announced that six players have been suspended for Saturday’s season opener against the Cincinnati Bearcats.

The players who have been suspended are Devin Asiasi, Soso Jamabo, Osa Odighizuwa, Mo Osling III, Moses Robinson-Carr, and Boss Tagaloa. According to a tweet of UCLA’s release from Bruin Report Online, the players will not play for unspecified “violations of Athletic Department policies.”

1. While what the players did is not known, It looks like what some of them did is pretty serious. Ben Bolch tweeted that Jamabo’s suspension is for two games while Tagaloa and Asiasi are each suspended for three games. In the case of Tagaloa and Asiasi, that’s ¹⁄₄ of the season, which is a pretty significant chunk.

While we may have more info later after Coach Kelly’s interview is available, I’m not sure Kelly will offer much detail beyond that. We’ll see.

In another surprise this morning, UCLA has actually released a two-deep depth chart! It’s been years since we actually saw one from the Bruins. Jim Mora never released depth charts because he felt that would give opponents an edge in preparation.

But, as you can see in Thuc Nhi Nguyen’s tweet, who the starting quarterback will be is still under wraps. That’s not a surprise. I’m still of the mind that whichever guy gets the nod this week may not get the nod next week in order to leave the Sooners to think that this week’s guy is who they need to prepare for.

Meanwhile, UCLA wrapped up fall camp on Saturday and, after practice, offensive lineman Michael Alves met with the media.

While the Bruins officially begin game week prep today, Alves indicated that the team had started looking at Cincinnati. “These past couple days we’ve been going over some Cincinnati film and kind of game planning what we’re going to do against them,” Alves said. “I’m excited for next week, because...you love it when the season comes and you get that feeling of sitting down in the meeting room, going over the other team’s defense and just getting ready to play them. There’s nothing like playing a college football game. So we’re just excited.”

If the players are aware of what the depth chart will be, Alves did not let on. When asked if the players knew what it looks like, Alves said:

I think it’s still pretty unclear. We’re still rotating centers in and out. Quarterbacks are going with every string. There’s no really set roster yet. And I think that just means that we have a lot of guys that can play. I think we have tons of centers that can play, we have three, four quarterbacks that can all start. So I’m comfortable with whatever coach chooses.

That was kind of an interesting follow-up because just moments before Alves spoke about the development of the offensive line. He mentioned that snaps have been “way better.”

“I think everybody is really coming along — even the freshmen, the new guys over on scout team.” Alves said. “They’re really improving and you can see it on the film. There’s guys that, a week ago, didn’t even know the most basic concepts in our offense and, now. they’re spitting out terms like they’ve know it all year.”

Thanks to Matt Joye of Bruins Report Online for sharing the video of Michael Alves’ interview.

We’ll have more info this afternoon after practice is over.


Go Bruins!!!