UCLA Football Notes: Japanese Coaches at Spaulding; Rosen Loves Mora & Hundley’s New Target

Bruins will have their 5th spring ball practice this morning - starting around 7 am PST. All practices are open to public. So if you were heading out to Westwood for some morning coffee - perhaps you can swing by Spaulding and let us know how the team is looking. Here are some left-over notes from Monday night's practice:

Apparently football coaches from Japan's Kyoto University have been checking out spring practices (from the LA Times):

Daisuke Nishimura, head coach at Kyoto University, and one of his assistants traveled to Los Angeles last week to watch spring practices as a guest of offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone. The two met last summer, when Mazzone was in Japan doing football clinics with a group of coaches.

"I love the passion for it," Mazzone said. "Obviously, it's not as big as baseball over there. But the kids are all involved in it. They are attentive guys, trying to soak up all information they can about the sport."

Nishimura and Mazzone hit it off and an invitation was extended to come to the United States.

"We met right after we beat our rival, Ritsumeikan, for the first time in 13 years," Nishimura said. "I wanted to make my team better and improve football in Japan."

Oy. Well we hope Kyoto can beat Ritsumeikan for the next 12 years?

Elsewhere, as was noted earlier UCLA commit Josh Rosen - the no. 1 QB recruit in America - was at practice this past weekend. BRO caught up with Rosen who gushed about Mora (article not behind subscription firewall):

"Coach Mora is an incredible coach. I know you're never supposed to go to a school for a coach because they could be out of there the next day, but he definitely had a lot to do with my decision," said Rosen.

Rosen said Mora has been his personal recruiter throughout the process and is counting the days until Mora's his coach. He said he is "really excited to just get over there."

We are glad to have you over here as well. BTW someone asked ESPN's Pac-12 bloggers whether Stanford will be able to lure Rosen away from UCLA. The response was from ESPN blogger (reporter) was pretty amusing:

And let's also remember this very important point. It's only April! A lot can happen between now and next February. Stanford could decide to offer Rosen after all and he might swing back. UCLA could win the national championship and Rosen could be the Bruins QB of the future. Jim Mora, Steve Sarkisian and David Shaw might all quit the business and form a middle-aged boy band called West Coast Pro $tyle (their first single, "TempOh," is gonna be huge). A lot can change between now and signing day -- especially when we're talking about fickle teens. So while it's nice to have feathers in your cap in April. It's better to put ink to quill in February.

Eh. I get that lot can happen before February - but I am guessing Coach Mora will not be taking any chances here because guys like Angus McClure will probably make sure he is aware of these two words: Brett Nottingham.

Couple of closing bullets:

• Wang has video of Brett Hundley talking about development of his new target - Elridge Massington;
• Cool photo gallery from the Daily News.

Enjoy your Wednesday.

GO BRUINS.