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Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Let's start our Sunday by catching up with some reads on the football program that you may have missed from this past week. ESPN's Kevin Gemmell posted his post-spring reflections on the Pac-12 blog in which he suggested winning the conference championship is the next "logical progression" for Mora's program (emphasis added):
After the Bruins knocked off USC for a second straight season last year, Mora gave an impassioned speech in the postgame news conference about the growth of the Bruins. Since then, they've launched a fundraising campaign for their upgraded facilities and the administration ponied up to keep Mora and his staff around a few more years.
The next logical progression would be to win the Pac-12 championship -- no easy task considering UCLA is 0-3 in the last two seasons against Stanford and was beaten 42-14 by Oregon last season. But Mora will say he's not worried about Stanford or Oregon -- or Arizona State or USC, for that matter. Not yet, anyway.
Gemmell also posted a "spring-wrap" for UCLA with the following three questions for the Fall:
1. Line-up: While the coaching staff feels pretty good about its offensive line, finding the right replacement forXavier Su'a-Filo is still paramount. They think they might have it in graduate transfer Malcolm Bunche from Miami. But a couple of starting spots should still be up for grabs when the Bruins return for fall camp.
2. Backup plan: A lot rests on the legs and arm of Hundley - a Heisman trophy candidate and presumptive top 10 pick in 2015. Whether it's Jerry Neuheisel or Asiantii Woulard backing him up remains to be seen. Neither were particularly sharp in the spring game, with Neuheisel throwing two interceptions and Woulard completing just 4 of 13 passes.
3. More D-to-O coming? We know about Myles Jack and the impact he made on offense for the Bruins last season. He didn't get any carries in the spring, though Jim Mora said they'll likely have some packages for him. Will we see others? Eddie Vanderdoes? Ishmael Adams? Not that they'll give it away in the spring, but it will be fun to watch this fall to see how many defensive players see offensive time.
Adams at slot-receiver position will not be a surprise at this point, given how much Mazzone often likes to leverage defensive talent in his some of his offensive sets in key situations.
Speaking of the defense it appears that Mora is expecting Aaron Wallace to return to the program this Fall, at least according to Jack Wang's notes from this past week's teleconference:
As for potential replacements in the [linebackers] unit, the coach listed just about everyone he'll have available, from two-year starter Eric Kendricks to incoming freshman Kenny Young. He also mentioned redshirt sophomore Aaron Wallace, who is not currently enrolled at UCLA and did not participate in spring, but could be back if he sorts out his academics.
Hopefully Wallace has it all sorted out before start of Fall quarter in 2014. I will leave you all with couple of shots from last weekend's #SpringShowcase courtesy of UCLA Football's instagram accounts:
GO BRUINS.