Spaulding Report: UCLA Offense Wins The Day

UCLA held it eighth session of Spring Practice yesterday. New LA Daily News and InsideSoCal beat writer Thuc Nhi Nguyen notes that the offense finally won the day for the first time this Spring. She writes: "It was a third-down competition and the offense won 3-2, according to linebackers coach Scott White. Thus the defense and its assistant coaches were sentenced to running a lap."

Despite that, she notes that Josh Rosen had an off-day, missing receivers and having a pass picked off by Will Lockett and another almost picked off by Jaleel Wadood.

After practice, WR Coach Eric Yarber met with the media and spoke about how he convinced Ishmael Adams to switch to offense. Yarber said, "I just asked him...I said, 'Do you want to break up passes or do you want to strike up the band?' He said, 'I want to strike up the band!'" Yarber also offered his thoughts on recent signee Theo Howard. He said, "Wow. Wow. Pleasantly surprised with him. He has more bursts and more speed and more quickness than I saw on film. He and [Demetric] Felton are better than we saw on film."

Here's the complete video of Coach Yarber with the media. Thanks to Edward Lewis of the Bruin Sports Report for posting all of today's videos.

As Bob Keisser mentions in his article in the OCRegister, Coach Mora missed practice on Monday to attend a funeral. LB Coach Scott White also spoke with the press. Coach White downplayed the shift from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 defense. White said:

We're doing the same thing. That whole 4-3/3-4 thing is way overblown. It's a lot of the same stuff. We're just trying to do it better.

Redshirt freshman defensive end Rick Wade spoke about getting his footwork down and wanting to get a little but bigger by the start of the season.

Last, but not least, is Keisean Lucier-South. KLS spoke about the shift from linebacker to defensive end. He mentioned that he's used to playing out of a three-point stance from both last year on the scout team as well as from high school. He also talked about how much weight he's put on. He's up from 212 lbs. to 230 lbs. which is a little heavier than the coaches wanted but, at the same time, he's quicker now than he was before. In response to how he's gotten bigger, he said, "I eat a lot of steak...a lot of steak."

The Bruins' next practice session is Wednesday morning at 7am.

Go Bruins!!!