UCLA Football Practice Report: August 16

Receivers impress, kickoff game looks strong after costing the Bruins a rivalry win late in 2020

Kickoffs aren't exactly the flashiest part of the game, especially when you're the team doing the kicking.

Still, the Bruins kicking one short of the end zone against the Trojans on Dec. 12 led to a big USC return and ensuing go-ahead touchdown that cost them the game.

RJ Lopez has returned as UCLA football's starting kickoff specialist in 2021. At Monday's early morning practice, he showed he has plenty of leg to avoid making a similar mistake again.

The Bruins started practice with special team drills, per usual. Running backs coach DeShaun Foster asked the media not to take videos this time, for some reason, so we were unable to get tape of these plays. Running back Keegan Jones, receiver Ezavier Staples, defensive back Isaiah Newcombe and running back Deshun Murrell were back to receive, a different group than we've seen over the past few weeks.

Lopez launched two of his four kickoffs way out the back of the end zone, and he definitely seems to have the most leg power of anyone on the roster.

On one of those booming kicks, Newcombe was lined up to receive and tried tracking it down over his shoulder, but couldn't grab it. It created a confusing situation in which Foster tried tossing him a new ball so he didn't have to run out of bounds to chase the one Lopez kicked.

Murrell tried to call for a shovel pass from Foster to keep the live play going, but Foster wound up taking it himself and getting banged around in traffic a little bit.

On the other field, the offense was running red zone passing drills.

Red zone drills for the #UCLA offense pic.twitter.com/g68nmnGaGw

— Sam Connon (@SamConnon) August 16, 2021

There were some iffy overthrows in this session, which mostly focused on goal line fades before mixing in some crossing routes and slants later on. Receiver Logan Loya had the two best grabs of the day, tipping one to himself as he twisted around on one and getting all the way up to his high point on another. He had a tough drop later on, so he isn't an absolute sure thing just yet, but he still has shown on multiple occasions dating back to spring camp that he has some of the softest hands on the team.

In the defensive line corner, we didn't see too much outside of freshman transfer Jay Toia tossing around the metal sleds with a good amount of compact burst. Even with his eligibility is still up in the air, Toia will a good piece for the Bruins moving forward regardless.

The linebackers ran their drills closest to the designated media area, doing work on sleds with linebackers coach Don Pellum.

UCLA’s inside linebackers doing some sled work for coach Don Pellum pic.twitter.com/nyLG3lVM9h

— Sam Connon (@SamConnon) August 16, 2021

As seen in the video, the entire trio of Jordan Genmark Heath, Kain Medrano and Ale Kaho were all running through drills with their position group. They had been on and off the field, spending time by the workout bikes over the past few practices. Monday, they seemed to be at full strength.

Defensive back Jake Newman and defensive lineman Sitiveni Havili-Kaufusi were new additions to the stationary bikes Monday, joining regulars linebacker Adam Cohen and receiver Bradley Schlom. Receivers Chase Cota and Colson Yankoff spent some time in the area early on, but were running routes with the rest of the offense a few minutes later.

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