UCLA Football Practice Report: August 17
The final days of fall camp are here, which means there's only a few more sessions for the Bruins to get organized prior to game-week preparations.
UCLA football initially provided the media with a schedule of 16 practices, but the team has since rounded out the rest of their slate looking ahead to Hawai'i on Aug. 28. The Bruins will practice Wednesday, take the day off Thursday, then practice again Friday in the fall camp finale. Starting Saturday, coach Chip Kelly and the rest of his staff will be preparing their team for the Rainbow Warriors.
In terms of what went down Tuesday morning at Wasserman Football Center, UCLA Athletics no longer wants the media filming 11 v 11 special teams drills, as running backs coach DeShaun Foster told reporters Monday. Instead, we got a better look at the offense during their warmups.
The quarterbacks seemed loose, with Dorian Thompson-Robinson smiling and waving his arms in the air when running from one throwing line to another. Kajiya Hollawayne made a great one-handed grab on a pass from Ethan Garbers, and the group, overall, just looked like they were having fun.
Once the actual drills got started, Chase Griffin, Chase Artopoeus and Ethan Garbers lined up on the goal line and threw deep balls down to the left. Griffin's first throw was way long, but he recovered and the three of them missed very few passes from then on out, if any. Thompson-Robinson, Hollawayne and Parker McQuarrie were tasked with a different option route tree at midfield.
Thompson-Robinson was throwing absolutely perfect corner routes toward the sideline, with Kazmeir Allen and Greg Dulcich spacing things out very well to get two feet in bounds in stride. Running backs Ethan Fernea and Zach Charbonnet also ran good routes during that drill for McQuarrie and Hollawayne, respectively, although there was a little less touch on those throws.
When the quarterbacks worked on three-step drops and release timing, Thompson-Robinson again looked like the best of the group, as expected. The throws during this drill were maybe 20 yards, and Griffin had a surprising amount of zip on his attempts, which was a nice development to see out of him.
Defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro then brought the strikers over to do some drills with the linebackers and linebackers coach Don Pellum in the end zone near where the media was standing. Azzinaro hasn't forgotten how we reported one of his rants word-for-word last week, so he made sure to tell Pellum to watch his language around the media – or as he said, "The language police."
The drills went well, with a few early jumps here and there, but overall, good technique and solid hits.
In the opening field goal portion of practice, Nicholas Barr-Mira went 4-for-5, with his only miss coming on a block. That's the second blocked field goal of camp for UCLA, although this one was tipped and still went forward while the previous one was swatted completely sideways. Luke Akers went 2-for-4.
On the sidelines and in the workout area Tuesday were defensive lineman Sitiveni Havili-Kaufusi, defensive back Jake Newman, linebacker Adam Cohen and defensive lineman Quintin Somerville. Havili-Kaufusi was wearing a brace on his right knee, but it was hard to tell if that was related to him not participating in drills for the second-straight day.
Follow Connon on Twitter at @SamConnon
Follow All Bruins on Twitter at @SI_AllBruins
Like All Bruins on Facebook at @SI.AllBruins
Read more UCLA stories: UCLA Bruins on Sports Illustrated
Read more UCLA football stories: UCLA Football on Sports Illustrated
