UCLA Football Practice Report: August 24

The countdown to kickoff is now at four days and the Bruins seem to have the energy to match the building anticipation.

UCLA football opened its Tuesday morning practice by huddling around members of The Den student section brought into Wasserman Football Center by Senior Associate Athletic Director Josh Rebholz. After welcoming the fans and posing for photos, the Bruins dispersed and got loud on their way to special teams and position drills.

Kicker Nicholas Barr-Mira started things with a few made field goals from 30, 35, 40 and 45 yards out. UCLA then lined up in punt formation on the north field and gave the media a look at who could be out there come Saturday.

As expected, receiver Kyle Philips was the No. 1 return man with receiver Logan Loya seemingly serving as his backup. Receiver Kam Brown, running back Kazmeir Allen and safety Quentin Lake were also back to return, and Lake had a pretty rough drop that went right through his mitts.

Ari Libenson was the first punter to send one deep, and his two kicks went about 25 and 10 yards, respectively, with the second one going almost directly out of bounds to his left. Starting punter Luke Akers was present and he did step in for the later reps.

More drills were in store for the Bruins, and we were able to pick up a few clear winners.

Receiver coach Jerry Neuheisel brought his guys over to the north field to run with defense backs coach Brian Norwood's unit. Coaches and volunteers were throwing bubble screens to one wideout while two others went to block against a safety and cornerback.

The wideouts had a few attempts that went their way, but the slot receivers specifically had a few clear losses to the safeties. Striker Martel Irby blew up Loya and got right to receiver Ezavier Staples, pretty much wrapping up both of them at once. The very next rep, striker Qwuantrezz Knight crushed receiver Josiah Norwood to blow up another play.

In guiding his receivers, Neuheisel did his best Hodor impression (sorry, spoilers for Game of Thrones) and repeatedly yelled out, "Hold the door."

Sidelined again Tuesday were linebacker Kobey Fitzgerald, defensive lineman Quintin Somerville and defensive lineman Sitiveni Havili-Kaufusi. Defensive lineman Hayden Harris joined the banged up group for the first time, not wearing pads or a helmet.

Tuesday was also the first practice since UCLA released its official two-deep depth chart Monday night. We saw a few of the decisions appear on the practice field for the first time – such as Garrett DiGiorgio moving from right to left tackle and Mike Martinez replacing Michael Ezeike as TE2 – as well as others we had noted over the past few weeks – Bo Calvert at raider, Ethan Garbers at backup quarterback and so on.

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