UCLA Football Practice Report: October 25
The doom and gloom of the Bruins' loss to the Ducks showed up in the weather forecast Monday morning, as well as the injury report.
UCLA football (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) opened its week of practice in the rain, the first time they've had to train in such conditions since August. The downpour comes after the team lost to No. 7 Oregon, when a win would have made them the team to beat in the conference and stood out as a signature victory under coach Chip Kelly.
Instead, Kelly and the Bruins lost the game, and possibly a few quarterbacks on top of that.
Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson left Saturday's game with an injury on UCLA's final offensive drive of the day, when a field goal would have sent it to overtime and a touchdown could have led to a massive fourth quarter comeback victory. Left to take his place, and eventually throw a game-sealing interception, was backup Ethan Garbers.
After Garbers, there wasn't any experience left on the roster, with last year's backup, Chase Griffin, not active for the game.
Before Monday's soaking wet practice, Kelly said Thompson-Robinson would be available and Griffin would be unavailable. After Kelly's media availability ended, a UCLA Athletics spokesperson corrected Kelly's statement and said Griffin would, in fact, be available at practice.
Both Thompson-Robinson and Griffin were indeed at practice, dressed in full uniform and sticking close to the other quarterbacks, but neither actually participated.
Thompson-Robinson was wearing a glove on his right hand and did not throw a single pass in the opening 30 minutes of practice open to the media. He did hold the ball in his left hand and practice his throwing motion and pump fakes with his non-dominant arm, however.
Griffin also didn't attempt a pass, and he didn't even practice throwing motions or pump fakes like Thompson-Robinson did.
With the first and third-string quarterbacks not taking part in throwing drills, Chase Artopoeus was called up from the scout team to return to his blue offensive jersey, rather than than his red scout team one. Garbers was the quarterback with the 1s while Artopoeus was the new No. 2, leaving Parker McQuarrie as the new scout team quarterback standing in as Utah's Cameron Rising.
There weren't too many players actually sidelined with injuries, outside of the pair of quarterbacks running around watching their position mates go through drills.
Receiver Colson Yankoff, linebacker Kobey Fitzgerald and defensive lineman Sitiveni Havili-Kaufusi were all in the stationary bike and weight lifting area yet again. Center Sam Marrazzo was in a t-shirt watching warmups. There was no sign of tight end Mike Martinez, who is presumably still out long term, or defensive lineman Quintin Somerville, who showed progress after taking off his boot last week.
Players who had been dinged up the past few weeks – such as safety Quentin Lake, cornerback Mo Osling III, edge rusher Mitchell Agude and linebacker Kain Medrano – were all full participants Monday.
As expected, there were a lot of drops in the rain, both by pass-catchers on the offensive side of the facility and the linebackers and defensive backs running interception drills on the north field. That isn't to say every pass fell incomplete, as there were still a few impressive grabs, it's just that not having to play in the rain in any capacity for over two months probably didn't do the Bruins any favors.
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