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UCLA Football Practice Report: October 6

An often-injured player returned to the sidelines Wednesday as the defense had some new looks in walkthroughs.
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Heading into a matchup with the only winless team in the Pac-12, the Bruins had some final tune ups at Wasserman Football Center on Wednesday.

UCLA football (3-2, 1-1 Pac-12) had its final practice open to the media ahead of its trip down to Tucson to face Arizona, providing a last look into where key players stand at the moment. 

New to the group of injured players was wide receiver Colson Yankoff. The quarterback-turned-receiver was wearing a boot on his right foot and was in a t-shirt for all of practice.

Yankoff was also in a boot throughout spring practice due to a stress fracture in that same right foot, and even though he got back to full strength late in fall camp, he has yet to contribute on offense in-game since making the move to his new position. The most notable he's been in practice, while he has demonstrated the ability to make some pretty good grabs, has been when he's lined back up at quarterback to take snaps.

Center Sam Marrazzo, running back Ethan Fernea, defensive lineman Quentin Somerville and running back Christian Grubb were all injured as well and look like they'll be out for an extended period of time. Linebacker Kobey Fitzgerald and defensive lineman Sitiveni Havili-Kaufisu were in the injured workout area as well.

Cornerback Mo Osling started off practice on the stationary bike alongside those guys, but he was in pads and possibly could have participated in some capacity after reporters left 30 minutes into practice.

Safeties Quentin Lake and Kenny Churchwell III were full participants after missing the second half against Arizona State last Saturday.

Per usual, the first session of the morning Wednesday was focused on special teams.

There was a lot of pre-snap movement from the punt unit – no fakes came out of it or anything, but Luke Akers did take one rolling out to his right for more of a rugby punt than his usual traditional style. It's been two years since Australian-born Maryland transfer Wade Lees brought the style to Westwood, but maybe it could be coming back in a new way.

Back to return were receivers Kyle Philips, Logan Loya and Kam Brown.

The drills we got the best looks at for the rest of practice were on the defensive side of the field. Defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro, defensive backs coach Brian Norwood and inside linebackers coach Don Pellum were running some walkthroughs with the linebackers and secondary.

Most of the starters remained the same, but there were a few new combinations at linebacker. Caleb Johnson and Jordan Genmark Heath, who have been running with the 1s since back in spring, were split up Wednesday. Genmark Heath and Ale Kaho was the first pair of inside linebackers, followed by Johnson and Kain Medrano. The next grouping had JonJon Vaughns and Genmark Heath, followed by Kaho and Medrano.

There's been plenty of rotating going on at linebacker since the beginning of the season, but maybe this could be signifying some new looks in new situations.

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