UCLA Football Practice Report: September 1
In their final open practice prior to their matchup with the Tigers, the Bruins tried some new things for a change.
Now, that isn't to say UCLA football (1-0) has completely shaken up its routine – as we reported Monday, the first 20 to 30 minutes open to the media have started to become identical as fall camp bled into Hawaii prep and now midseason practices. The structure is still very much the same, and the rotation of stretches, special teams and position drills remains in place.
What went on during those periods Wednesday, however, gave a little extra insight into what could be in store for Saturday's LSU game.
In the opening kickoff session, receiver Kazmeir Allen, receiver Kyle Philips, receiver Chase Cota, running back Keegan Jones were back to receive and strikers Qwuantrezz Knight and Martel Irby were set off the the left calling out coverage and tips to the returners. Absent from the group were running backs Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown, who had been taking kicks with that unit throughout fall camp. It was always expected that those two would see their special teams duties decrease once the season got underway, and that seems to have happened over the past couple of days.
After one rep by Allen, coach Chip Kelly came on to the field yelling at defensive lineman Tyler Manoa, who was jogging and missed a block, telling him he needed to be going full speed (see video above). Kelly followed him off the field giving him an earful, but a few reps later, another coach was heard yelling Manoa's name from the other sideline.
From what we've seen, Manoa and linebacker Myles Jackson have been holding down the spots in the middle of kickoff protection throughout all of fall camp, so it isn't as if he's new to the role and its responsibilities.
When the team split up into position drills, we saw quarterback-turned-receiver Colson Yankoff taking snaps from center Sam Marrazzo, which was notable for two reasons. First off, Marrazzo is still snapping the ball and is "progressing" according to Kelly, now getting paired up with Yankoff and Chase Artopoeus rather than Chase Griffin like he had been in the past few days.
And then the return of Yankoff to the quarterback group – while it certainly was not an official of full-time change since Yankoff worked with the receivers for the rest of the open part of practice – stands out as an interesting decision as well. The quarterbacks have plenty of immediate depth behind Dorian Thompson-Robinson with Griffin, Artopoeus and Ethan Garbers, so either Kelly has some tricks up his sleeve or he isn't getting what he wants out of the reps Parker McQuarrie or Kajiya Hollawayne have been providing.
The players seen in the injured area were interior offensive lineman Benjamin Roy and linebacker Kobey Fitzgerald. There was no sign of either linebacker Damian Sellers or defensive lineman Quintin Somerville, who were each wearing boots late last week.
UCLA is expected to follow its normal routine of a lighter Thursday practice before ramping things back up for a more full-speed Friday ahead of Saturday's primetime kickoff against LSU.
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