UCLA Football Practice Report: September 13
A familiar group of Bulldogs are next up on the slate, and the Bruins started their preparations bright and early Monday morning.
No. 13 UCLA football (2-0) is set to play Fresno State (1-1) on Saturday, an in-state Group of Five program that bested the Bruins on their home turf back in 2018. Many players on UCLA also have high school teammates playing for Fresno State, and the Bulldogs even boast two former Bruins of their own – safety Elijah Gates and offensive lineman Alex Akingbulu.
With all of those storylines on the table for the upcoming week, coach Chip Kelly and co. let them simmer a little longer as they got back on the practice field for the first time since Friday.
Things started off just as they always do at Wasserman Football Center – calisthenics in the far southwest corner, special team drills and then position group periods.
The second special team session was a non-contact kickoff walkthrough, with the scout team lining up on the returning end. Running back Deshun Murrell was back to receive, with defensive back Joshua Swift filling the sidekick role in the end zone usually filled by Martell Irby and Qwuantrezz Knight with the 1s and 2s.
A few of the returns were brought back with only 10 men on the field for the receiving scout team. Running backs coach DeShaun Foster was the only one who seemed to notice, with the rest of the staff and players not hearing him before the next rep thanks to the music being played over the loudspeakers. Foster eventually got a hold of the other coaches, who counted with him and pulled another scout player out on the field.
When things split up into offense and defense, the centers got some work in with the quarterbacks and running backs.
As we reported at the lone practice open to the media during the bye week, center Sam Marrazzo is back running with the 1s in this drill. He had previously been working with the 3s and quarterback Chase Griffin while Jon Gaines II and Bruno Fina snapped to Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Ethan Garbers, respectively. Marrazzo has yet to appear in a game this season and has been recovering from an injury he suffered at the tail end of the 2020 campaign.
With Marrazzo now working with Thompson-Robinson, Duke Clemens was paired with Garbers, Gaines snapped to Griffin and Fina was with Chase Artopoeus. Quarterback-turned-receiver Colson Yankoff also rotated with Artopoeus as he did leading up to the LSU game.
Most of the closer looks came on the defensive field, and there were a few injury updates on that front as well.
Linebacker Damian Sellers was back with his position group and inside linebackers coach Don Pellum, donning a red scout team jersey. Sellers had been out for a couple weeks for an undisclosed reason, but he had previously been seen on the sidelines with a boot on his right foot.
In those drills, Pellum was giving linebacker JonJon Vaughns a lot of 1-on-1 coaching, attention and support. According to the official roster, Vaughns put on five pounds between the 2020 and 2021 seasons. He looks even bigger than that though, and it probably isn't going to hurt his power numbers when he suits up for UCLA baseball in the spring either.
Along with Sellers, Erich Osteen and Carson Schwesinger were the other scout team inside linebackers.
On the defensive line, Quintin Somerville remained in the weight room and hasn't practiced in almost a month at this point. We were unable to get a clear look at him from the other side of the field with all the weight equipment in the way, so he may or may not still have a boot on his right foot as he did in August.
Outside linebacker and Georgia native Choe Bryant-Strother went out with an injury for a decent chunk of the beginning of practice, as a trainer pulled him aside and brought him into the medical shed on the north side of the field. Bryant-Strother emerged with a soft brace on his right knee, put some weight on it and jogged around, then rejoined his team in drills in the corner.
There was another scout team player working with a trainer between the two fields, but we were unable to identify him since he wasn't wearing his normal jersey.
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