Day 2: A Different Tone
Rick Neuheisel wasn't kidding when he said the tempo would be a lot faster today than it was on Day 1 of spring practice. There was an immediate quickening of the pace today. Guys were running in between drills, the energy was up, and afterwards, quite a few guys told me they were pretty tired.
Tommorrow should be even faster, as the team will be in full pads for the first time.
Couple quick notes:
--Aleksey Lanis was still a little limited in drills with some lingering soreness in his knee.
--Kevin Craft seems to be making an impact in his first few days.
--And, here's the big one, UCLA worked special teams for about 15 minutes and looked really sharp. On one play in particular, Courtney Viney downed a punt inside the 5 yard line. Practice literally stopped while the coaches praised him.
``That's the kind of play that wins games,'' Neuheisel yelled out.
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About Inside UCLA
This is Brian Dohn's sixth season covering UCLA after spending 4 1/2 years covering the Dodgers for the Daily News and other Los Angeles Newspaper Group papers. He graduated from Rutgers, where the first college football game was played in 1869. Sure, the Scarlet Knights suffered for a long time, but now RU is doing what Jerseyans always thought was possible. Winning at Rutgers also proves winning is possible everywhere else in the nation, so underachieving coaches better be careful. Now, if only men's hoops can turn it around.
Downed a punt inside the 5yard line? now if viney were a punter which he is not, that would be a good thing. Please elaborate
Sorry if that wasn't clear. Viney was on the punt coverage team. He ran down, got to the ball before it went in the endzone and downed it at about the 3 yard line.