Young Guns
As he is wont to do after scrimmages, particularly those early in the schedule, UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel opened his post-practice meeting with reporters with remarks about the day's injury report.
During a spring practice schedule that has been chock full of bumps and bruises - chief among them, junior wideout Josh Smith's slightly torn PCL - perhaps Neuheisel's relief is with good reason.
"Obviously when you get about 75 plays of scrimmage and have very few nicks, that is terrific work," Neuheisel said. "Lots of things that still need to get fixed, but I see progress. I see a lot of young players stepping to the fore."
On Sunday morning at Spaulding Field, Kevin Prince was one of them.
The sophomore quarterback from Crespi of Encino completed 8-of-9 passes for 84 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 13 yards on five carries. Primarily employing the Revolver formation, in which Prince is situated four yards behind center instead of the typical seven yards in the shotgun, the UCLA offense struggled at first but found a tempo later in the day.
Prince improved throughout the affair, finding junior wide receiver Nelson Rosario on a slant on the left side for a 32-yard score and high school teammate Joseph Fauria up the middle for a 10-yard touchdown.
"There will get things that get better over time," Prince said. "The mechanics of it all - it will start to become natural to us. But there are some things we messed up scheme-wise, whether it be blocking, my reads - just stuff we need to fix. There are certain things we messed up that we've been running for two years now. We've got to work those things out."
UCLA's miscues mainly happened early, as the Bruins focused on the running game more and more. Sophomore Johnathan Franklin had 44 yards on nine carries and junior Derrick Coleman had 19 yards on eight attempts. Rosario led the team with three catches for 42 yards and the score, while junior Taylor Embree had three catches for 37 yards.
But the second and third units struggled more on the passing side; sophomore Richard Brehaut went 3-for-11 for 21 yards and redshirt sophomore Nick Crissman finished 3-of-6 for 16 yards.
Good news: no interceptions by any of the QBs. Bad news: Brehaut only completed 3 passes out of 11 attempts. Good news: the O moved the ball and scored 2 TDs. Bad news: the O-line still can't open holes for the RBs. Good news: the inexperienced D line stuffed the run and sacked the QBs. Bad news: the inexperienced D line stuffed the run and sacked the QBs. Good news: lots of energy and intensity by all players. Bad news: there were no cheer leaders. Go Bruins!
No cheer leaders?
Where were they?