* Rick Neuheisel interrupted practice late to bring the team together for a brief pep talk as the beginning of practice lacked a bit of energy. It seemed to work, as the team was much more physical in the last few periods than early on.

* Sophomore quarterback Richard Brehaut continues to progress as the new starter, but the old demons still creep up occasionally. For every pretty deep ball was a confounding pass, either into coverage or forced to a wideout. Timing is improving, though there continue to be some issues.

* Brehaut sat out at the end of practice with cramps and missed the two-minute drill portion, which Darius Bell led with good results. He had a very, very nice pass to Josh Smith deep up the middle.

* UCLA had a scare late in practice as safety Dalton Hilliard crashed into cornerback Aaron Hester on a deep ball, with Hilliard on the ground for a while. UCLA trainers even brought out a stretcher, but Hilliard was able to get up and walk it off, and Neuheisel said after practice that it was just a stinger, and unrelated to his previous shoulder injury.

* Jerry Johnson had a very good practice, and continues to show that he deserves more of a look. At this point, with no wideout really stepping into a star role, practice becomes all the more important, and he’s been very consistent for a couple weeks now. Video with him up tomorrow morning.

*Courtney Viney and Andrew Abbott look like they’re starting again, but Aaron Hester had a really good practice for the second day in a row. He’ll definitely need to show more consistency, however.

* Junior Steve Sloan and freshman Jordan Zumwalt continue to rotate at mike backer, but I still think Sloan is going to get the nod. Aside from Owamagbe Odighizuwa at defensive end, Chuck Bullough has been a bit tentative to put freshmen in really important positions. Zumwalt will certainly get a bunch of time, though.