Post-Practice Update

* It was a pretty grueling practice at Drake Stadium, coming back early for the morning practice. It was hot and muggy, and the players fought through it well.

* Sophomore OL Chris Ward suffered an ankle injury, which the team is calling a minor ankle sprain, but looks far worse. Ward was in serious pain and eventually had to be carted away from Drake Stadium. Rick Neuheisel and Bob Palcic implied it wouldn’t be serious, but Ward was to be taken for X-rays today. This could be a bad one for UCLA. They can’t lose anyone in the top eight up front.

* Cory Harkey has really upped his game the last couple days, and he had a nice one-handed touchdown in drills on a pass from Kevin Prince. Joseph Fauria also had a one-handed catch later in the day.

* Prince threw the ball pretty well today, displaying better touch on the medium-range passes, and throwing a few nice deep passes. Richard Brehaut was his usual accurate self, but he struggled at times throwing on the run. He did see more time with the first team than he has all camp, though.

* Brett Hundley looked pretty rusty throwing the ball, but that’s to be expected as he works on his timing. He ran a little more today, but Neuheisel said trainers are still concerned with the volume with his running.

* There were a handful of egregious drops by the wide receivers, none immune to it, and I assume a lot had to do with the uptick in tempo and heat. That’s all a focus deal.

* Eric Kendricks was really active, with a couple of pass breakups and a couple nice fills.

* Jeff Locke again closed practice with a good field goal.

* Tony Dye returned at full strength and the entire defensive backfield seemed to respond, playing at a very high level today. Alex Mascarenas also returned in a red jersey, and the depth is back up to speed.

* Andrew Abbott had a fantastic practice, with two really nice interceptions, one on a deep Prince pass and one on Brehaut over the middle. Both were good jumps on the ball.