UCLA spring football day 11: Team focused on repetition in 11-on-11s

UCLA’s Eldridge Massington, pictured in a 2014 practice, said UCLA’s receivers are more focused on run blocking this year with new coach Jimmie Dougherty. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News)

The timing may not have looked ideal for Jimmie Dougherty, but the affection he has held for UCLA for more than a decade was too strong to ignore.

After less than two months as Oregon’s wide receivers coach, Dougherty flew south to Westwood to take the same position at UCLA this season. Since arriving, he’s jumped head on into improving UCLA’s inconsistent receivers group while providing offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch a vital familiar face as they install a new offense.

More on how Dougherty fell in love with UCLA as a San Diego assistant coach and what he brings to the Bruins.

Video interview with Fisch

Here are notes/observations from practice today:

— Saturday’s practice was the shortest of the spring (only two hours) but comprised almost entirely of 11-on-11 periods. Fisch said the offense didn’t install anything new this week, allowing players to get comfortable with what they’ve already learned, which was the reason for the team-period-heavy practice Saturday. The team went live through almost every situational period, including backed up, red zone, 2-minute and 4-minute.

Josh Rosen had an up and down practice. The first half it seemed like he couldn’t hit any throws. At the beginning of practice when he was just throwing to receivers without defenders, he overthrew at least six or seven consecutive receivers on deep balls. With each incompletion, it looked like he was growing more and more frustrated. He missed Caleb Wilson on a few throws during team periods. That’s hard to do because Wilson generally had very sure hands and has a huge catch radius.

— Rosen didn’t lead his first touchdown drive until his seventh attempt, when he started the team’s red zone period. Nate Meadors snuffed out Rosen’s first attempt at a touchdown pass to Darren Andrews on a bootleg, but the offense came right back on the next play and got a good matchup with Austin Roberts against Adarius Pickett in the end zone. Roberts got the touchdown catch.

— Rosen later completed a nice throw to Jordan Wilson. I saw Josh Woods jumping the route and I was sure that the linebacker was going to pick off the throw, but Rosen somehow threaded it to his tight end for a big gain that put the offense near the goal line. Jalen Starks finished off the drive with a short touchdown run. Both of Rosen’s touchdown drives were during the red zone team period.

Soso Jamabo had some really nice, tough runs up the middle. It’s been a long-standing problem that the 6-foot-3 running back ran too upright between the tackles, but he got two strong runs during the team period against the No. 1 defense. He even went against Pickett, who is known for his hard-hitting ways, and burst forward for an extra yard or two after contact.

Jaelan Phillips spent a significant amount of time breaking into the backfield for the No. 1 defense. He wasn’t always tallying touch sacks, but he still disrupted the plays and did come up with some tackles for loss in the running game.

Octavius Spencer picked off Devon Modster after a tipped pass, but Modster was the quarterback to lead the first touchdown drive of the day. He completed passes to Jimmy Jaggers and Austin Roberts to move within the 20-yard line, then after a run from Brandon Stephens found Roberts again on a bootleg that brought the ball within the 5. Nate Starks finished off the drive with a touchdown run, taking on Darnay Holmes at the goal line and winning that battle.

Austin Burton took almost all of the third quarterback reps as he got his first major time in live team periods. Matt Lynch took a backseat for the day. Burton started off a little shakey as the offense picked up a false start on his first drive, then he lost a fumble on his second drive inside the red zone. He came back and led two touchdown drives, showing his ability to both run and pass. He picked up a critical first down when he kept the ball on third down, then used a run-pass option at the goal line on the next play. It looked close to getting the touchdown, but he was ruled short. Giovanni Gentosi punched it in for a short touchdown. Jalen Starks helped Burton get his second touchdown drive as the running back took three consecutive carries, bringing the ball inside the 10. Burton finished it off from there with a touchdown pass to Jimmy Jaggers.

— On his three consecutive carries, Jalen Starks continued to show just how hard it is to tackle him. On the first one, he picked up maybe 3 extra yards after contact. He picked up the first down on his second run, then on the third one broke through at least five tackles and fell forward to pick up even more yardage.

— Gentosi also made an impressive catch out of the backfield, bailing Modster out on a throw that may have floated a little bit too far toward the sideline. Gentosi reached for the ball and reeled it in by his fingertips near the sideline.

 Meadors was on major lockdown at corner. He got at least four pass breakups against the No. 1 receivers.

 Holmes nearly had two interceptions off Rosen, but dropped them. He got a good pass breakup against Andrews.

Marcus Moore sacked Modster. Keisean Lucier-South recovered a fumble that ended one of Modster’s drives.

Stefan Flintoft seems to be the leader in the punting race. He’s shown more consistency than Austin Kent so far and has usually been the first one to take the punts during practice. Flintoft got a few attempts Saturday that pushed the returner back and dropped at least one inside the 20-yard line.

— Fisch got on Alex Van Dyke for running the wrong route during the beginning of practice. He missed it by 5 yards, breaking off his route at the 18 instead of the 23.

Denzel Fisher was seen walking off the field with his right arm in a sling. I didn’t see what happened, though.

DeChaun Holiday (shoulder) and Poasi Moala (hip) remained on the sideline riding the exercise bikes.

— No field goal kicks today.