Tag Archives: Cassius Marsh

Jim Mora not emphasizing ‘payback’ against Stanford

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— Many Bruins still have last year’s back-to-back Stanford games fresh in their minds: UCLA’s 35-17 loss at home followed by a 27-24 heartbreaker in the Pac-12 Championship. Head coach Jim Mora is trying to make sure it doesn’t become their primary focus this weekend.

“I hope that — I think somewhere deep down in their psyche is payback, payback, payback,” he said. “But if you make that your main motivation, I think you make a mistake. You have to focus on this game, this year, and what it’s going to take to win this game, this year.”

His role as a coach will be to talk to the team the right way in order to instill calm heading into the weekend.

“You don’t necessarily whip them into a frenzy on a Tuesday,” Mora said. “You let it slowly build so you create the right mindset going into a game.”

— Defensive end Ellis McCarthy is expected to play at Stanford after sitting out last Saturday with a head injury. Continue reading “Jim Mora not emphasizing ‘payback’ against Stanford” »

Scuffle ends UCLA evening practice early

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SAN BERNARDINO – UCLA’s Monday evening practice ended early when a fight broke out between a few players.

The trouble began near the end of the session at Cal State San Bernardino when defensive end Cassius Marsh began scuffling with an offensive player. Tensions rose between offense and defense, escalating when receiver Shaq Evans ran in from the sideline and began jawing loudly with defensive back Anthony Jefferson.

Head coach Jim Mora halted practice half an hour early and made the entire team run widths of the field for roughly 10 minutes. Continue reading “Scuffle ends UCLA evening practice early” »

How much NFL talent does UCLA have?

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NFL teams drafted four Bruins in April, the highest number for UCLA since 2005. Could the school best that mark next spring?

Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller ranked the 25 college programs with the most talent for the 2014 draft. The Bruins made the cut, along with four other Pac-12 teams:

No. 22: UCLA — 7 prospects (among draft-eligible players)
No. 21: Washington — 7 Continue reading “How much NFL talent does UCLA have?” »

UCLA football post-spring: Defense and special teams

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Defensive line

Can UCLA’s defensive front survive the loss of a first-round pick — the team’s first since 2006? Cassius Marsh, pegged as a third-round talent in some early projections, now succeeds new Green Bay Packer Datone Jones as the Bruins’ best defensive end. By most observations, he’s matured since 2011, a year that saw him storm out of spring practice and later suspended two games for an October brawl at Arizona.

“Sometimes, he may stop on that line, but not over it,” said defensive line coach Angus McClure. “I call it a ‘controlled insanity.’ You want to go to that line but you don’t want to go over it. Certainly, he’s learned to manage it.”

The rest of the line, however, is a muddled with injuries. Owamagbe Odighizuwa and Ellis McCarthy both sat out spring while rehabbing from their respective hip and knee surgeries, while nose tackle Brandon Tualiaupupu tore his ACL in mid-April. Continue reading “UCLA football post-spring: Defense and special teams” »

Early look at Bruins in the 2014 NFL draft

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The 2014 NFL draft is less than a year away! Depending on who does or doesn’t declare, the Bruins could have two first-round picks for the first time since 1981.

Here’s a roundup of some too-early mock drafts/prospect rankings.

Sports Illustrated:
Brett Hundley — No. 8
Anthony Barr — No. 20

Chris Burke is higher on Hundley than anyone else listed here, and is also lower on Barr — whom he calls a potential “Von Miller-type” should he be drafted by a 4-3 team. The analyst does hedge a bit on the No. 20: “Odds are, in the long run, that Barr might be off the board well before this next April.” Continue reading “Early look at Bruins in the 2014 NFL draft” »