During a particularly uncrisp portion of practice, a bright light shone through the clouds.
Atoning for a fumble earlier in the day in individual drills, tailback Derrick Coleman took a handoff and sprinted past everyone into daylight, leaving five defenders in his wake.
On a day without many highlight-reel plays, this one stood out.
Milton Knox also had a nifty run, as it appeared Christian Ramirez was still given a little time off to rest his hamstring.
While watching UCLA running backs go through a ball-protection drill – Moses attempted to punch the ball from their hands and the backs had to run then through a shoot – I noticed how many of the bigger tailbacks and fullbacks had to work harder just to maintain a lower center of gravity.
Made me think of big Christian Ramirez, all 6-foot-2, 220 pounds of him, and whether his size might be a detriment.
A quick glance at UCLA’s top-5 career rushers made me wonder if Ramirez is a bit too big:
Gaston Green – 5-10, 189
Freeman McNeil – 5-11 216
Karim Abdul Jabbar – 5-10 194
Wendell Tyler – 5-10, 198
Skip Hicks – 6-0, 230
But No. 6 is Theotis Brown.
6-foot-2, 225-pound Theotis Brown…
Christian Ramirez – are you calling him C-Ram yet? Do you want to start? – said during Media Day on Monday that he expected to be used in a variety of ways this season.
Then he went out during practice and caught passes left and right, working out of backfield on screens, flashing out as a safety blanket, even chipping blitzers and then popping out as an extra option.
Norm Chow echoed C-Ram’s comments, mentioning how good his hands are.
Read about it here, if you’d like:
Rick Neuheisel, on the offensive line inefficiencies from last season:
“They just were inexperienced and they weren’t physical enough. Given the great work in the offseason to increase our strength numbers and given some competition created by the arrival of newcomers, I think we’re gonna have a chance to be a better front. And we need to be if we’re going to be better on offense.”
Norm Chow, on Christian Ramirez’ chance to be a dual-threat back:
“He’s a good pass catcher, so we have to make sure where we get some matchups where we can magnify his skills. We’ve known all along. He practiced all year long with us and you could just tell he was a good pass catcher. And a coach has the responsibility to try and magnify the skills of the players we have.”
Ramirez spoke yesterday about his offseason program, and getting up to 220 pounds while trying not to lose his speed. He certainly expects to carry the ball a lot this season, but he also has his creative juices flowing. Well, actually, he’s counting on Norm Chow to have his creative juices flowing.
And they were on Monday, as Ramirez caught passes out of the backfield and seemed eager to just be a factor on offense.
On being a workhorse back for UCLA:
“Being an athlete, period, you always want to have the ball in your hands,” Ramirez said. “You want to be the playmaker. That’s up to coach Chow. If he needs me to carry the ball so many times, I will. I’ll do whatever. It’s just fun to know that I’m going to be used in many different ways.”