SB Nation - Cory Harkey

Raising Reasonable Questions Despite Staying On Track For A Successful UCLA Football Season

Nestor — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:38:25 -0000

Craft's courage is admirable, but he offers limited options for a shackled UCLA offense.

So let's get something out of the way first. The season is not over. Not even close. I never expected our program to go undefeated this season or to make a charge to the Rose Bowl. In fact if folks go over my numerous off season posts going over season expectations, they will find people accusing me of protecting CRN and co. from high expectations (lol). I still believe that if CRN and co. can put together a 7 win season this year, he will have the program at a good place. That said, I think we have to be honest with ourselves with what we see with our own eyes.

One reason this blog took off during the dreaded Dorrell era was that we were always brutally frank and honest with what we were seeing with our own eyes on the field. Same factor has been in play during Ben Ball season. Even though we worship and love Coach Ben Howland, we have dished out our fair share of criticism of Coach Howland and our Ben Ball warriors after tough losses during last few years. So, if you are looking for a site which is going to blindly "trust in coaches" this is not the place to be. From what I saw with my own eyes yesterday, I believe that it wasn't Rick Neuheisel and his staff's best moments at UCLA. Till now Neuheisel has done a great job of rebuilding the program and getting the right pieces in place. That doesn't mean he can be immune from criticism from the world that bleeds blue and gold, when we think there are reasonable basis to raise questions. So let's go through some of the issues that are bugging me and hopefully we can have honest and respectful discussions on them and more importantly, the coaches will work on them even harder to address them during this game week.

Play Calling

I will start with play calling on offense. There are two specific instances during yesterday's game it became clear how vanilla/Donahuesque the play calling was under Nueheisel and Chow.

Offense

First, towards the end of the first quarter, UCLA got the ball down 3-7 on its 17 yard line. After couple of nice runs by Jet Ski and a completion from Craft to Presley UCLA had a first and 10 at its own 43 yard line. Here are how the plays unfolded to end the first quarter:

1st and 10 at UCLA 43    UCLA penalty 6 yard false start accepted.
1st and 16 at UCLA 37    UCLA penalty 10 yard holding accepted.
1st and 26 at UCLA 27    Kevin Craft pass complete to Derrick Coleman for 3 yards to the UCLA 30.
2nd and 23 at UCLA 30    Derrick Coleman rush for 1 yard to the UCLA 31.

We have already dinged the coaches over the lack of discipline, focus. For me though what drove me crazy was the last two play calls. It was indicative of an offense that was shackled with limited options and playing with a safe/Donahue mentality of not playing to lose. Running up 1 yard on 2nd and 23. I mean come on. Really? That's not ~~Dorrellian/~~Donahuesque conservative? Then what is?

Let's also look at the sequence during late Q4 that led up to UCLA's last score (a FG! yay!!!) once our offense got within 35 yards of Stanford's endzone:

1st and 10 at STAN 33    Kevin Craft pass complete to Cory Harkey for 6 yards to the Stanf 27.
2nd and 4 at STAN 27    Johnathan Franklin rush for 2 yards to the Stanf 25.
3rd and 2 at STAN 25    Timeout UCLA, clock 05:07.
3rd and 2 at STAN 25    STANFORD penalty 5 yard pass interference accepted.
1st and 10 at STAN 20    Kevin Craft pass incomplete.
2nd and 10 at STAN 20    Johnathan Franklin rush for 3 yards to the Stanf 17.
3rd and 7 at STAN 17    Kevin Craft pass incomplete.
4th and 7 at STAN 17    Kai Forbath 35 yard field goal GOOD.

I don't believe the coaches made one attempt to take a shot downfield during that stretch. It was clear when we got down to 20 yard line the coaches were calling plays to make sure they were no effing up our chances for a FG. Again, no other way to describe that mentality other than ~~Dorrellian/~~Donahuesque conservative. I saw it all too often during late Donahue years and it was frankly unpleasent.

Of course, an explanation is the coaches were working with what they had in Kevin Craft. Well in that case would it have been the end of the world if they tried out Richard Brehaut and see what he could do? I mean if they are going to have RBs slam up the Stanford wall for 2-3 yard gains in late Q1, then why not bring in Brehaut? What are they so afraid of? Losing? That's the exact mentality that ate up UCLA football during Dorrell years and eroded it until Toledo injected some life into it (with a huge assist from McNown) during Donahue's later years. It's not fun to watch or pleasent to follow and as I noted earlier today, I sure hope it's an aberration.

Defense

Moving over to the defensive side of the ball, it just reminded me of how the Walker coached UCLA defense usually forgets to show up in one or two games every season. Until the defense tightened up later in the second half, the way I would characterize is tentative and unsure. It appeared as if Chuck Bullough was coaching scared and as if he had to wait until the first few series to figure out what Stanford was scheming up. That is inexcusable given we all knew what was coming from Stanford and had two weeks to prepare. It's clear to opposing coaches that they can run on this defense by going outside. It's not clear whether our coaches have done anything to adjust to that.

We didn't see any kind of creative stunts or blitz packages and our DEs were getting mandhandled all over the place. Our LBs were lining up to far from the LOS. By the time Gerhart was blasting up he was running downhill and was gaining additional yardage from his explosive momentum. Again, I didn't get why Bullough didn't shake things up to disrupt Stanford's rhythm. The way we played it allowed a red shirt freshman QB to get comfortable and pick us apart the whole day. Lot of folks have rightly questioned why coaches didn't try out Viney when Sheldon Price at times was looking overwhelmed. And that takes me to personnel decisions made in that game.

Personnel Decisions

Yes, coaches have some explaining to do wrt to personnel use with our current roster.

Craft/Brehaut

First and foremost it starts with Craft/Brehaut situation. I understand and appreciate the argument on Craft's side. I also recognize how Craft yesterday perhaps played one of his best games (if not his best) as a UCLA QB. His numbers would have been better if Taylor Embree had made the trip to Palo Alto or Morrell Presley was not making freshman mistakes. Still, what is obvious to me that the offense is shackled with Craft at the helm. Coaches are not taking downfield shots with Craft because they just don't have the confidence in his ability to connect. If that is the case, then why didn't they try out Brehaut? Why didn't they try out Brehaut in late first quarter or during third quarter when they were dialing up one unimaginative running plays after another.

Also, on that note why UCLA offensive line had opened up some nice holes early on, it was clear Stanford made their in game adjustments and basically challenged Bruins to beat them with Kevin Craft's arm. Given the plays our coaches dialed up, it was evident they didn't have the confidence in Craft's arm, which in turn doesn't explain why they didn't try out Brehaut. BTW preserving Brehaut's redshirt season argument doesn't fly, given Neuehisel/Chow burned it in our first game.

Rosario/Carroll-Embree/Austin

It was clear from the first series that Embree's head wasn't in the game. Meanwhile, Rosario made an obvious impression during Kansas State. Yet didn't seem like he was in their much. And when he was in there he was making plays. It seems like Rosario is always racking up more YACs than Embree. Same goes for Terrence Austin. I get that Austin is a senior and a leader in the team. But from what I am seeing both Embree and Austin are running vanilla routes not getting much separation with the opposing DBs. So why not shake it up by trying out Randall Carroll and Nelson Rosario. It would have been nice to see if the coaches made an effort to take advantage of Carrolls' world class speed. We didn't get a whiff of it. Speaking of speed ...

Thigpen/Austin

... I think it's clear the kind of potential Damien Thigpen has. He was electrifying in the touches he got yesterday. That brings me to the question why not try him out more on special teams and have him return kickoffs. From what I am seeing from Austin when he is returning kickoffs he is dancing around a little too much and not returning with a lot of determination. So again why not shake it up and go with the young talent that's available. I'd think that if the coaches went with the young talent, they would be able to entice recruits even more. No?

Focus/Discipline

We have alluded to this issue few times already since the end of yesterday's game. We talked all week about how important it was for our defense to set the tone. Many will argue that it was Rahim Moore's play (in which he suffered a concussion) that set the tone for the game. After the Cardinal converted that first down, then went on to drive right down our throat to score a TD. It was a statement that resonated throughout the game.

However, that wasn't the only demoralizing penaties that hurt us yesterday. Early in Q3 when Stanford had the ball on their 46 yard line, the defense stopped Gerhart for a loss, putting them at 2nd and 13 on their 43. Of course in the very next play the defense gave up an offside penalty to turn it into 2nd and 8, making it more managble for Luck and co. The next play was the flea flicker to Whalen, that effectively seem to decide the game.

As I have said in the comment sections, I don't have an explanation for these penalties. Sure we can chalk them up to youth. However, at the same time if the coaches are looking to bank on a shackled offense, then they also have a responsibility to make sure the team is playing smart and focused football, to make up for the limited abilities of its backup QB. They didn't seem to get it done.

Other Observations

As for penalties, yes as usual we were burned by SPTRs. However, I am not going to complain about it. Good teams play through BS refereeing particularly in the pathetic Pac-10. We didn't do it yesterday.

Speaking of pathetic, David Norrie is probably the worst UCLA alum broadcaster. He is the Karl Dorrell of UCLA broadcaster. He is terrible. Unlike media personalities such as MJD, Bill Walton, Reggie Miller and Rick Neuheisel (when he appeared on media as a commentator during his non UCLA coaching days), Norrie calls our games as if he is ashamed to admit his UCLA connections. In his effort to make himself look impartial, he makes it worse. I really hope we don't have to hear him broadcast other UCLA games. He sucks. Plain and simple.

Postives From Yesterday

Well I do have couple of positive notes to share from yesterday. Forbath is awesome. However, at the same time I feel like our coaches are getting too much in a comfort zone, counting on his gimmes. The guy who gets the game ball from UCLA pov yesterday is Jeff Locke. He had a great all around game. Sad that we are celebrating kickers again. What's that word again? Dorr ... never mind.

Also, the defense does deserve some credit for making it a game and fighting back in second half. However, as I suspected all along their late starts would eventually cost us. It did yesterday.

Lastly, as I said above, the season is not over. Not by any means. We have an extremely tough football game coming up next weekend. I am not sure right now whether we can win it. However, I would like to see us come out and fight like we did against Tennessee from the opening kick off and play smart football. I want them to play their hearts out, play with fire, and eliminate as much "what ifs" as possible. CRN knows it. He is on record. The Bruin Nation is "dying for" it.

GO BRUINS.

Football Fall Practice (8/15): The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Ryan Rosenblatt — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:58:40 -0000

Originally, I had planned on just going to today's late practice. I'd wait until the put the pads on and started hitting, but after further consideration, I decided that a full day in Westwood sounded like a pretty good idea so I checked out both practices today and got to hang out with some friends for a while in between. If any of you out there in the SoCal area haven't been to a football practice before, I highly, highly recommend it. You can grab a meal in Westwood, walk the campus a bit and learn more about football than you have ever leanred in your life. Getting to be within feet of the players and coaches, you can see everything that goes on and if you listen to the coaches talking, it's like sitting in a class on football so for all you Bruins out there, try to make your way out.

Getting back to the on-field action today, it was a decent day of practice. The energy was there for the most part, but there were a couple times, especially at the end of the morning practice, where the energy took a noticeable drop. It was good to see guys hitting again in the afternoon, even if they weren't taking ball carriers to the groun. The full pads and contact gave you a much better indication of the line play though. There was a decent number of recruits walking around and we even got word that Marquis Jackson, a DE, will enroll this spring and be available for spring practice. Of note was the absence of Randall Carroll, who is nursing a groin injury.

The Good

Offensive Line- Let's define what "good" means for our offensive line. "Good" is today's performance where there was the occasional big hole, but running backs weren't going down for a loss and were routinely getting to the line before getting hit. "Good" is Kevin Prince being able to get to the back of his drop and look for a couple seconds without the pocket collapsing and even when there was pressure, being able to scramble to one side because both sides weren't crashing down on him. "Good" is only one false start even though Prince used several hard counts and having Prince call out line rolls and slides at the line with enough confidence in his line to be able to recognize them and execute. The offensive line was far from dominant today and the defensive line was definitely the better of the two sides, but the offensive line was respectable and helds its own for the most part. With the offensive line's inexperience and play last season, that's pretty darn good.

Tight Ends- Prince is going to the tight ends often and the tight ends are giving him good reason to come back to them. We're using a lot of multiple tight end sets so they'll need to play a big role this year. In the receiving game, they've shown good hands. Off the top of my head, I can remember only one dropped pass from a tight end all day and that was by Cory Harkey on a ball he should have had, but was a little behind him. Besides that, the tight ends were reeling everything in and were doing a good job of running crisp routes to make themselves available. Nate Chandler made an absolutely sensational grab in the morning practice to catch the attention of everyone at Spaulding Field. Blocking-wise, the tight ends did well to help on the defensive ends, but until the defense starts mixing in more blitzes, it will be tough to tell exactly how they're progressing in that respect.

Pass Coverage- Our secondary is just stout. There is no other way to say it. Even with our question mark at strong safety, which I'll get into later, the defensive backfield just doesn't leave much room to throw the ball. What amazes me is not how good they are in man coverage, where their athleticism lets them run with receivers, but the cohesion they show in zone coverage. Despite just getting into training camp, the linebackers and secondary pass receivers along to each other very well and close down quickly when a catch is made. I mentioned how involved the tight ends were and a big reason for that is because the receivers were covered deep and Prince only had his tight ends to go to underneath.

Milton Knox- Especially in the late practice, Knox was extremely explosive. He hits the hole hard and runs with a low center of gravity that will make him tough to bring down. The biggest difference between Knox last year and this year is the confidence with which he is running. Last year he hesitated a bit and sometimes got happy feet in the hole. Today, he was making one cut and going hard. He wasn't asked to do much blocking so I can't speculate on how much playing time he will get this year, but he looks like he can be an explosive ball carrier.

Terrance Austin- With the rest of the receivers struggling to get separation, it was the experienced Austin who found space underneath and on intermediate routes to give Prince a go-to option. Because Austin is often charged with the intermediate routes, he and Prince will have to develop a good rapport if the Bruins are to thrive because Prince won't have time to throw deep all the time no matter how improved the line is.

The Bad

Strong Safeties- On Wednesday, I listed the play of Dye and Love as "ugly," but they were better today so they got bumped up to "bad." Both Dye and Love looked better in coverage and while they weren't breaking on balls as well as you'd like to see, they were reading the field better and putting themselves in good enough position to take a portion of the field away from Prince. Dye still gets caught out of position too often though and Love still plays like a man half his size. During tackling drills, the 6'4,'' 210 lbs. Love got knocked back by the 5'11," 183 lbs. Brandon Sermons. Love better start getting lower and establishing leverage or he'll find himself on the bench.

Christian Ramirez- He made a nice grab coming out of the backfield in the afternoon and made a couple defenders bounce off of him in traffic, but Ramirez was not the best running back on the field today or even the second or third best. Ramirez did not show much ability to break a big one and wasn't even hitting the hole quickly enough to pick up four of five ugly yards. He didn't play last year so he may still be getting back in the groove, but he's going to have to step it up if he's going to be our #1.

The Ugly

Special Teams- I mentioned on Wednesday that our special teams were poor and that it isn't unusual this early in training camp. It's still not unusual for special teams to struggle, but they were horrid today. Even when a return went well, it wasn't because the return team did their job well as much as it was poor coverage. Eric Chalifour was taking the kicks in the afternoon and wasn't kicking it consistently, deep or high. There was a blocked punt as the line got pushed four yards deep and some bobbled balls on kicks and punts. On the whole, the special teams can only be described with words not suitable for those under the age of 13.

The Wait Is Over For Bruin Football: Practice Starts Today

Nestor — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:00:14 -0000

So it all starts today. As mentioned over the weekend the season gets started today with a "Media Day" in the morning and then first practice (which is open to public) at 3:30 pm PST. I am sure we are going to be reading stories from the Media Day and first practice starting tomorrow starting later this evening and with our usual roundup in the AM. Already there are few notes up on the official site that should get all of us ready for the camp.

Following the tweeter feed yesterday it was pretty clear the players were coming back to Westwood yesterday. Everyone of them sound excited and fired up (Case in point here is Taylor Embree). Here are the details from the official site:

On Sunday afternoon, the veteran UCLA football players reported to camp. The first team meeting is scheduled for tonight. On Saturday afternoon, the newcomers reported to camp and went through a series of orientation meetings on Sunday.

Monday's schedule includes position meetings in the morning and a short walkthrough. The players will participate in Media Day at noon and at the same time shoot portrait photos for television broadcasts and other material for the Rose Bowl video board.

The first practice is scheduled for 3:00 pm. For the first few days, head coach Rick Neuheisel and the coaches will split the team into two groups so the players can receive more one-on-one coaching from the staff. The first group will begin practice at 3:00 pm. The entire team will work on special teams for 20 minutes at 4:20 pm and then the second group will practice from 4:40 - 6:00 pm.

I hope some of you get to make it out there either today or sometime in the coming weeks. Just reading through the position overviews it becomes clear how intense the competition is going to be this year. We just need to have the players stay healthy. More details after the jump.

Note "several" of the walkons are not reporting for camp until after the first game or the start of school. Also, it looks like Jayson Allmond is another scholarship freshman who is not going to report because he is waiting for issues related to NCAA Clearinghouse issues to be resolved. Perhaps Brian Price can give him a call and tell the kid to hang in there.

The official site also posted whole bunch of pre-season notes. There were few details I found to be interesting and worth sharing. First here are the players we are going to have this season who missed entire if not most of last season due to injury and other issues:

WHO WAS MISSING -- The following players, who will return to the team for 2009, were listed in the 2008 pre-season two-deep or figured to play a prominent role, if available for action last season: Offense --- TE Logan Paulsen - missed 11 g to injury; OL Jeff Baca - missed 3 g to injury; OL Darius Savage - missed 2 g to injury; OL - Sean Sheller - missed all 12 g to injury; OL - Mike Harris - missed 7 g to injury; RB - Christian Ramirez - missed all 12 g due to academic eligibility issues; FB Trevor Theriot - missed 9 g to injury; Defense --- Kyle Bosworth - missed 10g to injury; DL - Jess Ward - missed 5 g due to injury; DL Reginald Stokes - missed 1 g due to injury.

So here is these guys staying healthy in 2009. All those injuries meant UCLA had a lot of cubbies getting action this past season:

YOUTH AND EXPERIENCE -- UCLA played a total of 22 freshmen (11 redshirt and 11 true freshmen) in the 2008 season. Sixteen of the twenty scholarship players included in that group are scheduled to return in 2009. Of that group of sixteen returning players, 11 have starting experience (Defense --- So. Rahim Moore, S - 12 g; So.R Steve Sloan, LB - 9 g; So. R Akeem Ayers, LB - 3 g; So. Datone Jones, DL - 2 g; So. Tony Dye, S - 1g; Offense --- So. Cory Harkey, TE - 7 g; So. Taylor Embree, WR - 8 g; So. Jeff Baca, OL - 8 g; So.R Nate Chandler, TE - 2 g; So. Derrick Coleman, RB - 1 g; So.R Mike Harris, OL - 5 g).

Needless to say it will be exciting to see how these guys can improve on this year. Also, a total of 29 players saw action for the first time in 2009:

FIRST ACTION -- A total of 29 players (17 offensive and 12 defensive) saw their first action as a Bruin during the 2008 season (11 true freshmen - seven offensive and four defensive players (LB Sean Westgate, S Rahim Moore, TE Cory Harkey, WR Taylor Embree, S Tony Dye, WR Antwan Moutra, WR Nelson Rosario, RB Aundre Dean, RB Derrick Coleman, OL Jeff Baca, DL Datone Jones); 11 redshirt freshmen - five defensive and six offensive players (DB Courtney Viney, LB Steve Sloan, LB Akeem Ayers, DB Glenn Love, OL/TE Nate Chandler, RB Raymond Carter, DL Justin Edison, WR Ryal Jagd, QB Chris Forcier, TE Glenn Rauscher, OT Mike Harris), six redshirt sophomores - three offensive and three defensive players (OL Brandon Bennett, LB Mike Schmitt, DL Reginald Stokes, OL Sonny Tevaga, OL Jake Dean, DB Garrett Rubio), one redshirt junior (QB Kevin Craft).

Of course some of those guys such as Carter, Dean and Craft are either no longer with us or will probably not get much action this coming year. However, I think those numbers show how Neuheisel will not hesitate to put in his young guys in there if they are competing hard out at Spaulding and doing what the coaches are asking them to do.

Lastly, the pre-season notes also has some interesting numbers on freshman QBs record at UCLA during last 20 years:

*2002 (8-5, T 4th Pac-10) -- Matt Moore (Fr.) game 8 win over Stanford; Drew Olson (Fr.) game 9 win at Washington; game 10 win at Arizona; game 11 loss to USC; game 12 loss to Wash. State; game 13 bowl win over New Mexico.
*1999 (4-7, 9th Pac-10) -- Cory Paus (Fr.R) game 3 win over Fresno St.; game 5 loss at Ariz. State; game 6 win over Oregon; game 7 loss to Cal; game 8 loss at Ore. State; game 9 loss to Arizona; game 10 win over Washington; Ryan McCann (Fr. R) game 11 loss at USC.
*1995 (7-5, T 5th Pac-10) -- Cade McNown (Fr.) game 3 loss to Oregon; game 5 win over Fresno St.; game 6 win over Arizona; game 7 win at Stanford; game 8 win over Cal; game 9 loss at Ariz. State; game 10 loss to Washington; game 11 win at USC; game 12 bowl loss to Kansas.
*1992 (6-5, 8th Pac-10) -- Rob Walker (Fr. R) game 2 win at BYU; game 3 win over San Diego State; game 4 loss at Arizona; game 5 loss to Stanford; game 10 win at Oregon; Ryan Fien (Fr.) game 7 loss to Arizona State.
*1990 (5-6, T 6th Pac-10) -- Tommy Maddox (Fr. R) game 3 loss at Michigan; game 4 win at Wash. State; game 5 loss to Arizona; game 6 win over San Diego State; game 7 loss at Cal; game 8 win over Oregon State; game 9 loss at Oregon; game 10 win at Washington; game 11 loss to USC.
*1989 (3-7-1, 9th Pac-10) -- Bret Johnson (Fr. R) started all 11 games. game 1 loss to Tenn.; game 2 win over San Diego State; game 3 loss to Michigan; game 4 win over Cal; game 5 win over Ariz. State; game 6 loss at Arizona; game 7 loss at Oregon State; game 8 loss to Washington; game 9 loss at Stanford; game 10 loss to Oregon; game 11 tie at USC.

You can sense that Cade McNown was kind of an anomaly and even he had a roller coaster first two years. Bret Johnson, Rob Walker, and Ryan Fien were total disasters (well Johnson was just a disgrace).

Anyway, those numbers above are fairly sobering and should be datapoints we all take into account before deluding ourselves with visions of grandeur that takes over average college football fans around this time of the year. I still think Prince will be an upgrade from what we saw last year. However, given how legends like McNown struggled during their first year in college we should keep our expectations in check.

GO BRUINS.

Plenty Of Targets For Prince & Co: Options At Wide Receivers & Tight Ends

Nestor — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:46:03 -0000

So to date we have taken a look through the options available at quarterbacks, running backs, and the offensive line of this year's team. Provided that our offensive line improves from last year's dreadful season and Kevin Prince and co. can provide steady play at the quarterback position, we might be able to see some fireworks courtesy of our wide receivers and tight ends this coming season. These are two positions Bruins will be loaded IMHO heading into this football season.

Let's go through the wide receiver position first. The two guys slated to start are Taylor Embree and Terrence Austin. From Sam Saig at All Pac-10 blog:

The top three receivers from last year’s squad are back, including sure-handed sophomore Taylor Embree.

The 6-3 194 pound Embree burst onto the scene last season, setting school records for receiving yards (531) and receptions (40) among freshmen wideouts. His 531 receiving yards led all Bruins in 2008 and his 40 catches were second on the team. Embree’s fantastic freshman season garnered national attention as he was named second team Freshman All-American by The Sporting News. He played in all 12 games, and started eight.

Embree is a possession-receiver in the best sense of the term. The Overland Park (KS) native is an exceptionally gifted route-runner and possesses rare instincts that allow him to separate from defenders. Those instincts could make the cerebral sophomore Kevin Prince’s emergency option whenever a play breaks down.

Embree does not shy away from contact, and routinely ran dangerous "across-the-middle" routes last season. He uses his big frame very well, and has tremendous hands that seem to catch everything, especially for first downs. Embree enters the season as one of the premier offensive threats for the Bruins.

Joining Embree as a starter will be senior Terrence Austin. Austin led the team in receptions as a junior with 53. He finished second on the team with 461 receiving yards and one touchdown. The 5-11 173 pound flanker is a multi-talented athlete that can hurt the opponent in a variety of ways. He set a school record last season with 1,878 all-purpose yards, which broke Maurice Jones-Drew’s mark of 1,863. Austin also became the first Bruin ever to eclipse 1,000 yards on kickoff returns (1,109).

Austin is very effective on reverses and trick plays, giving the ultra-creative Norm Chow a speedy playmaker to utilize in 2009. Last season, Austin had 13 carries for 90 yards (6.9 YPC). Teammates and coaches alike have praised the Long Beach Poly (CA) product for his leadership qualities, and he was voted as one of the team captains at the end of spring. Austin will be a key contributor for the Bruins in 2009.

Sam mentioned how Taylor doesn't shy away from contact and has no fear running across the middle. I think we can say the same about Austin given the courage he displayed last year (just think back to the Oregon game in Eugene). The question that folks will have is whether Embree or Austin will be able to give us that breakaway option at WR. Sooner or later at least Austin is going to have to house it this year because hopefully he is going to get some strong competition this year. More on that after the jump.

So who will Austin and Embree get that competition from? Well we already have Nelson Rosario on the fold who at least in terms of size (6-5, 214) and athleticism provides us the kind of target we probably haven't had at WR position since the days of Danny Farmer and J.J. Stokes. Case in point:

Photo Credit: dabruins07 (flickr)

He had some money grabs last year (v. Tennessee and Stanford). He also has no problem running those difficult routes. He caught 11 passes for 169 yards in his freshman year and I can't wait to find out the kind of season he will come up with in his second year.

Meanwhile, speaking of kids giving Austin a push in the department of speed, we have to talk about Carroll:

[I]t’s Carroll, and his where-did-he-go speed, who could give the passing game a quick-strike element that would have to be respected.

Carroll, who played at Los Angeles Cathedral High, will have to show he’s ready. At 5 feet 10 and 184 pounds, he could use a little more meat. His savvy level needs to grow.

All that will come. What Carroll already possesses is afterburner speed, as he was a two-time California state champion in the 100 and 200 meters.

Senior linebacker Reggie Carter has seen that speed on display during seven-on-seven workouts this month.

"When the ball is in the air, he goes and gets it," Carter said. "There have been some passes where I thought, ‘No way anyone gets that,’ and he takes off and gets there."

That element could make an already solid group lethal.

That should given folks incentive to pack the Spaulding Field every day starting Monday. I guess the main question right now is whether our much maligned OL will give Prince and co. enough time to find and strike targets like Randall.

Randall will not be on the only option at WRs for Kevin. We will have seniors like Gavin Ketchum as hopefully reliable options. Gavin at 6-5 210 pounds also provides a huge target for our QBs and he has shown decent ability to block downfield. Both Gavin and Rosario (along with Embree) should be able to provide options as attractives targets when our offense gets into the red zone. In addition to these guys we will also have young talents such as Antown Moutra, Jerry Johnson and freshman Ricky Marvray available in our depth chart. I have heard lot of great feedback on both Moutra and Johnson in terms of their size and speed. I am going to assume if those guys prove themselves at Spaulding Chow and Neuheisel, will not hesitate from calling their numbers on game day.

Speaking of big targets, we haven't even gotten to discuss our TEs yet. The TE position will be rich and deep in proven talent provided Moya and Paulsen can stay healthy. From the LA Times:

The absences of Moya (ankle surgery) and Paulsen (broken foot) gave UCLA coaches reason to be concerned in the spring -- so much so that Nate Chandler was shifted back to tight end from offensive tackle. Now offensive coordinator Norm Chow calls it the deepest p

osition on the offense and the place where he has the least worries … for now.

Injuries and other issues created a stockpile at tight end, where the Bruins have multiple personalities, starting with seniors Paulsen and Moya.

Paulsen, who was granted a medical hardship after breaking his foot in the 2008 season opener, is big and alpha-dog physical. Moya, who sat out the 2007 season due to personal reasons, was effective finding seams in the defense and led the team with three touchdown receptions. Both will fill those roles again.

But what makes tight end a Bruin stronghold are Cory Harkey and Morrell Presley.

Harkey, a sophomore, spent the 2008 season on the learning curve and the offseason in the weight room. He is 15 pounds heavier, up to 254 pounds, and is expected to be an effective point of attack tight end, as well as a gifted receiver. Harkey and Paulsen fit well into Coach Rick Neuheisel’s declaration that the Bruins "will be able to run the ball or die trying."

Harkey and Chandler will definitely give CRN and Chow physical options when they will attemp to ram the ball down opponents throats. Keep in mind, from what we have heard and read Presley at 6-4 222 can also provide a physical option even though chances are Chow might also line him at wide to create mismatch nightmares for opponents.

The bottom line right now is that we will able to take advantages of the talents available at these two positions if and only if we can get credible performance from our offensive line and quarterback this coming season. If our OL can generate an above average running game and give Prince and co. enough time to locate the targets, it could be a very fun season. We are not going to know the answers until we see what transpires at Spaulding starting Monday and then game time in less than 30 days. The anticipation is killing me.

GO BRUINS.

Spaulding Roundup: Instilling Toughness

Nestor — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:30:05 -0000

If there were any doubts about whether the new coaching regime would tolerate lolly gagging out at Spaulding, Rick Neuheisel put an end to that this week. Since the euphoria of Monday, RN has been emphasizing how there is a long way to go and that there is no room for letting up. Apparently couple of the kids didn’t get the message and CRN didn’t waste any time sending the message that there will be no room for lolly gagging under the new staff:

A day after holding a team meeting to warn UCLA's players about complacency after a big win - a bugaboo during the Karl Dorrell era - new coach Rick Neuheisel had harsh words for some unnamed players about a lack of effort during Thursday's practice.

"We have to make sure we're into the toughness part of this game," Neuheisel said. "It looked to me like there were a couple of culprits of tuning it down, not really wanting the contact piece of it.

"As we were going through some of the drills earlier, I wanted to make sure that they understand that's part of the game, and they can't play here if they're not going to get through that.

"But for 98 percent of the guys, it was a good practice." […]

"If we don't understand what has to be done in anticipation of a top-ranked opponent, then we didn't learn anything from what we just went through," Neuheisel said. "It's why we have an experienced coaching staff, and it's why we are pushing them, getting them to where we need to be. Hopefully, we'll come out (today) and have a good practice."

Needless to say this is pretty good news (if accurate) considering the word of RN’s practices up in Washington (via UW Dawg Pound):

One critic of former UW Rick Neuheisel used to tell me that his practices looked like a pillow fight. That was an obvious reference to the lack of structure, hitting, and tackling going on during practice not to mention the rock music and Popsicle breaks. Teams eventually play like they practice and Rick's teams were on a downward spiral when he was fired. Rick actually recognized the problem and was about to correct it because he felt his team was beginning to lack toughness.

Well if it was a problem up in Washington, in the early going doesn’t seem to be the case. Not only CRN hasn’t waste any time in making sure he is running a well oiled, disciplined practice (which was evident in the near flawless 2 penalty performances against Tennessee) he and his staff have made sure they are physical and tough. That is why as disconcerting as some of the injury news has been this off season, we have seen the results pays off in one of the more impressive physical performances by a UCLA team against a tough opponent in recent years.

Staying on the injury front, Ryan Moya stepped up huge on Monday night after Paulsen went down. Chris Foster from the LAT reports how coaches are now working with Moya and Harkey to improve their overall games at TEs:

The first issue about UCLA's paper-thin depth has been presented to Bruins coaches, who are trying to plug the hole created by the injury to tight end Logan Paulsen. […]

It leaves the Bruins crunching numbers at tight end. Ryan Moya, who plays the Bruins F back -- a receiver/blocker who is moved around -- and true freshman Cory Harkey will now try to fill that void.

"Out of Harkey and Ryan, we got to get one guy," offensive coordinator Norm Chow said. "Ryan is a little better receiver, and Harkey is a little better at the point of attack."

Moya had seven receptions for 65 yards and one touchdown in the 27-24 overtime victory over Tennessee. Yet he was less of a physical presence lining up at tight end, as opposed to working out of the backfield.

"Ryan had a good game, at least the pass receiving part of it," Coach Rick Neuheisel said. As for Moya's blocking, Neuheisel said, "He needs to work on it. In his defense, he was playing the F position, our moving tight end. It's no excuse, you have to know all your assignments. But he didn't get much practice time at tight end going into the game."

Playing Moya at tight end takes away from the depth at the F back spot, though Chow said running backs Trevor Theriot and Chane Moline can play that spot.

Harkey didn’t have a catch last game. But given his size (6-4, 240) and the skill set he has, you can expect coaches looking to him lot more in the coming weeks. The bye week after that physical game against Tennessee was absolutely crucial because it will allow RN/Chow to coach Harkey and rest of the youngsters up for an additional week.

Also speaking of injuries, Reggie Carter is “feeling better” (he had suffered an “MCL sprain”) and is hopeful about being back in practice next week to get ready for Tennessee. Nelson Rosario also suffered a “mild sprain of the medial collateral ligament.” Dohn reported last night that he is going to have an MRI. So keep an eye on that. Hopefully Nelson and Reggie are going to be ready next week.

We know the coaches will never make any excuses from these nagging injuries. In a way the injury issues in the early going and how the coaching staff have been dealing with it without making any excuses is very reminiscent of how CBH deals with the injury issues often arising from the Ben Ball workouts at Pauley Pavilion.

GO BRUINS.