The UCLA defensive line will be without one of its leaders for
the first half this Saturday against Washington as defensive tackle
Rodney Leisle was ejected Saturday against San Diego State. By
rule, an ejection from a game requires the player to sit out the
first half of the next game.
Leisle’s ejection capped a night full of Bruin
penalties.
“We made stupid mistakes that kept them in some
drives,” UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. “We were in a
pretty good trend of eliminating the penalties, game-by-game, for
the first three games, but today wasn’t the type of game we
want.
All told, the Bruins picked up 113 total penalty yards on nine
penalties.
The trouble started on UCLA’s first offensive possession
as the Bruins saw quarterback Drew Olson complete a first-down,
sideline pass to tight end Marcedes Lewis, only to have it
nullified due to offensive pass interference and personal foul
penalties. It set up a first down and 40 to go, and set the tone
for the quarter, as UCLA actually had more penalty yardage (58)
than total offensive yardage (50).
As for Leisle, while his penalty itself didn’t cost UCLA,
it will mean the Bruins will have to search for a replacement for
the first half against Washington. Television replays were
inconclusive as to the nature of the infraction. Dorrell did say
that Leisle and his San Diego State counterpart were physical with
each other all game long, and that they had been warned.
“It was one of those things where you just get
caught,” Leisle said. “It was dirty all game
long.”
Punt coverage improves
A week after yielding three punt returns for touchdowns against
Oklahoma, UCLA was much improved in its punt coverage against San
Diego State.
On four attempts, punter Chris Kluwe averaged 45 yards per
attempt, and the Aztecs could only muster eight punt return yards
on three tries.
“It was a lot better than the week before,” Dorrell
said. “It means that the work we did over the week was
helpful.”
Bruins try new kickoff formation
When kick returner Maurice Drew had to run down a kickoff to the
corner against Oklahoma last week, only to fumble it out of bounds
at the 1-yard line, he could only breathe a sigh of relief when the
Sooners were offsides.
Now, Drew will have some help on kickoffs.
“Certain teams do a lot of bloop kicking, so we had three
returners, two of which were wings and one of which was main
returners,” Dorrell said. “Today, we returned back to
the traditional two-man return.”
Drew finished with three returns for 75 total yards.
Miscellaneous
UCLA tight end Marcedes Lewis injured his ankle on a play early
in the fourth quarter, but will be back for Washington … Some of
the loudest cheers were shouted as the USC-Cal score flashed on the
scoreboard. The Trojans fell to the Golden Bears, 34-31, in triple
overtime … Defensive end Dave Ball’s sack gave him 19.5 for
his career, moving up to seventh on the all-time UCLA list.