Following last season’s offensive debacle, when UCLA
ranked among the nation’s worst schools in total offense,
coach Karl Dorrell cleaned house. During what turned out to be a
busy off-season, Dorrell hired offensive coordinator and offensive
line coach Tom Cable, quarterbacks coach Jim Svoboda, wide
receivers coach Dino Babers and former wide receivers coach Jon
Embree will now coach the tight ends. For the quarterbacks and wide
receivers, it’ll be the third new coach in as many years.
“It’s not frustrating. It is just an adjustment,”
offensive lineman Eyoseph Efseaff said. The transition may not be
too difficult. Cable, who was the offensive line coach when Dorrell
was the Colorado offensive coordinator in 1998, is expected to run
a similar offense to last year. At the very least, the playbook has
comparable language to last season’s playbook, which the
offense learned under former offensive coordinator Steve Axman.
“It’s essentially the same terminology,” Dorrell
said. “We’ve changed it a little bit, but nothing that
should be a problem. We’re making them study it now, just
like they should be studying their textbooks.” On the same
token, Dorrell said earlier this week that no offensive line job is
safe, and with spring practice being the first opportunity to
impress Cable, the importance of proving themselves is not lost on
the linemen. “We should be proving ourselves every day
anyway,” Efseaff said. “It’s even more important
now. It’s like you’re a freshman.”
SLUGGISH START: After a good first day of
practice, the football team looked sluggish in its second day back.
“There’s a lot of stuff for them to learn,”
Dorrell said. “Today, you could see there was a little
hesitation. There’s new things happening.”
BIENIEMY SILENT: Running backs coach Eric
Bieniemy chose not to comment on the request to be questioned by
the Independent Investigative Commission regarding his experiences
as an assistant coach at the University of Colorado. The council
was appointed to determine the validity of accusations that the
football program used sex to recruit players. Bieniemy was the
leading recruiter and running backs coach at Colorado from 2001 to
2002.
CENTER OF ATTENTION: Center Mike McCloskey
suffered a strained chest muscle and was kept out of his second
straight practice. “We don’t know when he’ll be
back,” Dorrell said. “It could be a number of things,
so he’s getting some tests and taking the necessary
precautions. McCloskey, the current slated starter at center, was
already expected to be limited this spring due to off-season ankle
surgery.