UCLA wide receivers coach Eric Scott has been reinstated by the school, UCLA announced Saturday.
Scott had been on paid administrative leave for the last two weeks after being arrested on suspicion of burglary. The case was dropped this week and on Saturday, after meeting with coach Karl Dorrell and Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, Scott was reinstated.
“He’s back on our staff,” Dorrell said. “We’re ready to get past this. It’s been a little bit of a distraction, but we’re ready to move forward.”
Scott is in his first year as the wide receivers coach at UCLA, after replacing D.J. McCarthy. In addition to his coaching, he has also provided a serious recruiting boost. UCLA already has 23 commitments in the 2008 recruiting class and much of that can be attributed to the work of Scott who has many connections to the L.A. high school football scene. Many of the top recruits that UCLA has verbal commitments from in the class, including Rahim Moore and Kemonte Bateman, are close enough with Scott that there was speculation after his arrest that if he were not reinstated, UCLA could lose some of them.
When discussing the reinstatement, however, Dorrell did not mention recruiting as one of the reasons for retaining Scott. Instead, he talked about accountability and standards of behavior.
“(I wanted him to understand) what our expectations are,” Dorrell said. “We got a firm understanding of where we go from this point. We just carefully went through the process and decided that this was the right and best thing for the program.”
Scott is going to be eased into coaching. In the first week of camp, Dorrell handled wide receiver coaching duties and he has said that he will continue to help out until Scott is ready to take over.
“I’ll still be doing the things that I’ve been doing this whole week, when we’re getting him caught up to how we do things,” Dorrell said. “He’s missed some field time and I’ve enjoyed my field time and enjoyed my chance to work with those guys.”
Scott himself sounded confident that he would be able to get back on track quickly.
“I had the installation stuff before (camp) started,” Scott said. “I know day-to-day what’s been the story. I’ve been following every day. As far as the paperwork, I know what’s going on, I just need to see where (the receivers) are.”
OLSON IMPROVING: Redshirt junior quarterback Ben Olson had his best practice of the camp Sunday, zipping his passes and generally making good reads and hitting open receivers. Dorrell said after the practice that he is hitting the point where playbook installation has slowed down and he can finally start putting it all into practice.
“Now he can just keep reviewing that and be as sharp as he can be,” Dorrell said. “He looked like he was having that kind of sharpness today.”
Olson’s primary targets on the day, redshirt sophomore Osaar Rasshan and sophomore Dominique Johnson, helped make their quarterback look good. Rasshan made a number of nice grabs, including a one-handed catch over freshman cornerback Courtney Viney, which he then ran in for a touchdown. Johnson, who has not had the surest of hands in camp, made some good catches in coverage that should prove a good sign for a player many hope will be the red zone threat the Bruins lacked last season.
FASTER BELL: Junior running back Kahlil Bell, who has been known as a straight-ahead runner who uses his bulk more than his speed to get his yardage, has gotten noticeably quicker in the offseason and it is paying off in camp. Bell had a nice touchdown run in the red zone drills Sunday.
INJURY UPDATES: Redshirt senior defensive tackle Kevin Brown went down with a quadriceps injury toward the end of practice. He was still able to walk on it, although they took him to the locker room in a cart. … Sophomore wide receiver Terrence Austin was back in practice a day after injuring his knee. … Senior offensive lineman Shannon Tevaga is still out with wrist and shoulder injuries. Dorrell said they have found no structural damage in Tevaga’s wrist, but he is still feeling pain. … Senior fullback Michael Pitre had his knee drained, but there is still some swelling. Pitre had arthroscopic surgery in the offseason. Dorrell said they will wait until the swelling dies down before putting him back in practice.