August may be the hardest month for a college football player. November gets the TV ratings, and January brings in the best hardware, but with its all-work-and-no-play agenda, August is downright tough.
UCLA’s grueling monthlong training camp ends this week, and the players are itching to put their work to the test in the season opener at Kansas State this Saturday.
“Everybody’s counting down the days,” junior wide receiver Nelson Rosario said. “We can’t wait. We just got through with camp, and we’re trying to get our legs back, but everybody’s ready.”
The Bruins have had eight months since their 2009 EagleBank Bowl victory to prepare for the 2010 campaign, in which they hope to build on last year’s 7-6 record.
UCLA’s third-year coach ““ and partial progenitor of this season’s lofty expectations ““ Rick Neuheisel appeared just as eager to get back in the saddle when he spoke to the media after Thursday’s practice.
“(It’s) very exciting around here,” he said. “(We’re) looking forward to getting on a plane in short order and hopefully going and finding a way to get our first win.”
It’s no surprise that Neuheisel is also ready to turn the calendar’s page. August can be just as rough on coaches, and the month was not particularly kind to his team’s depth chart.
Injuries and ineligibility have ravaged the Bruins’ offensive line, the increased experience of which was thought to be a key difference in this year’s squad.
But every week this last month seemed to claim another starting lineman, culminating in the fracture of returning starting redshirt junior center Kai Maiava’s left ankle during the fall scrimmage at Drake Stadium.
In addition, starting quarterback Kevin Prince has been limited in practice after sustaining a strained oblique muscle, which might not keep him out of the opener but could affect his productivity.
If the Bruins can get through the week without any more damage to the roster, they will most likely be favored against the Wildcats, a team they beat 23-9 when the schools met for the first time in their histories at the Rose Bowl last September.
Redshirt senior tackle Micah Kia, the vocal leader of UCLA’s revamped offensive line, knows not to give last year’s result too much weight.
“We’re going to approach it as any other game,” Kia said. “They definitely have some talented players on their team.”
Like UCLA, Kansas State believes itself to be a program on the rise, hoping to reconnect with the success of a not-so-distant past.
Longtime coach Bill Snyder, who led the Wildcats to 11 straight bowl game appearances in the previous two decades, returned to the helm last year and managed a 6-6 record.
Snyder boasts one of the Big 12’s best offensive weapons in Wildcat senior tailback Daniel Thomas.
Plucked from the junior college ranks where he spent time at quarterback, Thomas suited up as a running back in his first season with Kansas State and promptly led the conference with 1,265 rushing yards en route to a 2009 first-team All-Big 12 selection.
Thomas amassed 115 total yards and a touchdown in his appearance against UCLA last year, but the rest of the Kansas State offense was limited.
As has been customary for Bruin victories in recent years, it was UCLA’s defense that led the way. Now-Tennessee Titan cornerback Alterraun Verner picked off two passes thrown by then-junior Wildcat quarterback Carson Coffman.
Coffman lost his starting job shortly after that performance but returns this year hoping to resurrect Kansas State’s passing game, which ranked last in its conference last year.
UCLA would like to exploit that deficiency with a secondary that has more experience even with Verner’s departure to the NFL.
Cornerback Sheldon Price is just a sophomore but started opposite Verner nearly all of last season.
He is joined by redshirt sophomore corner Aaron Hester and two returning full-time starters at safety, the junior duo of Tony Dye and All-American Rahim Moore.
“We’re a really solid group, and we really work well together,” Price said. “We all want to strive to be the best, and that just makes the group even better.”
Moore has attracted the most attention of the group leading up to the season, appearing on numerous preseason award watch lists and traveling with Neuheisel on the Pac-10 Media Day circuit to New York City before camp started.
Quarterbacks have no doubt noticed the threat Moore poses and are already planning on how to avoid the quick hands that caught a nation-leading 10 picks last season. And that doesn’t exclude the passers wearing UCLA colors in practice.
“It happens every day in practice ““ of course our quarterbacks aren’t going to throw at Rahim all day,” said Dye, who anticipates a notable increase in pass plays to his side of the field. “I get plenty of work in practice. I’m ready for that challenge, it’s going to be fun. Aaron Hester and I are going to get a lot of work.”
The dog days might be coming to an end for Bruin athletes, which means no more waiting, but, of course, it also means the real work has just begun.
“I spent a lot of time in the weight room and in the film room this offseason, just putting weight on and doing all types of stuff to get myself ready for this season,” Price said. “I hope it pays off. It should.”
With reports from Sam Strong, Bruin Sports senior staff.