Like last year, spring football began the Tuesday after spring break, without pads, without a starting quarterback and with a losing season in recent memory.
However, unlike last year, there was a new energy and hype about the program. A sense of urgency, unseen recently, resonated through Spaulding Field as players sprinted between drills to their next station.
Coach Jim L. Mora has continuously stressed tempo for his new program and it already showed in his first practice, in comparison to the practices by former coach Rick Neuheisel.
“(The tempo) was okay. It was the first day. I thought it got better as practice went along. I thought the second team period was a lot better than the first team period,” Mora said.
“Thursday … it’ll be a much different practice. They’ll understand how we want to operate, how we want to move from drill to drill. You saw me bring them back a couple times when they didn’t run the way I wanted them to run.”
“Coach Mora’s tempo is fast. He wants you to be fast, consistently, all the time,” sophomore offensive tackle Xavier Su’a-Filo added. “He made us go back to our spots and sprint to where we were going because that’s just how it goes and from start to finish at practice that’s what he wants.”
While the Bruins had consistency in their effort, they lacked such consistency in quarterback play.
The quarterback competition is once again wide open with all quarterbacks taking snaps at practice.
Although redshirt senior Kevin Prince took the first snaps, there is no leading candidate as to who will be starting.
Redshirt freshman Brett Hundley threw with the second team while freshman Jerry Neuheisel worked with the third team. Senior Richard Brehaut was next in line, followed by early enrollee T.J. Millweard and walk-on Mike Fafaul.
UCLA also welcomed back Su’a-Filo from his two-year Mormon mission. He lined up with the first team and didn’t seem like he had lost much at all after his hiatus ““ but he still cited fitness as an area of needed improvement.
“I’m heading toward football shape. I wasn’t in horrible shape before but definitely wasn’t all the way in shape. And now I’m not in football shape obviously. I’m just sore, it’s just been a while from bending and doing all those things. But I think … I’m heading in the right direction,” Su’a-Filo said.
While the return of Su’a-Filo was familiar, seeing senior Dalton Hilliard line up at running back was not. Hilliard played in 13 games and started five last season at safety but was recently moved to the other side of the ball coming into camp.
“As soon as the staff got hired, I talked to a couple of the coaches because they had recruited me out of high school as a running back,” Hilliard said. “So they talked to me about the possibility of coming over to offense and I kind of wavered at first but I’m glad to be over there and I’m trying to take advantage of the opportunity they’re giving me right now.”