SAN BERNARDINO – UCLA’s second football practice on Monday was cut short when a fight broke out between several players on the offense and defense, including senior defensive end Cassius Marsh, redshirt senior wide receiver Shaquelle Evans, redshirt sophomore wide receiver Devin Lucien and redshirt junior cornerback Anthony Jefferson.
Coach Jim Mora then put a stop to the drill in progress, lining all his players up on the sidelines and having them run widths of the field for roughly 30 minutes.
Mora spoke to the media following practice and expressed his frustration with his team’s momentary inability to keep its composure at the end of the practice.
“I think you get into training camp and you have practices like this and the intensity gets ramped up, but I think what’s important is that we are able to maintain our composure and know when to back off, especially when you’re talking about the possibility of someone getting hurt,” Mora said.
Scuffles frequently break out in high school and collegiate football practices around the country, and thus Mora said he will take no disciplinary action other than the sprints, seeing the skirmish as more of an outburst that resulted from the near-completion of a day of high-intensity practices.
Mora summed the scuffle up as an experience to learn from and not dote on, indicating the players involved will be fine with one another once allowed to cool down.
“I guess it’s a part of trying to learn,” Mora said. “We ran a little bit and we’ll get back after it tomorrow.”
Injury Report
- Three of UCLA’s right guards, freshmen Caleb Benenoch and Alex Redmond, along with redshirt sophomore Ben Wysocki all left practice with apparent injuries. Mora indicated Benenoch would be fine, while Wysocki and Redmond are still being evaluated.
- Senior inside linebacker Jordan Zumwalt returned to practice following dehydration that kept him out of team drills in the morning and in prior practices.
- Freshman Y receiver Thomas Duarte returned to practice Monday night after cramps held him out of practice the last few days.
- Senior defensive end Cassius Marsh returned to practice Monday night after missing team drills in previous practices with minor knee pain.
- Mora indicated redshirt junior linebacker Eric Kendricks, who has been held out of team drills for the entirety of camp while recovering from minor ankle surgery, should be ready to go for UCLA’s Aug. 31 season opener against the University of Nevada, Reno.
Compiled by Andrew Erickson, Bruin Sports senior staff.