The talks of UCLA moving to a pro-style offense were shut down Tuesday.
Coach Jim Mora not only said that his team isn’t running a pro-style offense, he even said he doesn’t know what a pro-style offense is.
“I think it’s completely and totally out of whack with everybody out there that says we’re going to a pro-style offense,” Mora said. “I don’t use ‘spread,’ I don’t use ‘west coast,’ I don’t use ‘pro-style.’ I use the word concepts. So we’ve adapted and modified a few of our concepts (offensively).”
Without doubt, there have been a few noticeable changes to UCLA’s offense. A year ago, under then-offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, UCLA was running almost exclusively out of the shotgun, without a traditional tight end. Now, under new offensive coordinator Kennedy Polamalu, the Bruins are running a few more snaps under center, and they have a traditional tight-end position.
Looking at just the first day of practice, the frontrunners for the new starting tight end spot appear to be rising redshirt junior Nate Iese – a former fullback – and rising sophomore Austin Roberts – a former receiver, sitting at 6-foot-2, and 215 pounds. Incoming freshman Jordan Wilson will also enter the fray during fall camp. Back on national signing day, Mora said that Wilson would be the starter at tight end.
“You saw that we worked a few guys (at tight end) that haven’t been there in a while,” Mora said. “We’ll see. We’ve got a couple guys coming in in the fall that will help us.”
Aside from the under-center snaps and the tight-end integrations, there have also been some changes to the snap counts and cadences. The switches are still a work in progress, as evidenced by the slew of false starts at Tuesday’s practice.
“Sometimes I’ll get up there and just be happy that we snapped the ball cleanly,” said sophomore quarterback Josh Rosen. “It will all come together.”
In addition to the schematic changes, Rosen is also working with a new center – senior Scott Quessenberry. Last year, Rosen worked entirely with then-redshirt senior Jake Brendel during games as Quessenberry missed the season with a shoulder injury.
“It’s not too bad (of a change) … because you always get reps with backups and stuff,” Rosen said. “With Jake and Scott, they’d rotate in and out as Scott was rehabbing from his shoulder (injury).”
New-look defense?
Mora shut down the talks about UCLA switching to a 4-3 defense, just like he shut down the notions of UCLA switching to a pro-style offense.
“(We’ll do) a little bit more four-down stuff,” Mora said. “But if you watched practice today, and you watched it close, you saw about 20 plays of 3-4 as well. So it all depends.”
The switch to more four-man fronts is part of UCLA’s objective to improve its run defense. Last year, with UCLA mostly running a 3-4 with a rushing outside linebacker, the Bruins finished near the bottom of the Pac-12 in rush yards allowed. In the Foster Farms Bowl, UCLA allowed 326 rushing yards.
“We’re (doing) more four-down over fronts, and it’s working good,” said senior inside linebacker Jayon Brown. “We’re trying to be more assertive against the run, and it showed today.”