The smile stretched wide across Eric Yarber’s face as the wide receivers coach described his players’ performance in spring practice.
“I like what I see out there,” Yarber said. “It’s a healthy competition. We lost three guys and everybody’s trying to jockey for position to fill those voids.”
Yarber and the Bruins have plenty to replace – three of the team’s four most productive pass-catchers are gone, including its most dependable, Jordan Payton.
“What I’m trying to find out in my group is who’s going to lead it, who’s going to take over for Jordan Payton, who’s going to get the guys going,” Yarber said. “Can I find a guy that can make the money catch on third-and-9, third-and-8?”
Thus far, Yarber said, he likes his chances of finding a reliable option.
Rising redshirt senior Kenny Walker turned in a strong sequence Monday, hauling in a deep ball over his shoulder from Josh Rosen, then creating separation on a comeback route to make another catch.
“Kenny Walker probably is having the most impressive camp right now,” Yarber said. “He’s catching the ball very, very well. He’s running great routes.”
Yarber has also been pleasantly surprised by incoming freshmen Theo Howard and Demetric Felton. Both are quick athletes that could provide a dynamic element on offense for UCLA.
“The first couple days … I didn’t want to tell them nothing,” Yarber said of Howard and Felton. “I didn’t want to show them any techniques or anything. I just wanted to see their athletic ability and both of them impressed me.”
Howard, who has been clocked at 4.38 seconds in the 40-yard dash, is faster than Yarber realized, and Felton, an elusive 5-foot-9-inch dynamo who played running back in high school, has displayed solid receiving fundamentals.
“I didn’t think he would be that polished of a receiver,” Yarber said of Felton. “But he has big-time explosion, he’s wiry strong, he doesn’t get rerouted.”
The wide receiver group is also benefitting from the transition of rising redshirt senior Ishmael Adams from defense to offense.
“I asked him, I said “Do you want to break up passes or do you want to strike up the band?” Yarber said. “(Adams) said, “I wanna strike up the band, coach.”
Adams has retained the confident mindset of a defensive back, though.
“He brings that defensive mentality to the offensive side of the ball,” Yarber said. “He’s got a little big-time swag and a little arrogance – athletic arrogance, that’s what I like to call it.”
Ready to rush
Keisean Lucier-South is still the type of speedy pass rusher more likely to beat an offensive tackle around the edge than on his inside shoulder.
But the rising redshirt freshman defensive end, a former five-star recruit who said he entered the UCLA program at 212 pounds, is up to 230 and hell-bent on adding more weight.
“I really want to get big,” Lucier-South said after spring practice Monday. “I don’t want to be a small guy anymore.”
Working as a down lineman in a defense with an increased emphasis on four-man fronts, Lucier-South has shown signs he could develop into a productive player for the Bruins as soon as this fall.
He already has the quickness to challenge college tackles, so he’s been refining his interior pass rushing moves every day with defensive line coach Angus McClure.
“When I go upfield, O-linemen overset me a lot – they want me to go inside because they know I’m a speedster kind of dude,” Lucier-South said. “So (the coaches) want me to work on my inside movement a lot, that’s the plan right now.”