Wearing what Bruce Davis called an “ugly red jersey,” linebacker Christian Taylor made his return to practice on Tuesday.
The captain of the defense went down with a concussion in the fourth quarter against Cal two weeks ago and missed the Washington State loss this past weekend, although he did travel with the team. Taylor wore a red no-hit jersey for practice as a mandated precautionary measure for a concussion, but he will be back in full pads today and said he feels fine.
“Yeah, I feel good,” Taylor said. “I felt great (at practice). I felt better. I had a week off. I feel fresh, I’m probably getting my second wind.”
Taylor’s memories of the actual concussion are sketchy. “It wasn’t so scary to me because I don’t remember a lot of it,” Taylor said. “I’ve heard from other people that it was.”
His teammates are certainly happy he’s back. Davis could barely contain his excitement in having “old number 33″ back. “I love that (he’s back),” Davis said. “I love the fact that (the reporters) are sitting over there and four of them are interviewing him right now. It’s great. When you don’t have him out there on the field, you kind of feel it a little bit. He’s the brains of the operation. It’s like having (defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker) out there.”
Taylor had what was for him an unfamiliar perspective on the loss to the Cougars, as a normal starter relegated to the sideline. Despite not being out on the field, his opinion on the play is blunt.
“I’ve been honest with the team: If we play like that, we’re not going to win anything,” Taylor said. “We’re working to be a consistent team. It’s not that we don’t have the ability ““ we can beat anybody in the country. It’s a matter of doing it every day.”
The Bruins get another road test against Arizona this week, another unheralded Pac-10 team. The last time the Bruins traveled to Tucson, the result was a 52-14 loss.
AFTERTHOUGHTS: UCLA’s loss to Washington State rendered many Bruins speechless in the aftermath of the game. No one could provide a real explanation for the loss outside of a statement about a lack of “execution” and for some, a lack of “focus.”
After a couple of days, there was a little more specificity. “I told (the team) on Saturday that it’s important for us to stay together and that one area did not lose the game for us,” Davis said. “It was all of us. On special teams there were some kickoff returns we could have broken here and there, and on defense we just didn’t make enough plays to get ourselves off the field and we missed way too many tackles.” And on offense, there were the obvious dropped passes, overthrown balls and poor run blocking.”
NOTES: Wide receiver Brandon Breazell, out with a rib contusion, did some light practicing on the side, but was held out of contact … Quarterback Ben Olson, out with a knee injury, wore his helmet to practice and appears to be making his way back to practice readiness … No crowd noise was piped in on Tuesday despite the upcoming road game against the Wildcats.