Those critics that say the Bruins are not a physical team are quickly running out of ground to stand on.



This past weekend showed just how physical the Bruins can be, holding the vaunted Tennessee offense to just 208 total yards. A week ago, the Vols racked up 380 yards rushing and 657 total yards. That's quite a drop off, no matter who you are playing.



The Bruins were not stellar on offense, which was possibly by design. It seemed Norm Chow called a rather conservative game in order to minimize turnover chances for the young Bruins playmakers on offense. But it seemed to work.



Kevin Prince was 11 for 23 with 101 yards and one touchdown, but more importantly, no interceptions. Last year, Kevin Craft threw four. Jonathan Franklin gained 80 yards on 17 carries, Kai Forbath kicked four field goals, and the Bruins came away victorious which was the most important stat of the game.



The defense looked like a team of all-Americans. Reggie Carter had 14 tackles, Alterraun Verner had his first interception of the year, Rahim Moore had his fourth and fifth interceptions of the year, and Brian Price sacked Vols quarterback Johnathan Crompton twice.



However, the defense started slow again. Giving up ten points immediately. But once they had a few drives under their belt they forced four turnovers and only gave up three more points all game.



On offense, the Bruins will learn very quickly that if they don't hold onto the football, they will come out on the losing end of games like this one. The Bruins fumbled six times. Read that again. SIX. Yes, they only lost one of those, but that one fumble turned into a Vols touchdown. The Bruins had better be working hard on ball security before the Pac-10 rolls around because they are quickly moving out from under the radar.



Now for the bad news. After a huge goal line stand by the Bruin defense, Kevin Prince took a hard hit to the head without his mouth guard in on a third and long roll out in his own endzone, . The hit was hard enough to break Prince's jaw in two places. Prince had surgery to fix the jaw but now has his mouth wired shut and will be out of action for three to four weeks. Meaning his likely return will be an October 10 matchup against the Oregon Ducks at the Rose Bowl.



The most frustrating thing about the injury was that it was totally avoidable. Had the Bruins run a quarterback sneak they would have run another 40 seconds off the clock then they could have taken the safety that they took on the Prince hit. Instead, Prince gets sacked, breaks his jaw, and the clock stops with a minute and 48 seconds left. Plenty of time for the Vols to score and win the game. But the defense bailed out the poor play call and the Bruins won.

Prince was able to show his toughness by coming back onto the field, broken jaw and all, and take two kneel downs to win the game.

Looking forward to next week, it is likely that true freshman Richard Brehaut will be the starting quarterback against Kansas State, but that decision will be made later in the week.

Yesterday marked the end of training camp for the Bruins. Between now and the September 5 opener the main focus of the team will be San Diego State. This also means that practices are no longer open to the public and information will be hard to come by.

But for now let us take a look back at the scrimmage this past weekend and what it means for the team going forward.

Saturday at Drake Stadium the Bruins had their fall scrimmage. Some good things happened and some bad things happened. So lets start with the good.

The Good

Johnathan Franklin - Everyone, let me introduce you to Jet Ski. Franklin, a redshirt freshman, showed his homerun hitting ability breaking a 60 yard touchdown run. Franklin gained 99 yards on only six carries and one touchdown.



Damien Thigpen - The true freshman is being nicknamed Blur due to his blazing 4.28 speed. Thigpen returned a kickoff 61 yards for a touchdown, a punt 70 yards for a touchdown and gained 41 yards on seven carries.



Rahim Moore - Moore showed that starting last season as a freshman was a good plan. He intercepted a Kevin Prince pass and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown. Moore should bring more maturity to the secondary.



Jeff Locke - The redshirt freshman filled in for a sore All-American Kai Forbath by kicking three field goals. Locke sent in kicks from 53, 23 and 35 yards. The one downside was a missed extra point.

Courtney Viney - Although the nickname Tiny Viney can be a downside when playing on defense, it can come in handy when the redshirt sophomore is returning punts. Because of his diminutive size he can be hard to find behind blockers. Viney proved this by returning a punt 94 yards for a touchdown.



The Bad

Quarterbacks - Prince, Richard Brehaut, Kevin Craft, Nick Crissman, and walk-on Ted Landers were a combined 16 of 34 for 184 yards two touchdowns (Crissman passing and Prince running) and one interception (Prince). Although the poor numbers Coach Rick Neuheisel said that after watching the tape Prince was better than originally thought.



The Top Two Running Backs - Christian Ramirez and Derrick Coleman both finished with negative yards rushing and Ramirez only played one series because he sprained his ankle. After the scrimmage the ankle injury was thought to be nothing too big, but Ramirez was on crutches and in a walking boot at practice on Monday.



Kick Coverage - On the other side of the coin from the great returns by Thigpen and Viney, the kick coverage on all of those plays was atrocious. No matter how electrifying return men are, they should not get that much room on returns.

Injuries - The two main injuries from the scrimmage were Ramirez ankle and freshman defensive end Keenan Graham suffered a broken jaw and will be out for an unspecified amount of time.

Freshmen Receivers - Ricky Marvray, Randall Carroll, and Morrell Presley combined for zero catches despite Carroll starting and Marvray and Presley getting plenty of plays.



Later this week I will be breaking down the team outlook for the rest of the season.

Quicknotes: Senior guard Micah Kia suffered a torn ACL last week in practice. Kia had taken a leadership role on the offensive line and was thought to platoon the left guard position with freshman Stan Hasiak. Kia will use his redhsirt season and sit out this year... The starting offensive line has been set at left tackle freshman Xavier Su'a Filo, left guard freshman Hasiak, center redshirt sophomore Kai Maiava, right guard junior Eddie Williams, and right tackle Jeff Baca. Baca is the only starter to play for the Bruins last year... The Bosworth twins Korey and Kyle have missed the last few days of practice due to an illness in the family.



One final thing to get people excited. I thought this link was great and reminds me of better times in the past and hopeful for better times starting this season.

Go Bruins.

This past week was the first for UCLA fall camp. While there were ups and downs on both sides of the ball, the Bruins showed something that they haven't shown in some time: promise.

This week started with the NCAA mandated acclimation period where there are no two a days allowed for the first week and no pads allowed for the first five days. But as of Saturday UCLA has been in full pads and practicing twice a day every other day (another NCAA rule preventing two practices two days in a row).

While the defense still appears to be winning the war against the offense, surprisingly enough, the offense is winning some wars. The first string offensive, freshman Xavier Su'a-Filo at left tackle, freshman Stan Hasiak at left guard, sophomore Kai Maiava at center, junior college transfer Eddie Williams at right guard, and sophomore and only returning starter Jeff Baca at right tackle, line has stayed the same most of the week. They also have been doing an outstanding job protecting the quarterback and opening running lanes for the running backs, when you compare them with last year.




Quarterback Kevin Prince has appeared to make huge strides since the spring. He has taken on a leadership role for the offense and shown flashes of being one of the all time great quarterbacks for the Bruins. Now if he can translate that to game success and cut down on team turnovers, then UCLA should be a big surprise this season.



The running game seems to have turned a corner with the help of a talented offensive line. Although junior Christian Ramirez has been named the starter, sophomore Derrick Coleman has transformed himself into a force in the running game. At 6-feet 230 pounds and running a 4.5 40 yard dash, Coleman is a rare combination of size and speed that will be carrying the load much of the season for the Bruins. Redshirt freshmen Milton Knox and Jonathan Franklin have both had good moments but also need to be more consistent. Freshman Damien Thigpen has been making a case for no redshirt year by using his speed to stretch the field.

At wide receiver the biggest surprise has been the play of freshman Ricky Marvray. Marvray has come in and played like a veteran from day one. His routes are run smoothly and correctly, he catches everything, and has shown more speed than he was thought to have coming in. It seems that Marvray will not Redshirt this year and will see the field plenty.

On the defensive side everything is what you would expect. Brian Price is showing just what an all-American defensive linemen looks like. Datone Jones is quickly becoming the Bruins best young defensive linemen. Reggie Carter is doing what he does best, fill holes. Alterraun Verner is doing his best to show the younger defensive backs how it's done. And Aaron Hester is doing his best Alterraun Verner impersonation.







The only starting spot still up for competition on defense is the strong safety spot where sophomore Tony Dye and redshirt sophomore Glenn Love are battling it out. Dye's knock is that he is so versatile that he would almost be a better back up and nickle corner at this point. Love's knock is that he is still very inconsistent in pass coverage and plays like a much smaller player, not at all what you want from a 6-4 player.

Two a days continue all this week, culminating with a full team scrimmage this Saturday evening at Drake Stadium.



Quicknotes: Injuries to defensive tackle Jess Ward (sprained MCL out 2-3 weeks) and defensive end Reggie Stokes (torn cartilage out indefinitely) has forced the coaching staff to move some offensive linemen to defence. Junior tackle Sean Sheller is now lining up at defensive tackle and redshirt freshman tackle Connor Bradford is now lining up at defensive end... Also among the injured are senior offensive guard Nick Ekbatani (sprained MCL out 4-6 weeks)... Freshman Nik Abele, who started his young Bruin career at defensive end has been moved to offensive tackle where offensive line coach Bob Palcic begged coach Rick Neuheisel to keep Abele... Freshman fullback Jayson Allmound is making a case for no redshirt year.

Sidenote: I will be attending practice today and will have a full practice write up tomorrow.

It seems that the closer we get to UCLA football starting, the slower the news is coming out of Westwood.

Well the biggest news to come out of UCLA is that Daily News beat reporter Brian Dohn is leaving his job covering the Bruins. You know its slow when that is the biggest story.

Dohn has covered the Bruins for the last six years in basketball and football. I, for one, think that he did a good job covering the Bruins in a unbiased and honest way. Now I have heard that some think that he is negative and tends to have a poor view of how good UCLA football could be. But I think he always did a good job of breaking stories and always seemed to be an insider for UCLA news.

As far as real breaking news for UCLA football, this past week was media day. It may have been a quiet media day but it still happened. Coach Neuheisel and senior linebacker Reggie Carter were out representing the Bruins. Both had some good things to say about the progression of the offense and Kevin Prince.



According to Pac-10 coaches, UCLA was picked to finish seventh this year.

1. USC
2. California
3. Oregon
4. Oregon State
5. Arizona State
6. Stanford
7. UCLA
8. Arizona
9. Washington
10. Washington State

Both Carter and Neuheisel said at media day that a bowl game is the goal this year. Anything less would be a severe disappointment. Vegas has even set the Bruins over/under win total at six for this season.

Quick hitters: Colorado transfer Josh Smith will be a Bruin after sitting out next year... Both senior tight ends Logan Paulsen and Ryan Moya have been named to the Mackey pre-season watch list. The Mackey is given to the top tight end every year... Sophomore defensive back Tony Dye is suffering from turf toe and should be ready for fall camp... Freshman linebacker Taniela Maka did not achieve the necessary SAT score to be admitted to UCLA. He will sit out this fall and try to get a score good enough to enroll in January... Freshman linebacker Jared Koster has a sports hernia and will have surgery to repair it... Senior defensive end Chinonso Anyanwu will likely have surgery to fix a hip injury, he will miss the start of fall training camp... After some conflicting reports on their eligibility both freshman tackle Nik Abele and junior college transfer guard Eddie Williams are now enrolled at UCLA...Offensive linemen Mike Harris, Kai Maiava and Darius Savage and tight ends Moya and Paulsen have all been cleared to participate in fall training camp after missing time with injuries.



Links:
According to rivals.com, which is counting down the top 100 players in college football, UCLA has three players in the to 100. Brian Price (49), Reggie Carter (67), and Alteraun Verner (72).



On ESPN.com veteran college football writers Pat Forde, Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach are having a mock draft of the top 40 college football schools. Maisel picked the Bruins 30th.

The good old LA Times is doing a preview of the upcoming season by position. Here is the outlook from the backfield.