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.

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.