Notes: Mique Juarez to miss start of season

The UCLA football season will officially begin without the gem of its 2016 recruiting class.

Jim Mora announced on Monday that former five-star linebacker Mique Juarez will not play versus Texas A&M as he's still currently away from the team.

"Nothing's changed with Mique," the Bruins head coach said. "He's been excused. He's dealing with some personal issues and he's getting the help that he needs to get through it and he's doing well. That's all I can tell you about that."

Juarez hasn't been at practice since the Bruins kicked off fall camp in Westwood earlier this month.

The 6-foot-2, 240-pound linebacker was ranked as the No. 1 recruit in California last year and the No. 9 overall player in the country. He was expected to push Cameron Judge for playing time at outside linebacker this fall.

The Bruins will likely be without pass rusher Deon Hollins and fullback Cameron Griffin for their tilt with TAMU on Saturday. Mora announced the duo are "doubtful" as they're still recovering from concussions.

Outside of those two, and freshmen OL Paco Perez (knee) and DL Marcus Moore (back) who have yet to practice at UCLA, Mora said the team is "pretty darn healthy" heading into game day.

Kenny Young has had to try to stop Noel Mazzone's offense for years in practice. On Saturday, he'll try to do it for the first time when the score actually counts.

The inside linebacker said his familiarity with Mazzone, who was Mora's offensive coordinator for the past four years, will "definitely" help the Bruins, but maybe not as much as one might think.

"He's not dumb," Young said of Texas A&M's new offensive coordinator. "Coach Mazzone is a pretty smart guy. He's not like, 'Oh, yeah I've been there a couple years, let's run this play that they've seen a thousand times in practice.' Nah. He'll have a little twist to it."

Mora said the team officially moved its focus "100 percent" to Texas A&M during Monday's practice, after spending the last few weeks working to refine their own schemes. … In order to prepare for all-world pass rusher Myles Garrett, Mora said the team is having its scout-team ends line up offsides to give its tackles a better look at Garrett's great first step.