If both Rico Flores Jr. and Ramon Henderson had their way, then UCLA would be preparing to play this weekend and not 10 days from now.
In fact, Henderson said after Wednesday’s practice, the Sept. 14 home and Big Ten opener against Indiana wouldn’t even have to be on a football field.
“I think if we could play Indiana damn near tomorrow in a middle of a parking lot that would be the thing to do,” Henderson said. “But, I mean, I don’t choose the schedule, Rico doesn’t choose the schedule. That’s not our payroll.”
Flores undoubtedly shined in last Saturday’s 16-13 win at Hawaii. He made the first touchdown catch since transferring from Notre Dame in the winter.
Flores also provided a key second-half catch that went for 53 yards to set up one of Mateen Bhaghani’s three made field goals.
The offense was otherwise plagued by issues, including a poor showing from the offensive line that largely contributed to an ineffective run game.
“Scoring my first touchdown as a Bruin, that felt great. But like I said, there’s still a lot of work to do,” Flores said.
“It wasn’t our prettiest win, so there were a lot of corrections on film, but that’s going to be with every game. Even if it’s a lot to a little to the littlest thing, you know, there’s going to be corrections so we’ve got to pay attention to detail and come back focused the next practice.”
After reviewing the film from his first career head coaching victory, DeShaun Foster agreed that the offensive line was an issue and forced him to go more pass-heavy.
The Bruins threw the ball almost twice as much, attempting 38 passes to 20 carries. Not including quarterback Ethan Garbers’ seven rush attempts, UCLA managed just 1.8 yards per carry and finished with 24 yards rushing between running backs T.J. Harden, Keegan Jones and Anthony Frias.
Foster, though, said “the whole offense” played a part in a game it failed to produce a first-half score.
“Just not exactly executing the way that they should. So, just a lot of stuff that’s easy to fix — ID’ing, stuff like that,” Foster said. “So, I’m not really worried about it. They should get out here and make sure that they work through their corrections and get better.”
Starting offensive tackles sit out practice
UCLA left tackle Reuben Unije and right tackle Garrett DiGiorgio were held out of Wednesday’s practice for precautionary reasons, Foster said.
Unije was hurt in the second half after a Hawaii player on the ground rolled up under him. Jaylan Jeffers came in to play the rest of the game.
Before kickoff, DiGiorgio was listed as questionable before ultimately sitting out. He was favoring his shoulder in last Wednesday’s practice.
“They should be back,” Foster said.
Foster explains fourth-down decisions
For the first time in his career, Foster called all the shots — including the handling of in-game decisions that require a decision to play things aggressive or conservative.
Among them were a decision to attempt a 52-yard field goal and another to punt. Foster said the situations dictate his choices and took sole responsibility for the final say on all decisions.
“I’m telling everybody what to do. There’s no decisions being made by any other coaches so anything that’s happening is coming directly from me,” Foster said.
“It depends on the situation. With the momentum going, I probably was gonna go for it. Then, they end up calling a timeout so we kicked the field goal.”
Media sessions
Watch the full media sessions with Foster, Flores and Henderson below:
