UCLA’s Spring Showcase builds excitement for regular season

The most noticeable crowd-pleasing moment of UCLA’s Spring Showcase came with the clock stopped during a five-minute break from action.

Replacing the injured Colby Cyburt, redshirt freshman offensive tackle Kenny Lacy struggled to squeeze into a white jersey much too small for him as he switched teams to fill the need. After an extended period of squirming and multiple attempts to pull the jersey over his head, Lacy finally emerged from a scrum of helpers fully decked out in the snug No. 18 white jersey. The crowd of 15,108 at the StubHub Center erupted into the loudest applause of the night.

In Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage that the blue team – featuring the first-team offense – handily won 28-0, there wasn’t much reason for excitement, a fact that winning coach Noel Mazzone, departing briefly from his usual post as offensive coordinator, admitted himself.

“I was kind of bored, but it was a good time,” Mazzone said.

While the excitement about the game itself was at times measured, the excitement toward the regular season, which begins Aug. 30 at Virginia, continues to build among the team.

The offensive group generating the most buzz among coaches and players alike was the wide receivers, who combined for four catches of 20 yards or more. After the departure of Shaquelle Evans, the story for much of the spring was finding a player to step up and replace him as the No. 1 receiver.

However after the game, in which passes were spread around to a variety of players, redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley couldn’t single out just one receiver as his top target, instead listing nearly all of them. That depth is something that Mazzone is eager to put into a real game come August.

“We don’t have that big-name marquee guy, but the analogy was like ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ – they’re like the posse,” Mazzone said. “They’re like, ‘Who are those guys?’ Nobody knows their names, right? But it’s a good group and I’m really excited about them.”

While the five quarterbacks who played had no trouble hitting the group of receivers, they frequently struggled to find enough time to get passes off. The defense’s pass rush, which combined for eight sacks, kept the quarterbacks constantly looking to buy time with their feet.

The main culprit was redshirt senior defensive end Owamagbe Odighizuwa, who was credited with two sacks but appeared to be involved in several more as he was a constant presence in the backfield. Despite the quarterbacks’ no-contact red jerseys – meaning sacks were constituted by simply getting a hand on the passer – Odighizuwa’s relentless attack caught the eye of coach Jim Mora, who spent the game simply observing from the backfield.

“I told Owa right there at the end that it seemed like he was getting stronger as the game was going on – it was coming back to him,“ Mora said.

With some limited numbers because of injuries and the absence of junior outside linebacker Kenny Orjioke, who did not participate in the game for an undisclosed reason, defensive coordinator and white team coach Jeff Ulbrich used the game to experiment just how much Odighizuwa could bring to the defense.

Ulbrich had the pass rusher drop back into coverage several times throughout the game to see how well Odighizuwa could handle the added responsibilities.

“He’s so athletic that you think he can do everything, so we’re just trying to find the limitations of what he’s capable of doing,” Ulbrich said.

“He’s a guy that I just can’t wait to see do his thing on Saturdays this fall. … He’s poised to have a pretty special year.”

After what Mazzone called “one of the best springs I’ve been around for a long time,” the Bruins’ approach to the Spring Showcase was grounded more in remaining healthy and having fun than a competitive battle for positions or pride. Yet the two coordinators who got their shot at becoming head coaches for a day were still ribbing each other after the game.

“Bitter. Miserable. I hate losing ping-pong. I hate when a guy pisses longer than I do. … I don’t like to lose, I don’t,” Ulbrich said. “(But) I think we got what we wanted to get accomplished. … It was a productive day.”