UCLA football brings in mental conditioning coach, referees at fall camp

Thursday marked the first time in fall camp that referees were on hand to make sure that everything was done in a fair and orderly manner.

Fittingly, Thursday also marked the first time in fall that a player was thrown out of practice.

The player was freshman middle linebacker Lokeni Toailoa. He got into a post-play tussle with junior reserve center Markus Boyer during 11-on-11s, prompting coach Jim Mora to bring the entire team together for a discussion on sportsmanship.

“I asked (the officials) if they would have thrown someone out,” Mora said. “And they said they would have thrown out No. 52 (Toailoa). And so I said (Toailoa) has got to leave the field. I wanted (the team) to see that.”

Mora delivered a similar message to the team during spring camp, when he threw senior outside linebacker Jayon Brown out of practice for targeting a wide receiver. Brown returned to practice the next day and ended up being one of the biggest standouts of spring camp, playing with more discipline and poise.

Post-play scuffles are nothing new to UCLA fall camp, or any football training camp for that matter. Sometimes, a little horseplay is actually encouraged by coaches – it shows that the competitive juices are flowing.

“There’s always a tussle or two,” said defensive coordinator Tom Bradley on Wednesday. “It’s OK. We’re trying to set the tone a little bit.”

But there usually comes a point when coaches need to draw the line between gritty and disorderly. That’s what Mora appeared to do in Thursday’s practice.

“It is part of training camp, but we had officials out here today,” Mora said. “We had 154 competitive plays, and we had five penalties, and they were all in the red zone … So just a point of emphasis there.”

Mora made his emphasis on red zone-play visibly apparent. He turned the loudspeakers up to full volume only when the offense advanced inside the 20-yard line. Outside of the red zone, the loudspeakers didn’t play any music, save for during individual drills. This was a tactic that Mora also employed during spring camp – to test the discipline of his offensive line.

Mental makeover

UCLA has brought in a new person this year to handle the mental side of the game – Trevor Moawad.

Moawad – who has been part of five of the past seven college football national championship teams – was brought in by Mora and the UCLA staff this summer. When the players come into the meeting room each day, Moawad is the first person to speak to them.

“You know, the other day he had us sit next to a guy that you don’t really talk to that much on the team, and get to know them better,” said junior running back Nate Starks. “Things like that are bringing us closer together as a team.”

Position battle updates

The three notable position battles heading into camp were at running back, middle linebacker and Z receiver. Through four days of camp, the running back and middle linebacker positions are still very much up for grabs, but a player has asserted himself at the Z receiver position: junior Alex Van Dyke.

The 6-foot-4 Van Dyke has shown soft hands and good route-running ability thus far in camp, catching several long passes on crossing routes over the middle of the field. On Thursday, Van Dyke leaped over sophomore Nate Meadors – a first-team cornerback – and snatched a 5-yard touchdown pass on a fade route.

Van Dyke’s main competition at the Z receiver position – Eldridge Massington – has struggled through the first four days of practice. The junior has dropped several passes in route-running drills, and hasn’t gained as much separation during 11-on-11 play. Similar to Van Dyke, Massington had a chance on a 5-yard fade route against Meadors on Thursday, but he had the ball slapped out of his hands.

Full pads on Friday

UCLA has yet to perform a practice in full pads, and Wednesday’s practice was the only one that saw the Bruins use shoulder pads, or “shells.” That will change on Friday, as Mora confirmed UCLA will use full pads for the first time.

Overall, it seems as if Mora is looking out for his players’ health more than ever. When asked if his team would have a full-contact scrimmage – just like it did at the end of fall camp last year – Mora said he’s not sure.

“I don’t know if we’ll have an all-out scrimmage,” Mora said. “I don’t think many teams are doing that anymore – I just think we’re moving away from that, with player safety, with the concussion issue.”

UCLA has avoided the injury bug for the most part thus far in fall camp. The only injuries to report are a hamstring strain to freshman X receiver Theo Howard, which has kept him out of the last two practices. Redshirt junior wide receiver Darren Andrews was also part of the injured group on Thursday, but Mora said it was just because of a minor soreness.

Freshman offensive lineman Paco Perez is still out with an injury that he sustained before fall camp, but he should be back to practice before the season opener on Sept. 3, per Mora.