“Energy” seemed to be the buzzword Thursday.

Goal-line drills took center stage at UCLA football’s 10th spring practice.

Red zone situations commonly turn into trench battles, and the exercise quickly became a war between the offense and the defense.

Every positive play from the offense – touchdown, completed pass or big run – was met with roars, taunts and celebrations.

And the defensive unit did not just take that attitude on the chin.

It met every defensive highlight – crunching hits, tackles for loss and goal-line stops – with the same adversarial energy, jeering and jawing at its Bruin counterpart.

Shoves and chirps became commonplace as coaches often had to separate the two sides.

“It just got a little chippy out there – it was a red zone day, so real physical,” said freshman linebacker Scott Taylor. “I don’t think he (coach Bob Chesney) was too upset about that, because that’s normally a good thing, but we teetered over the edge sometimes.”

The true freshman, who made 12 tackles and forced one fumble last season, has put on 12 pounds of muscle in the offseason while also getting faster, Taylor said.

He credited his conditioning and strength improvements to working with Director of Athletic Performance Chris Grautski and added that the growth was a natural progression from his first year in Westwood.

His weight gain was particularly advantageous since Taylor is slated to take on a hybrid linebacker role next season, playing as both a middle and outside linebacker in new defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler’s scheme.

The additional strength and speed coincide with his footwork training, and along with his pass rush technique and alignment, Taylor is preparing to take on a much more involved role on the defensive side after occupying a rotational and special teams role this past season.

And while Taylor – one of the core players retained from former coach DeShaun Foster’s brief tenure – spoke on the fit and scheme drawing him back to UCLA, it was Chesney’s limitless energy that kept him in Westwood.

“I knew I was staying before I even met him in person, but on the phone, they talked about my role on the team, how they see the program going, things like that,” Taylor said. “And I mean, you guys have met Ches, just the greatest energy in the whole world. Coach Chesney is one of the greatest leaders I’ve been able to be coached by, so I love his energy, and I love playing for him.”

Taylor – a Los Angeles local and a graduate of Loyola High School, which is 13 miles away from UCLA’s campus – added that he was unsure about returning to UCLA, but, after talking to Chesney on the phone, he knew he wanted to stay.

An imperative tenet of that conversation was the idea of competition – more precisely, using energy to fuel competition in all aspects of the program, not just on the field.

Taylor said one of the first things Chesney preached to the group was that the Bruins have no hope of winning games in 2026 if the locker room and the weight room are not clean. Chesney stressed that winning starts at square one, which means competing over the tiniest things.

And knowing that everything is graded gives Taylor a sense of ease, understanding what the bar is and what standards need to be met.

“I feed off competition,” Taylor said. “He (Chesney) builds this program off competition. Everything is scored, every rep in the weight room, every rep on the field, every time you need to clean your locker, every test in the winter to know the scheme, everything is scored, and everything is measured, and being able to track everything, it’s a lot of clarity and helps you know where you stand.”

While competition could foster animosity among teammates, particularly within position groups, the battles at Spaulding Field are played with a mutual understanding that everyone has the same goal.

And in no place is that sentiment more clearly seen than in the running back room – a position group that added two starters from last year, kept a former four-star freshman and added two transfers, including an All-Purpose All-American in Wayne Knight.

“We have kind of been getting the same amount of reps every day,” said junior running back Jaivian Thomas. “We push each other. It’s not a selfish room. The main thing out of that is keep going. You can’t really go down. If you go down, it’s likely you can get passed up. It’s not easy.”