LOS ANGELES — The UCLA football team bucked its typical practice schedule on Tuesday morning.
The Bruins had completed their team warmup and special teams period as normal but then returned to the team warmup once again. They huddled as a team when it was finished and Ethan Garbers was at the center of it all.
“He was just saying it’s all about us,” cornerback Kaylin Moore told reporters. “We’ve gotta work hard each day. Never get relaxed.”
Head coach DeShaun Foster made his team start practice over because he felt the Bruins didn’t come out with enough energy. Slow starts have hurt UCLA in its two games this season and players are still feeling the pain of Saturday’s 42-13 loss to Indiana.
They’re applying those emotions to this week’s preparations for LSU.
“I always say I drive better off of pain,” defensive lineman Sitiveni Havili Kaufusi said. “You don’t want to get that feeling anymore: Knowing that you could have done better, knowing that the results weren’t what we put in.
“Knowing that pain and using that is driving us for the rest of the year, not just through LSU.”
When the Bruins broke for a special teams period for the second time, receivers were doing up-downs as a group on the far corner of the practice field. Later on, JonJon Vaughns delivered a hit to a scout team player that leveled him. The scout team player was shaken and slow to get up.
UCLA typically shies from aggressive hits like that during practice and doesn’t tackle to the ground. Head coach DeShaun Foster spoke to the scout team player one-on-one, seemingly checking on his health, but otherwise said nothing about the brisk and sudden hit.
“Execute” is the word that has come up the most when Foster and players talk about how to fix the mental errors and slow starts that have plagued the Bruins.
“You’ve gotta find a way to ease them and get them mentally prepared for anything that happens,” Foster said. “These guys are putting a lot on themselves. Just let the game come to you. They want to be successful and they’re trying to get out there and make it happen. I don’t have a problem with them pressing, but just don’t let your play show that.”
Injury updates
Cornerback Kanye Clark was not seen practicing on Tuesday afternoon after leaving the Indiana game on a trainer’s cart while wearing a full leg brace in the third quarter. Clark is a former walk-on and redshirt freshman.
UCLA has not yet released a depth chart for this Saturday’s game against LSU, so it’s unclear who will play in his place.
Moore, a senior who prepped at Oaks Christian School, has started in both the Hawai’i game and Indiana game since transferring from Cal Berkeley ahead of this season.
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“I feel like I have good technique, cover skills,” Moore said. “I feel like I have a lot of effort to get to the ball, run to the ball as much as I can and just play each play as hard as I can, 100 percent.”
Defensive lineman Keanu Williams was not seen practicing on Tuesday. Havili Kaufusi might see increased playing time if Williams does not return for Saturday.
“Especially throughout fall camp, I’ve been rotating with the ones,” Havili Kaufusi said. “So they’ve been using me at edge, they’ve been using me at tackle. It’s just now I have to take a bigger load.”
Foster declined to comment on the status of either player during media availability on Monday morning.