The clanging church bells from the ominous entrance music of pro wrestling legend The Undertaker flooded Spaulding Field as the UCLA football team gathered for warmups Wednesday morning.
The Bruins can’t afford to rest in peace, as The Undertaker would say, after Saturday’s 16-13 win over Hawai’i. Players are keeping a game-week mentality even though it’s a bye week.
“I’m kind of mad we’ve got a bye week,” receiver Rico Flores Jr. told reporters Wednesday.
Flores caught the only touchdown pass in the game against Hawai’i with a 39-yard grab from quarterback Ethan Garbers, who completed 19 of 38 passes for 272 yards. The Notre Dame transfer also had a game-long 52-yard catch in the third quarter, which is just short of his career-long of 60 yards.
UCLA slowly found its footing in the passing game as its rushing attack continued to struggle with just 51 net yards. Players are staying dialed in and keeping momentum from the positives of the game by acting as if there’s an opponent waiting this weekend.
“It wasn’t our prettiest win,” Flores said. “There were a lot of corrections over in film, but that’s going to be with every game, if it’s a lot to a little to the littlest things. There’s going to be corrections. So we’ve got to pay attention to detail and come back focused the next practice.”
Wednesday’s practice began at 9 a.m. and lasted roughly three hours. Coaches seemed more demanding during the media watch period at the start of practice and players were less inclined to joke around or dance during breaks in the action.
DeShaun Foster was serious during media availability, seldom looking reporters in the eye as he fielded questions.
“There’s just a lot of stuff that’s easy to fix,” he said. “I’m not really worried about it. Just make sure they work through their corrections and get better.”
The Bruins’ defensive backs were one position group that had confidence heading into the bye week.
Ramon Henderson, another Notre Dame transfer, recorded the first full sack of his career Saturday and pulled down his third career interception. K.J. Wallace tied linebacker Carson Schwesinger for a game-high seven tackles in addition to four pass backups, two tackles for a loss and a quarterback hurry.
“I think that’s tough, honestly,” Henderson said. “K.J.’s my boy, we actually had a joke before that game that it was going to be me having all the tackles instead of him. We’ve got 11 more games that are for sure confirmed and until then, hopefully, the DBs just get us rocking.”
UCLA’s next game is its Big Ten opener against Indiana at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Rose Bowl. Henderson said the Bruins are ready to go now.
“If we could play Indiana damn near tomorrow in the middle of a parking lot, that would be the thing to do,” Henderson said, “but I mean, I don’t choose to schedule, Rico doesn’t choose the schedule. That’s not our payroll. So we just go by whatever we got in front of us and we just do what we got to do.”
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Injury update
Garrett DiGiorgio did not participate in Saturday’s game against Hawai’i despite being listed as the starting right tackle on UCLA’s two-deep depth chart that was released prior to the game. Foster said DiGiorgio is expected to return but likely would not practice Wednesday.
Running back Jalen Berger, a Michigan State transfer, also did not participate against Hawai’i. Berger was seen fully participating in practice Wednesday and Foster said that he is “still getting ready.”