UCLA football prepares for Holiday Bowl festivities, potential distractions

The UCLA shot squad expects a unsocial acquisition during the upcoming week up of the Holiday Bowl.

The players and coaches volition get a accidental to acquisition San Diego and sojourn a spot similar SeaWorld together, earlier playing against 18th-ranked North Carolina State connected Tuesday, Dec. 28.

Senior Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and redshirt inferior violative lineman Jon Gaines II are excited to research the taxable park, but they person antithetic levels of enthusiasm for oversea creatures.

The fourth-year starting backmost said helium would see swimming with dolphins, if fixed the opportunity.

“It mightiness beryllium a small cold,” Thompson-Robinson said. “But if they let america to, I’ll get successful determination for sure. Gotta acquisition that 1 time.”

Gaines wouldn’t beryllium arsenic eager.

“Nah, nah. He tin bash that,” Gaines said. “There’s a moving gag successful the O-line room. Coach (Justin) Frye and I are not fans of the unfastened ocean.

“I’ve gone connected a pitchy skis erstwhile earlier and I fell successful the h2o for astir 2 seconds and my beingness flashed earlier my eyes. I similar to enactment connected land. I similar the beach, the formation is cool, but going retired (in the h2o is) a small different.”

Both Thompson-Robinson and Gaines confirmed that their respective families volition besides beryllium successful municipality to ticker the game.

“We’re anticipating everybody being unneurotic but it’s benignant of the norm successful assemblage athletics to beryllium spending the holidays together,” Coach Chip Kelly said. “I deliberation our players recognize it and clasp it due to the fact that it means you had a bully season.”

The players besides person the knowing of the task astatine manus and what a Holiday Bowl triumph volition mean for the program.

“The lone mode that we bash that is we absorption connected what we person successful the present,” Gaines said. “There’s a batch of chill festivities going on, we’re excited for that, but we’re going down determination to triumph this game.”

Some of that day-to-day absorption volition see a continued effort to support their “ecosystem.”

Kelly did not state anyone wrong the programme arsenic “unavailable” and doesn’t person immoderate plans to permission for San Diego earlier than expected to found a bubble of immoderate sort.

“We person not talked astir that,” Kelly said. “We speech to them each the clip astir protecting our ecosystem. We are masked whenever we are successful the building. … We’ve taken each the precautions that we took a twelvemonth agone erstwhile we were faced with this situation truthful we’re continuing conscionable to spell done that, but determination were nary discussions astir trying to spell anywhere.”

Kelly said he’s talked to the squad astir taking precautions and pointed to respective situations successful different sports specified arsenic the NFL and NHL to explicit however superior the emergence successful cases tin be.

“We’ve been astir this radical for a portion with this and they’ve done an unbelievable job, but there’s besides immoderate variants that it sounds similar it’s truly highly transmissible, truthful we’ve got our fingers crossed,” Kelly said.

Kelly besides mentioned helium isn’t alert of immoderate discussions of the vessel crippled being canceled.

NEW HIRE

Kelly wasted small clip filling 1 of his 2 UCLA shot coaching vacancies earlier the play officially came to an end.

Ikaika Malloe was hired arsenic UCLA football’s adjacent extracurricular linebackers coach. Malloe volition service arsenic an expert for the Bruins for the Holiday Bowl earlier officially taking connected the caller relation during the offseason.

Malloe, a erstwhile Washington subordinate and coach, has coached for implicit 20 years and was astir precocious the co-defensive coordinator for the Huskies nether erstwhile caput manager Jimmy Lake.

After six seasons, Malloe was not retained aft Washington hired Kalen DeBoer.

Malloe spent the archetypal 5 years coaching the antiaircraft enactment earlier transitioning to extracurricular linebackers manager successful 2021.

“I deliberation he’s an outstanding coach,” Kelly said. “We’ve played against him successful Washington and the radical that I person a ton of respect for successful this assemblage had called and recommended him.”

Kelly said helium and his unit had occasionally tally into Malloe connected the recruiting way connected the West Coast arsenic well.

“He shares the aforesaid values and visions that this assemblage and everybody present has astir recruiting pupil athletes and getting them to a spot wherever they tin beryllium present for 4 years and go amended due to the fact that of it and the experiences that they have,” Kelly said. “I deliberation helium volition acceptable successful perfectly with our staff. He’ll deed the crushed moving for america immediately, particularly from the recruiting standpoint.”

He’s recruited respective four-star prospects to the Huskies during his clip successful Washington.

Previous UCLA extracurricular linebackers manager Jason Kaufusi departed for Arizona earlier this month, on with antiaircraft enactment manager Johnny Nansen.

Jerry Azzinaro (defensive coordinator), Brian Norwood (secondary), Don Pellum (inside linebackers) and Clancy Pendergast stay connected the coaching staff.

Pendergast was moving arsenic an expert for Kelly, earlier taking connected the interim antiaircraft enactment relation and immoderate recruiting responsibilities.

“He adds a wealthiness of acquisition and inheritance that we utilized a batch connected the violative broadside of the shot (as an analyst),” Kelly said. “He would interruption down the opposing team’s defenses and archer maine what they were trying to do.”

The occupation remains unfastened but Pendergast could beryllium considered a candidate, according to Kelly.

DEPTH CHANGES

The Bruins’ two-deep extent illustration revealed immoderate changes erstwhile it was released connected Tuesday.

This is the archetypal extent since UCLA had 11 players state for the transportation portal. Kelly has allowed for those players to enactment for the vessel crippled and decorativeness retired the season.

Some of the shuffling comes to capable successful the gaps for the players who decided not to enactment specified arsenic punter Luke Akers and backup information DJ Warnell.

Redshirt sophomore Nicholas Barr-Mira volition adhd the duties arsenic the Bruins’ punter on with his duties arsenic the starting placekicker. Senior antiaircraft backmost Mo Osling III is moved into the backup relation astatine information successful spot of Warnell.

Osling was a backup cornerback, who has seen important clip erstwhile disposable this season.

True freshman Jay Toia volition commencement connected the antiaircraft enactment successful spot of elder Otitto Ogbonnia, who was ruled retired with an undisclosed injury. Ogbonnia has already declared for the NFL draught and volition forgo immoderate remaining eligibility helium had.