For the Bruins, Introductions All Around : College football: UCLA has added four new assistants as spring practice opens today.

No, it’s not true that the students will be running the class, but there could be more questions than answers when UCLA opens spring football practice today in Westwood.

The offensive coaches might need name tags.

No problem, Coach Terry Donahue said. “The guys I’ve hired are all experienced. That makes it easier for them to come in. . . . I think we’ve had enough time to get everybody acclimated.”

The guys are Bob Toledo, Gary Bernardi, Mike Sherman and Norm Anderson, all offensive assistants brought in to replace Homer Smith, Bill Rees, Bob Palcic and Rick Neuheisel.

“The difficulty for the coaches has been that Terry pretty much wanted to keep everything the same--the plays and the terminology,” said Toledo, the offensive coordinator who will call plays from the sideline this season--unlike Smith, his predecessor, who preferred to work from the press box. “So I’ve tried to use a word-association game to learn it.

“When I took over as offensive coordinator at Oregon and Texas A&M;, we used my system and they had to learn it. But this won’t be a problem.”

Greater problems figure to be dealing with an injury that has already hampered the offense, and finding defensive replacements for those who have finished their eligibility or are trying their luck in the NFL draft a season early.

When Skip Hicks took off awkwardly on a rain-damp long-jumping board during a track meet on March 19, and landed even more awkwardly, tearing a ligament in his left knee, he took a long list of possibilities out of the UCLA attack.

The injury usually requires a nine- to 12-month rehabilitation process.

“Before that, I considered running back probably our deepest position,” Donahue said.

The Bruins had Hicks, who rushed for a team-high 563 yards and five touchdowns in an injury-marred freshman season, and Sharmon Shah, who rushed for 187 yards in a victory over Stanford before his sophomore season was shut down because of a knee injury.

Derek Ayers and veteran Daron Washington were also back.

But Hicks was the starter and the kind of back to build a running game around. Fortunately for the new coaches, the old passing game is back, which means Wayne Cook, an honorable-mention All-Pacific 10 quarterback last season, throwing to All-American J.J. Stokes, Kevin Jordan, Mike Nguyen and Bryan Adams.

Having an experienced quarterback to run the offense in the spring is something of a novelty for the Bruins. It hasn’t happened since Tommy Maddox left school for the Denver Broncos in 1992.

“I’ve met with the quarterbacks only briefly, like, ‘Hi, how are you? What’s your major?’ that sort of thing,” Toledo said. “I’ve watched the film and I think we’ve picked up a flaw in Cook’s throwing motion that we want to work on, and we’ve got to work to cut down on his fumbling. We think we can help.”

As can Cook.

“With his experience running this offense, I’d be foolish not to listen to him,” Toledo said.

Complicating matters is the search for replacements for four-year starter Craig Novitsky at left guard and Vaughn Parker at right tackle. Defensively, the converse is true--the coaches are UCLA veterans, but many of the veteran players are gone.

There are only seven defensive backs on the depth chart, Marvin Goodwin having decided to cast his lot with the NFL after his junior season and Tommy Bennett still trying to sort out legal problems.

There are plenty of linebackers, but starters Nkosi Littleton and Jamir Miller, an All-American as a junior and a probable NFL draft selection, have to be replaced.

Up front, a replacement for longtime starting tackle Matt Werner must be found.

The coaching staff, both new and old members, have scattered around the country, visiting the San Francisco 49ers, Phoenix Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, Houston Oilers and Florida State University to try to find an idea or two to incorporate at UCLA.