Donahue Calls Spring a Success : College football: UCLA makes it through four weeks of drills with few injuries.

As spring football ended at UCLA, a few things were quickly apparent:

--The path of least resistance to playing time winds through the defensive backfield.

--The running backs are walking around with a little extra spring in their strides.

--The only person who isn’t worried about J.J. Stokes getting injured is J.J. Stokes.

--And some players who will play a lot next season have yet to go to their high school proms.

Coach Terry Donahue counted the four weeks of spring football successful because everyone was able to walk off the field after the final practice scrimmage Thursday at Spalding Field.

“Probably the most devastating injury we had this spring was to Skip Hicks, and that didn’t happen on the football field,” Donahue said. “We had some broken bones and things, but nothing that will keep anybody from coming back to practice in August.”

Hicks, a starter at tailback, suffered a torn ligament in his left knee while long jumping with the track team and probably will have to take a redshirt season. Sharmon Shah, coming off a redshirt season because of a knee injury, is the starting tailback, with pressure from Daron Washington and Derek Ayers.

They offer depth in the offensive backfield. The defense is another story.

“We don’t have a lot of kids in the defensive secondary, and we’ve got to get some freshman help,” Donahue said. “We’re going to take every skill player we have coming in as a freshman, except a couple of guys, and take a look at them in the defensive secondary.”

The Bruins have two starting defensive backs from last season, cornerbacks Carl Greenwood and Teddy Lawrence.

Thursday’s scrimmage showed that the offense, though working out of the same playbook as last season, will take on a different look with new coordinator Bob Toledo. The first play was a pass from Wayne Cook to Washington for four yards.

Only 18 passes were caught by running backs last season, none in the first five games.

“I believe that backs are your best runners with the ball, and it only makes sense to get them the football more often,” Toledo said.

Said Washington: “It’s nothing new. We had the plays before, but we didn’t use them. I’ll wait to see if they call them in games.”

Stokes is an All-American wide receiver who deflected pressure to try his hand at the NFL draft and will return to UCLA for his senior season. He didn’t scrimmage all spring, though he professes not to be concerned that injury will hamper his professional future.

Still, “we thought the reward wasn’t worth the risk,” said Donahue. “He knows the plays and the position, and he will be ready for scrimmages in the fall.”