After Uplifting Victory, More Lifting

There was extra lifting Monday. There were extra running and fundamental drills Tuesday.

Just who won in Texas, anyway?

“We had just come off a 66-3 win and I guess we could celebrate it about 10 minutes,” said UCLA tackle Kris Farris, who verified that Saturday’s locker-room cry had been about easing off conditioning. As he said it, he was dripping sweat, an obvious indication of what strength and conditioning coach Kevin Yoxall’s answer to the Bruins’ proposal had been.

“Coach Yoxall met everybody on the way to the bus Saturday and reminded us that we were lifting at 8:30 on Monday,” Farris said.

The 24th-ranked Bruins, who lift twice a week during the season, did extra sets and extra repetitions with weights Monday and extra sprints Tuesday, but without complaint. Actually, the extra work was greeted with enthusiasm.

“It’s like Saturday was a reward for all the hard work we’ve done,” Farris said. “You can see it in the locker room and on the field. We weren’t down on ourselves. We knew we were a good team. But this just verified it.”

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With an open date this week, practice for the starters has been shortened slightly, but backups and others who play infrequently are scrimmaging.

“We get a chance to see them on film, and they get a chance to make some plays,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “You could see Marques Anderson [a freshman cornerback who started his first game Saturday] make a play, and Damian Allen [a backup cornerback who scored Saturday on a 40-yard interception return] make a play in the scrimmage today. Those guys haven’t played that much, and this will help them.”

The scrimmage was cut two plays short, though, when freshman guard Brian Polak suffered an injury to his left knee that had Toledo worried. Polak, a 320-pounder, has been worked into the playing rotation among offensive linemen and appears to have a bright future at UCLA.

An examination revealed no major internal damage to the knee, which apparently was kicked during the scrimmage.

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NEXT FOR UCLA

WHO: Arizona

WHERE: Rose Bowl

WHEN: Sept. 27, 12:30 p.m.

TV: Fox Sp. West

RADIO: XTRA (1150)