No Such Tomfoolery Next Time

The replay is not a pretty one: On a fake punt last week, Nate Fikse badly missed an open receiver. How about a second chance?

“I want to redeem myself,” Fikse said. “But I honestly don’t think it will happen again.”

UCLA Coach Bob Toledo confirmed he has torn the Fikse pass page out of the Bruin playbook. He did commend Fikse for the consistency of his punting, backed by statistics that show Fikse leading the Pacific 10 Conference with a 43.6-yard average.

But Toledo refused to rule out replacing Fikse with freshman Chris Kluwe sometime this season. Kluwe lacks Fikse’s consistency, but for distance the freshman regularly outkicks the incumbent during practice.

“We won’t decide whether he’s redshirting until the season’s over,” Toledo said. “He’s an NFL-caliber punter. He’s got that good of a leg.”

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Linebacker Asi Faoa suffered a severely sprained ankle during practice Wednesday, and doctors immobilized it in a boot Thursday. The long list of injured defenders also includes linemen Kenyon Coleman (knee surgery) and Ken Kocher (ankle) and backs Marques Anderson (undisclosed outpatient surgery), Jason Bell (hamstring) and Jason Stephens (rib cage), though the Bruins hope all but Coleman can return next week.