Toledo Drawing Plans of Attack

Like all Bruin get-togethers recently, their scrimmage today at the Rose Bowl will be confidential, on the QT and very hush-hush.

Coach Bob Toledo began closing practices Monday. However, this scrimmage was planned as a members-only affair long ago.

What will the Bruins be up to?

Toledo doesn’t mind saying. He just doesn’t want anyone seeing.

“We are going to have a two-minute drill, a red-zone drill and a goal-line scrimmage, which we haven’t done yet,” he said. “We’re going to have a thud drill, meaning no tackling, so DeShaun Foster can get about 20 reps without risking injury.

“And we will do some game-plan plays against Alabama’s defense.”

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Tackling is the primary point of emphasis in practice. Toledo gathered the players after Tuesday’s workout and told them the abundance of live drills and scrimmages is not punitive.

“Every drill we do has a purpose,” he said. “Every drill is something that happens in a game. Tackling is so important. Maybe in the past we’ve backed off a little sooner than we have this year because of the injury factor. But tackling is so important.

“I told them we want to get them callused, tough and fundamentally ready.”

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Two starting defensive backs--free safety Marques Anderson and cornerback Matt Ware--will not play in the scrimmage because they are recovering from concussions. Reserve cornerbacks Matthew Clark (hamstring) and Russell Thomas (shoulder) also are out.

Joe Hunter, who is competing against Ware, said he is nearly recovered from a shoulder sprain and might play.

“One of our weaknesses is the secondary and we have some players out,” Toledo said. “That concerns me the most.”

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Injury-plagued receiver Jerry Owens became the second Bruin this week to transfer, following quarterback Roman Ybarra’s departure for Palomar College in San Marcos. Owens, a redshirt sophomore, said he wants to pursue baseball and is considering The Master’s College, a small Christian school in Newhall.

Owens, a reserve split end, missed the last three days of practice because of an ankle injury. He had one catch last season.

“I’m a man of God and I prayed about the situation,” Owens said. “He put in my heart that it was time for me to move on.”

Owens, a left-handed pitcher, played baseball at Newhall Hart High as a sophomore but missed the next two seasons because of injury. He and quarterback Kyle Boller, now at California, were a high school All-American passing combination in 1998.

“I said to [Jerry] that normally I’d try to talk him into staying,” Toledo said, “but when he says the Lord told him something, I can’t compete with that.”