Norris Is Given Good Prognosis

One day after getting injured junior defensive tackle Kevin Brown back on the field earlier than expected, UCLA received more good news Wednesday when it learned junior cornerback Michael Norris’ knee injury may not keep him out of the opener against Utah on Sept. 2.

“It’s feeling a lot better, and there’s no surgery required or anything like that,” said Norris, who played every game last season as a nickel back and on special teams. “The good news is that it did not swell up that badly and I can bend it.”

Norris, a valuable player for the Bruins because of his versatility and coverage skills, suffered the injury when he returned an interception in Saturday’s scrimmage. Norris continued to play but knew he was injured and had tests done on the knee Monday.

“It’s going to take some time to get the swelling down, but there’s an outside chance that he may be ready to go [Sept. 2],” Coach Karl Dorrell said about Norris. “We’ll see how things react at the end of this week and next week.”

Norris’ injury update, however, will not have an effect on freshmen Jeremy McGee and Christian Ramirez, who moved from running back to the secondary at the start of the week.

“They will continue to battle for playing time,” Dorrell said about McGee, now a cornerback, and Ramirez, a free safety. “But they still have a lot of catching up to do.”

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For three seasons, UCLA relied on Maurice Drew to handle kickoff and punt returns, but he has gone to the NFL. This year, the Bruins may have one or two of their freshmen doing that job in Terrence Austin, Alterraun Verner and McGee.

“I like what Austin is going to give us in punt-return duties, so we’re looking to give him an opportunity to do that and maybe [Verner] getting a chance to do some of that too,” Dorrell said. “In kickoff returns, there are three or four guys in that mix [including McGee].... We’re still working on both kickoff and punt returns. We haven’t solidified anything yet, but we’ve kind of narrowed it down.”

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UCLA will hold a mock game today at the Rose Bowl after closing training camp Wednesday night.

“We’re going to go through every single phase and every single opportunity that can happen in a game,” Dorrell said. “We’re going to start with pregame in terms of how to warm up, how you come out of the locker room and stuff like that. We have new coaches and new players, so we have to walk through that process.”

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Senior receiver Junior Taylor has been cleared for contact and wore a white jersey for Wednesday’s workouts. Linebacker John Hale and running back Derrick Williams did not practice because of hamstring injuries.