Rebuilding Line Is Coaches’ Goal

Although finding replacements for Drew Olson, Maurice Drew and Marcedes Lewis will garner much of UCLA’s attention, rebuilding the offensive line, which lost senior starters Ed Blanton, Mike McCloskey and Robert Cleary, has become the priority in spring practice.

For Jim Colletto, hired as assistant head coach and line coach in February, the challenge is developing a group of players who lack game experience.

“After I was hired, I didn’t want to watch too much film on them because I wanted to make judgment on them myself,” Colletto said.

“We’re dealing with a lot of guys who need their turns and a lot of repetitions. It’s kind of been what I’ve expected.”

Over the first week of spring drills, the starting line has included guards Shannon Tevaga and P.J. Irvin, tackles Noah Sutherland and Brian Abraham and center Nathaniel Skaggs. Junior-college transfer Nick Ekbatani, listed as a starting tackle in the spring media guide, has been working with the second unit at guard along with Scott Glicksberg.

Coach Karl Dorrell said the Bruins’ goal is not to decide on five starters but to develop a deep group of versatile linemen by the end of spring practice.

“We’re being interchangeable right now, which is what you need to do in the spring in order to develop a strong line for the season,” said Dorrell, whose line has been working without Chris Joseph and Robert Chai, who combined for nine starts last season but are recovering from knee injuries. “We’re still moving guys around.”

The rock of the line is Tevaga, a junior who started every game last season and is considered one of the best returning linemen in the Pacific 10 Conference.

“Last year, we had a few bumps and bruises, but this year, we know it’s going to be up to us,” Tevaga said. “The group of linemen that we have has the potential to be really [solid] across the board.”

*

On Tuesday, the Bruins held their first workout with officials, and their offensive line dominated the early portion of practice.

But after giving up a couple of long running plays, something clicked for the defense, which was working without injured linemen Kevin Brown, Justin Hickman, Brigham Harwell and Nikola Dragovic.

“All of the new coaches bring a good change to our defense, and I think that’s going to make us better in the long run,” said senior Eric McNeal, a former safety who has been switched to weak-side linebacker.

“The coaches really got on us after our slow start. They said, ‘Buckle down and make a play.’ And that’s what we did.”

Led by an aggressive pass rush, the defense took control of the workout, which did not happen often last season.

“It was a big day for the blue shirts,” Dorrell said. “That shows progress. They are sticking to the fundamentals and coming out here with great effort. The packages that we have are starting to develop, and they are getting more familiar with it.... All of the sudden, the offense is not having the type of success it had over the first two days [of spring]. I’m very happy to see that type of progress out of them.”

*

Colletto on the offensive line’s effort on Tuesday: “For the first few days, they didn’t have to much to worry about ... but as soon as the defense started throwing different things at them, like stunts, blitzes and twists, they struggled.”

UCLA will not practice today but will work out Thursday and Friday. A scrimmage is scheduled for Saturday morning.