UCLA players decide to ditch

UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel ran into Bruins tradition Tuesday, as players ran off the field.

The team had just finished stretching when players gathered in a big huddle, worked themselves into a frenzy, then bolted through the gate at Spaulding Field to take the traditional “over the wall” day that ended practice and left coaches a bit stunned.

Neuheisel went to the locker room and met with seniors to “make sure they were all doing it together.” He had asked the team before spring practice not to have an “over the wall” day, according to one player who asked not to be identified, promising to “make it up to us later.”

The decision to go “over the wall,” said to have been organized by seniors, will probably cost the Bruins a day of spring practice, although Neuheisel was going to check with the NCAA whether he could get the day back.

If not, the lost day of practice might come in handy with a new offense and questions about the offensive line. It also left a handful of potential recruits and visiting high school coaches with no practice to observe. This was also a day the team was practicing in full pads in advance of Friday’s scrimmage.

Neuheisel, who has already been marking the days until the Bruins’ season opener against Tennessee on Sept. 1, grudgingly cited it as a case of college tradition.

Still, Neuheisel said, “I don’t want to make too big a deal of it. It is what it is, and there are still plenty of days left in spring to get the improvement that we need.”

Neuheisel didn’t question his players’ commitment but said, “I don’t know if I would have advised it.”

The “over the wall” day has been going on at UCLA for more than 30 years, including Bruins teams that Neuheisel played on, though players on those teams actually went over a wall instead of stampeding through an open gate. A year ago, then-head coach Karl Dorrell organized the day himself so it would not disrupt practice.

“Our guys showed good solidarity. It’s not what I would have liked to happen today. I remember being a part of teams that did this and still had successful seasons,” Neuheisel said.

UCLA senior tight end Logan Paulsen later came outside the locker room and said Neuheisel was “upset” when he met with the seniors, but he “understood what we were doing.”

Neuheisel said he wanted to make sure “they were all doing it together. I didn’t want there to have been fighting because some kids wanted to be out here and some didn’t. So I said, ‘Go make up your mind and have some solidarity.’ ”

Still, the spontaneous exodus from practice was a surprise to some players. A handful returned and milled around the gate at the practice field.

“We discussed it, and we said we weren’t going to do it, but it is one for all and all for one,” junior linebacker Reggie Carter said. “A lot of seniors, it’s their last go-around, and it’s a tradition that we do every spring. So they wanted to get one in.”

“Whatever we didn’t get done today, I’m sure Coach Neuheisel will make sure we get it made up somehow, someday.”

Thursday, for example, when the Bruins next practice.

“We’ll wait and see,” Neuheisel said. “The coaches will be ready.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com