Scrimmage IV: Make way for Slater?

UCLA’s special teams did well on Saturday and should play a positive role for the team:

>> Kicker Kai Forbath made three of six field goals, but one was blocked by Rodney Van. Forbath showed plenty of leg on all five that made it to the uprights and made a 48-yarder.

>> Punting was fine with Aaron Perez and Danny Rees both averaging over 44 yards a kick.

>> Kickoffs were handled by Jimmy Rotstein who reached the goal line twice and had two others land at the 11-yard line.

>> Returns are a double-edged sword: does a good return mean that the coverage teams are weak or are the return teams really good? The return teams won the day on Saturday. The two kickoffs which were taken on the 11 came back 47 and 21 yards courtesy of Matthew Slater and Michael Norris. Slater looked terrific on kick returns in practice and showed an exciting burst of speed through the wedge on the way to his long return.

>> On punts, the coverage teams did well, giving up returns of just one yard to Terrence Austin and four and seven yards to Ryan Graves.

Statistics - kickoffs: Rotstein, 4-64.5 average.

Statistics - punts: Perez, 3-44.0 average; Rees, 1-45.0 average.

Statistics - field goals: Forbath: made from 43, 48 and 32 yards; missed from 29 and 42 yards; one other kick blocked (45-yard try).

Statistics: kickoff returns: Slater, 1-47; Norris, 1-21; Carew, 1-12.

Statistics: punt returns: Austin, 1-1; Graves, 2-11.

Comments

[Marcus]

Thanks for the updates! Really appreciate it. Great info.

[BruinCore]

Also Rich ... I believe it was Perez that had a 27 yard punt that you do not list. There was a penalty on the play so you may have disqualified the play based on that, but it was a shank. Perez had a couple of good punts but he's been inconsistent so far in Training Camp.

[Rich Perelman]

Yes, the penalty call nullified that play, as it would in an actual game.

[Shawn McClondon]

To Richard Perelman: Rodney Van is the starter alongside Trey Brown at Cornerback for the UCLA Bruins, not Alteran Verner, as you indicated in your post scrimage article.