UCLA football: Bruins settle on offensive line

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UCLA’s football team will feature an offensive line that could be around Westwood for a long time.

Youth is being served. The Bruins coaching staff will go with freshman Xavier Su’a-Filo at left tackle, freshman Stanley Hasiak at left guard, sophomore Kai Maiava at center, junior Eddie Williams at right guard and sophomore Jeff Baca at right tackle.
That means four of the five starting lineman are players who were not eligible to play at UCLA last season. Su’a-Filo and Hasiak were in high school, Williams was at Mt. San Antonio College and Maiava was a redshirt at UCLA, having transferred from Colorado.

It’s a gamble, but one the Bruins’ coaches have to take. While the five are young, the talent level among them is far superior to the offensive line combinations in 2008. UCLA started nine different offensive line combinations last season.

There will be growing pains. UCLA’s first team offense had 19 yards rushing in 25 carries during Saturday’s scrimmage. But the front five did give redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Prince decent pass protection.

Morning pre-practice notes:

Defensive tackle Jerzy Siewierski, out the last three practices with a sore back, is back in pads this morning.

Defensive end Korey Bosworth and linebacker Kyle Bosworth are not at practice. Korey Bosworth sat out Saturday’s scrimmage with a hip flexor.

-- Chris Foster