Another practice injury
UCLA couldn't escape another injury during Sunday's night practice. Backup offensive tackle Mike Harris was carted off the field with a right ankle injury, and coach Rick Neuheisel said he was unsure of the severity of it.
"I'm a little nervous about Mike Harris," he said. "Hopefully, we'll get some good news."
Meanwhile, Neuheisel said the contenders for the primary contenders for the quarterback job are Kevin Craft, Chris Forcier and Osaar Rasshan.
Neuheisel added he was disappointed to hear Ben Olson would be out at least eight weeks, but said it was possible Olson could catch up offensively because UCLA has two bye weeks in November.
Also, RB Audre Dean (neck), WR Nelson Rosario (stomach), DT Brian Price (possible concussion) and DT Jerzy Siewierski (dizziness) each sat out the evening session, but Neuheisel said each could be back Monday.
Which of the QB's perfomed the best today?
There are some positive and negative side effects from Olson's injury from the perspective of the OL:
Positives:
1. The right tackle position becomes slightly less dire (even with Harris' injury and Glicksberg's illness forcing continual reshuffeling) since we go from a lefty QB to a righty QB and therefore the blindside is once again defended by our more established left tackle.
2. We inevitably get a more mobile QB and that may cover up a multitude of OL sins
Negatives:
1. It may be easier for an inexperienced OL to protect a clear pocket than to know what to do when the QB takes off a lot. We may see a number of illegal man downfield penalties.
2. There isn't much time before Sept. 1 for the line to adapt to a new QB's style when we may have an open competition and no winner declared until right before the season.
I love John Madden, but he has an entire generation of football fans thinking "illegal man downfield" is an actual penalty. The correct term is "ineligible receiver downfield," which is called when any of the five players who are ineligible to catch a pass (the center, two guards and two tackles) cross the line of scrimmage on a downfield pass. The exception is a pass completed behind the line of scrimmage, in which case the linemen can block downfield before the pass is thrown (college rule, not allowed in NFL).