COSTA MESA, Calif.-- The UCLA Bruins kicked off their first practice of fall camp Wednesday afternoon at a temporary location in Costa Mesa, California, while the Wasserman Football Center is undergoing renovations.
The Bruins will be practicing out in Costa Mesa until Aug. 16 when the renovations come to an end.
During today's media availability, head coach Deshaun Foster opened by welcoming everyone to Orange County, Calif. the same area he grew up and played high school football as a running back at Tustin High School.
"Welcome to camp. In Orange County. In Costa Mesa," Foster said. "I'm an Orange County guy. So it feels good to be back home. But just looking forward to a good camp.
"Guys are getting excited. They worked really hard during the winter, spring, and summer. Just looking forward to finally getting on the field and practice."
Some of the renovations that will take place at Wasserman include changing the practice field's positioning, moving it from east to west to north to south. This will allow them to expand the field more and give them a full 100 yards to practice on rather than the 50-yard field they were on before. The surface the practice on will also be undergoing a makeover as they will switch from turf to grass, giving them a similar type of environment as games at the Rose Bowl are played on grass.
As the Bruins prep for life off campus for the next couple of weeks, Foster added he wanted this to be a time where the team connects with one another.
"There's a lot of new coaches and players. I just wanted to find a way to make us be able to connect," Foster said. "Eat three meals with each other. Just be connected."
Foster later added that while he hasn't come up with any ideas yet of team activities for fall camp, they will come later on as camp progresses.
Aside from feeling much more confident in his abilities as a coach in his second season, Foster's coaching staff and roster underwent a significant overhaul following last season.
As of right now, the Bruins roster has 55 new players this season, from incoming freshmen and from players that came through the transfer portal.
The offense might've had the most dramatic changes over the offseason as UCLA has a new quarterback under center, by the name of Nico Iamaleava. They also made a switch at offensive coordinator, moving on from Eric Bienemy to Tino Sunseri, who was a co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Indiana.
Followed by the addition of Nico Iamaleava, the Bruins also landed his brother Madden Iamaleava, who was committed to UCLA all of last season but flipped to Arkansas on signing day, just to flip back to UCLA shortly after his brother did in April.
Before Nico and Madden found their way to UCLA this past spring, Sunseri was brought on last Dec.
With a five-month gap between Sunseri and the Iamaleavas arriving to UCLA, Foster believes that Nico has picked up the offense very quick already.
"He's picked up a lot of the offense," Foster said. "They were able to get a crash course. ...He's been doing very well doing some of the player run stuff and a couple of the practices that we were able to do."
Tight end Jack Pedersen was made available today. Without wanting to give up too much information on the newly refounded Bruins offense he only had one word to say.
"Elusive." said Pedersen.
"I'm not gonna give up too much scheme. But we got a lot of playmakers on this offense and I think we're gonna suprise people this year and make a splash in the Big Ten," Pedersen said. "That all starts now. That all start's here. That's why we're down here, getting us off campus. No distractions being with the team, building a brotherhood."
Emerging on the scene as a backup tight end to Moliki Matavao last season, Pedersen appeared in all 12 games last season and had 12 receptions for 126 yards and 1 touchdown.
Expected to take a larger role this season in a new system with a new quarterback, Pedersen had nothing but great things to say about Nico Iamaleava.
"I can't say enough good things about Nico as well," Pedersen said. "Super talented guy. Southern California guy as well. Been able to get to know him a little bit more and he's again another guy can't say enough good things about."
During practice today, Pedersen said he caught a few passes from Nico Iamaleava. He added that he looked great.
"UCLA drives competition. UCLA brings a special type of person in so I mean he's great. He's gonna be able to lead this offense and take us places we need to go."
At the beginning of practice, Nico Iamaleava took reps with the first team offense against the first team defense during goal line drills. Of the three plays he ran, only one of them was a passing play, which resulted in an incompletion. After that, Luke Duncan took over the rest of the snaps under center.
Going opposite against Nico Iamaleava and Pedersen today was transfer player Isaiah Chishom. Chishom described him as someone who plays with a lot of confidence, goes about his business, knows what he is doing and can put some zip on the ball.
"He's a great quarterback. It's great to have him on the team. As fall camp keeps going, he's going to keep on getting better," Chisom said. "But he looked good today."