UCLA FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: New regime puts the heat on Bruins

Morphing UCLA from a team forged by rainbows and puppies to one built by steel and grit is not going to be an overnight resolution.

The Bruins found that out Saturday in their first day in full pads.

The players, beaten down by an unrelenting sun, struggled to maintain the high level of energy that highlighted the first two days of spring practice.

Energy was up during drills, but the general sense of urgency that was there for two days fell off.

"It's a little hotter out here today," Mora said. "It's our third practice, the pads go on and you start to understand the length of the practice and what's coming next, so at times guys pace themselves.

"We can't ever pace ourselves. We have to go. We have to go every single play."

Midway through the morning, Mora gave his team a thorough pep talk and they responded by picking up the pace, running to the sidelines and turning up the intensity.

Between gasps for air, the players said they appreciated the challenge from the coaching staff and felt they needed to hear it. Mora challenged the team once more later in practice and pumped in crowd noise to shift the environment.

"I want them to be irritated in practice," Mora said. "You try to create an environment in practice ... you want practice to be harder than a game. One of our goals is to get them comfortable being uncomfortable."

With one week in the books and 20 percent of spring practice complete,

Mora is looking to ramp up the energy even more.

"This isn't for everybody," Mora said. "It's not for everybody. If this were for everybody, it ain't hard enough. There's going to be a fail rate.

"If there isn't, I haven't pushed them hard enough."

Manning up

UCLA running back Steven Manfro almost was a casualty to the recruiting process. He sported just one scholarship offer - from Wyoming - before the Bruins became involved late in the game. Undersized but talented, Manfro won offensive scout team player of the year honors last season and was known for sprinting to the end zone to complete a play.

That's been a frequent sight in the first week of spring practice, and the coaches have noticed.

"It's kind of early, but he's got the want-to, has good ball skills, good vision, acceleration, speed," running backs coach Steve Broussard said of Manfro, who broke 27 school records for the Vikings en route to winning All-CIF Southern Section Northern Division Player of the Year honors in 2010.

"He's definitely a guy who is intriguing to us. He's picking up the offense. Definitely he's a guy who you can look at and say, `He can be used."'

Snapped out of it

With redshirt junior center Greg Capella nursing a calf injury, backups Jacob Brendel and Tre Hale struggled with snaps.

"It's a new snap count, new guys, a new rhythm, we're using a different football now," Mora said. "But those are excuses. It can't happen. We've got to eliminate that."

Bumps and bruises

Senior tight end Joseph Fauria (hamstring), sophomore running back Jordon James (hamstring), and redshirt junior running back Ricky Marvray (back) missed practice.

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