How did UCLA football deal with brutal week? By

A winless football workforce went bowling. It’s true.

With his gamers in need of a refreshing change that would still enable them to compete, UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper took the Bruins to a bowling alley last week on one of their days off from working towards.

“I also wanted to get out of the [football practice] building, to be honest, even for me and the coaches’ sake,” Skipper said Monday. “We’ve been locked in working and grinding and all that stuff, so we needed to get away and just kind of take a deep breath and compete in a different way.”

While it was the type of workforce bonding exercise often carried out in the offseason or during training camp, throwing a few strikes together might be the factor to help spare gamers from strolling out on the remaining of the season after an 0-3 start that led to the dismissal of their coach.

Every week into the 30-day switch portal window that opened for gamers, Skipper said no one had left the workforce. Additional incentive to keep might come Saturday.

A victory over Northwestern (1-2 general, 0-1 Big Ten) in UCLA’s convention opener at Martin Stadium in Evanston, Ill., might be doubly important for a workforce that wants a confidence enhance — and motive for gamers with an accessible redshirt season to keep taking part in after the four-game cutoff for preserving eligibility.

“I think the discussions might come up a little bit more after the game,” Skipper said of redshirting. “But, to me, it’s always good to win for everything, just morale and every single area that you’re in. You deal with that as it comes, but right now the guys have been attacking and everybody seems like they want to play and are eager to do that.”

Skipper said coaches have commenced a deep dive into the roster to search for gamers who might present further help after the workforce struggled so mightily in its first three video games. As the Bruins shift from what Skipper labeled a mini-training camp last week into sport mode, they are going to see if those new discoveries can deal with the chance to make a larger contribution.

Nobody seems to be giving up given the power and personal delight Skipper has seen from his gamers.

“Everybody has a number out there, but you also have a last name on the back of your jersey,” Skipper said. “So, that last name needs to matter and you need to represent it in a positive way, and that’s what this is all going to come down to. I don’t care what we’re doing, whether we’re bowling or playing football, whatever — compete to win.”

A defensive enhance

Skipper said Kevin Coyle had arrived on campus after having coached for Syracuse in its victory over Clemson last weekend.

A senior defensive analyst with the Orange who is anticipated to serve in a related capability at UCLA after the Bruins persuaded him to make a cross-country transfer early in the season, Coyle has been a longtime mentor to his new boss.

Coyle, 69, was Fresno State’s defensive coordinator when Skipper was a star center linebacker for the Bulldogs from 1997 to 2000. The duo also labored together last season at Fresno State when Skipper was the interim head coach.

Now Coyle will enhance a UCLA employees that wants help after the departure of defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe last week in what was termed a mutual parting of methods.

“He is kind of like ‘The Godfather’ to me for football,” Skipper said of Coyle. “Did a lot of teaching me the game. It’s where I originally first started learning how to play sound, good defense. So to have the opportunity to get him here is major.”

Without offering specifics, Skipper said the UCLA defensive employees had simulated the best way it might call video games as half of a new collaborative method.