Tino Sunseri is spending the subsequent two weeks in Costa Mesa whereas a big chunk of his coronary heart resides on the East Coast.
That’s the place the brand new UCLA offensive coordinator’s spouse and 3-month-old son reside with one set of grandparents, permitting Tino to focus the very best he can on coaching camp with the Bruins.
The primary-time father is buoyed each by what he’s seeing together with his staff and stories about his toddler, who giggled for the primary time the opposite day. Santino Michael Sunseri Jr. already has a nickname — “We’re calling him Sonny, like ‘The Godfather,’ ” Tino cracked, referring to Santino “Sonny” Corleone from the film — and curiously research his father in FaceTime periods.
“Right now,” Tino mentioned Saturday morning, “he’s kind of giving me that look, like, ‘Hey, I know your voice, but who are you right here?’”
There’s additionally loads of attending to know you between Sunseri and his new quarterback.
Nico Iamaleava enrolled in June after transferring from Tennessee, making this the fifth consecutive season that Sunseri shall be working with a brand new quarterback. In 2021, Sunseri’s first season as quarterbacks coach at James Madison, veteran quarterback Cole Johnson led the Dukes to the semifinals of the Division I-AA playoffs.
A 12 months later, Sunseri labored with Todd Centeio, a switch from Colorado State who led James Madison to the Solar Belt Convention’s East Division title. In 2023, Sunseri and Jordan McCloud, a switch from Arizona, helped the Dukes notch one other division title.
Final season may need been Sunseri’s most spectacular working with a beginner quarterback. Kurtis Rourke, a switch from Ohio, led Indiana to a historic season that included an 11-2 report and look within the School Soccer Playoff.
Sunseri’s first impressions of Iamaleava align with the type of quick success he’s loved with different quarterbacks.
“He’s a self-driven person,” Sunseri mentioned. “He has a certain standard of how he wants to be able to operate each day. And the great thing about my past is I’ve been around a lot of guys that have the same kind of feel and thought process.
“So the only thing you’ve got to do with these guys is you’ve got to be able to give them the information, and you’ve got to keep being able to stimulate them to be able to make sure that every single day, there’s something that they’re being able to attack and chase, and there’s not one day that he hasn’t come in here that he’s not focused on being able to become the best player that he can be for UCLA.”
Within the restricted media viewing interval Saturday, Iamaleava had extra success on the bottom than via the air, faking a handoff and slicing to his proper for a landing run. The one cross he threw, supposed for Ezavier Staples, was damaged up by defensive again Jamir Benjamin in the long run zone.
Iamaleava has impressed Sunseri with a relentless method — at any time when he’s not practising or figuring out, he’s finding out the offense.
“It’s infectious to him; he can’t get enough of it,” Sunseri mentioned. “And when you have those kind of guys, you can start to be able to see how they can be able to develop, and now you can be able to start to be able to formulate a mindset and starting to be able to see where they think, how they think and start to be able to have it to where you can really understand how to coach them.”
Having such a condensed window to work with Iamaleava earlier than the season opener in opposition to Utah on Aug. 30 on the Rose Bowl isn’t a priority to Sunseri.
“It’s not about us being able to install the offense,” Sunseri mentioned, “it’s about being able to make sure that it’s not too much too fast to where he can be able to grasp it, because we’re not playing next week, we’re playing in three weeks — it’s still a ton of time for us to be able to utilize.”
These questioning what UCLA’s offense will appear like may need to attend till the season opener as a result of Sunseri isn’t divulging a lot moreover its objective to stretch a protection in order that it should account for “every single blade of grass.” Sunseri did counsel that there shall be an ample quantity of working the soccer.
“Let me say this: We’re gonna be a physical football team,” mentioned Sunseri, whose first teaching stops got here as a top quality management coach at Florida State and Tennessee and a graduate assistant at Alabama. “It’s where I’ve always been raised, coming from the SEC, you’ve got to run that ball, and me being a Nick Saban disciple, that’s just my thought process, right?”
A speedy duo
UCLA working again Jaivian Thomas carries the ball throughout preseason coaching in Costa Mesa on Friday.
(Nate Donlevy / UCLA Athletics)
Jaivian Thomas, the switch working again from California, is so quick that his father known as him “The Jet” rising up.
Throughout casual sprints together with his new staff, Thomas mentioned fellow working again Anthony Woods stayed with him step for step.
So does that make this a twin-jet offense?
“Ant got gas,” Thomas mentioned of his teammate, “but I feel like I’m the fastest in the room.”
The hope is that alongside returners Jalen Berger and Anthony Frias II, the Bruins can unfold their carries and put on down defenses. Whereas Thomas and Woods are the speedsters of the group, Berger and Frias would possibly function barely extra energy to their dashing types.
Berger mentioned he had totally recovered from the sprained ankle he suffered in opposition to Iowa final season that hindered him over the season’s remaining 4 video games. Thomas was the Golden Bears’ main rusher final season, averaging 6.3 yards per carry whereas gaining 644 yards and scoring seven touchdowns.
Coach DeShaun Foster known as Thomas a menace to attain each time he touched the ball. If all goes as deliberate, a number of working backs will cross the objective line whereas difficult defenses.
“It allows those guys to be able to stay fresh, and as those defenses align, they’re playing 40, 50, 60 snaps in the game, and you’re getting to the fourth quarter, those guys are a little worn out,” Sunseri mentioned of taking part in a bevy of working backs. “So then whenever you put a guy in with fresh tires, then he could be able to have it to where he’s running through a couple of those tackles, maybe he’s able to continue to be able to play at a different speed than those [defensive] guys in the game.”
