UCLA FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: CRUCIAL WEEKEND ARRIVES.

Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer

One of UCLA's biggest weekends of the year begins today when approximately 20 recruits, including four of the biggest non-committed players on the Southern California prep scene, will flock to Westwood for official visits.

Colton linebacker Allen Bradford, Long Beach Poly receiver Terrence Austin, Norco tailback Toby Gerhart and Crenshaw defensive back Darian Hagan Jr. each have official visits scheduled.

This is UCLA's first, and biggest, recruiting weekend of the year, and is the first time in coach Karl Dorrell's three years no official visits were scheduled during the season.

``We set up everything for this weekend because finals are getting over, so the (current) players will be relieved of that and won't have the stress of working on papers over the weekend,'' said Dorrell, who cannot comment on individual recruits. ``It works better (to visit after the season), at least for now. That's something we're going to continue to think about, but we like it when we get to spend a great deal of attention with them and really show them a great experience for 48 hours.''

The timing of the recruiting weekend has its strategy as well.

UCLA begins preparations Saturday for the Dec. 30 Sun Bowl against Northwestern, giving the recruits a chance to watch practice.

Also, the visits end Sunday, a day before an NCAA-mandated dead period begins. The period runs through Jan. 1, and during that time face-to-face contact cannot be made between recruits and coaches. Only one phone call a week can be made from a program to a recruit.

The other non-committed players UCLA is hosting are junior college offensive lineman Nick Ekbatani (Los Angeles Harbor), offensive lineman Micah Kia (Mililani, Hawaii), tailback Mossis Madu (Norman, Okl.) and tailback Tracy Slocum (Clovis East).

UCLA will also have about a dozen of their 19 committed recruits on campus, including Westlake High defensive end Jeff Miller.

--Kicking competition: With placekicker Justin Medlock suspended because of an arrest for DUI, Dorrell confirmed the competition is between freshman walk-ons Brian Malette and Jimmy Rotstein.

Both players were kicking this week during informal workouts. Malette, who kicked at Valencia High, has the stronger leg, but Rotstein looked to have more consistency earlier in the week.

Malette was 6 for 9 on field-goal attempts last season, including a long of 53 yards, and made all 63 of his extra-point attempts. Rotstein, who played last season at the Brentwood School, was 7 of 15 on field-goal attempts, with a long of 49 yards.

Brian Dohn, [phone]

brian.dohn(at)dailynews.com