UCLA FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: STARTING TO FOCUS ON UTES.

Byline: RICH HAMMOND Staff Writer

With one week to go before the season opener against Utah, UCLA intensified its focus a bit in practice Saturday when it came to game planning for the offensive-minded Utes.

Afterward, coach Karl Dorrell expressed satisfaction with his team's effort in the past two days of practice but acknowledged that the Bruins face a strong challenge against the pass-happy Utah offense.

The Utes scored 38 or more points in five of their 12 games last season and averaged 473 yards per game.

``They are very, very efficient in what they do on the offensive side of the ball,'' Dorrell said of the Utes. ``It's going to be a challenge for our defense but we got some good work in on that today.''

Game tape will only help the Bruins so much. The Utes' game plan on offense hasn't changed significantly since coach Kyle Whittingham took over for Urban Meyer last season, but the Utes had a quarterback derby that didn't sort itself out until Wednesday, when Whittingham announced Brett Ratliff as his starter.

Ratliff, a senior, beat out Tommy Grady, a junior who transferred from Oklahoma. Ratliff took over last season for Brian Johnson, who suffered a knee injury in November, and Ratliff led the Utes to a regular-season ending victory over BYU and an Emerald Bowl victory over Georgia Tech.

Putting pressure on Ratliff will be key for UCLA in controlling Utah's spread offense, and to that end Dorrell said he has been pleased with what he's seen from his defense, particularly the depth of the front four, led by Brigham Harwell and Kevin Brown. Dorrell also praised sophomore Kenneth Lombard.

``I've mentioned many times before how much depth we have on defense,'' Dorrell said. ``In practice, we want our defense to be ahead of the offense at the start, but now our offense is catching up a bit.''

Winding down: After an intense 90-minute practice Saturday, the Bruins will get today off and then return for a regular full week of game preparation starting Monday.

``We had a physical camp,'' Dorrell said. ``Now it's time to get some rest and be ready to go again.''

Today's rest day should be a welcome one for the players. Dorrell acknowledged Saturday that this fall's practices have included more hitting than in previous years, designed to make the team sharper.

``Maybe we don't hit as long (every day), but in some form, we scrimmage every day,'' Dorrell said. ``We want to be able to perform under stress and these are all training mechanisms for us to improve.''

Wait and see: UCLA's two-deep position chart will be released Monday, likely with little drama, other than to see who will return kickoffs and punts. Dorrell wouldn't give any hints Saturday.

``It will be up in the air until Monday,'' Dorrell said.

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