Ryan Gunderson<\/strong> was effusive in his praise of Thompson-Robinson as they got used to each other during the Spring. \u201cWe\u2019ve had an awesome experience so far,\u201d Gunderson earlier this Spring. \u201cI\u2019m not na\u00efve enough to think it\u2019s just always going to be like that. There\u2019s no real bullets flying yet. Stuff\u2019s going to get real here in the Fall.\u201d<\/p>\nGunderson said there have been no real fixes needed for Thompson-Robinson on the physical part of the game. \u201cI\u2019m trying to coach the decision making,\u201d Gunderson said. \u201cWhen we call the right play, against the right coverage, let\u2019s make sure that we\u2019re doing this thing exactly right, putting this team in the best situation possible to move the ball down the field and score points. It\u2019s been good, and it\u2019s gotten better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Film Room<\/h3>\n
For his part, Thompson-Robinson said last week that the turnovers that have been a part of his storyline for three years, are going be fixed by the mental part of the game that he and Gunderson are working on. \u201cYou always want to cut down on the turnovers. And that comes with decision making as well as accuracy and all those different things. That all comes through decision making,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The biggest part of that decision making improvement has come off the field, and in the film room, according to Thompson-Robinson. \u201cBeing up there with Coach Gundy as well as also encouraging the younger guys, the other quarterbacks to get up there too. It\u2019s really elevated my game. When you teach somebody, it helps you understand it a lot more,\u201d Thompson-Robinson said. \u201cReally getting into the film, really getting on the board and writing stuff up, drawing stuff up and working with Coach Gundy has helped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seeing The End Game<\/h3>\n
Gunderson says he sees this routinely. Players who are closer to the end of their college careers than they are the beginning start to grasp the task at hand with a clearer vision. \u201cOnce you get older, you start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It becomes more real, \u201c Gunderson said. \u201cThey are a lot more accepting of the hard coaching. He\u2019s there for sure. I\u2019ve been just really happy with the way we\u2019ve worked. He wants a ton of information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson-Robinson is fully aware of the calendar with regards to his college career. \u201cThis is going on my fourth year. Time is passing by and stuff like that. So you know I figure I have to enjoy it,\u201d he said. \u201cJust take it every day, day-by-day, and making sure I enjoy every part of it and every moment of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he has made the improvements to the mental part of his game that Gunderson says he has, Thompson-Robinson figures to have more celebrations to come this Fall.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Feature photo courtesy Full Image 360 Photography<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Dorian Thompson-Robinson goes so goes the 2021 UCLA football season. That sounds like a lot for one player to carry on his shoulders. Especially considering the Bruins are returning 20 of 22 starters on both sides of the ball. But for all of the experience they bring into the season, it only works if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":36195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[2539,7570,7614,208],"class_list":["post-36192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-pac12","tag-chip-kelly","tag-ryan-gunderson","tag-spring-football-2021","tag-ucla-bruins"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}