Here are some of the highlights of Steve Sarkisian's Monday press conference:

Did Jake Locker practice Sunday?: Jake did. He was limited. But he did practice yesterday. He's going to be a day-to-day guy. We're not going to force him back on the field if he's not healthy and ready to go. I would anticipate that he would be, but it remains day to day. We'll see how he can come back from it, a light workout last night, and then how he can come back from today. And then, obviously, we'll have to assess it day in and day out as we keep moving forward.

What do you need to see from him for him to play?: Well, just a mobility standpoint. I don't want to put a guy out there that can't move, that is just a sitting target to get hit. So we'll assess him daily. I think it's getting healthy by the day. But with that comes the workload of: do you work him and then it's one hit and then he's back out? Is it one strain and it hurts him again? So we've got to be cognizant of that. If all of a sudden he takes one hit in the first quarter and he's out, so we've got to be smart of what we're doing rep-wise to get Ronnie (Fouch) prepared as well.

Is it a deep thigh bruise?: That's what it is. Those things are nasty. They get in there, and I believe that's why they call it a deep thigh bruise. They're deep in there. Once the bruising is there, then the swelling begins throughout the leg, then the bleeding. They're nasty. They're tough. They're obviously a little bit more common with running backs, wide receivers; those are the guys that get them. But he's got it this week.

How much does Locker need to practice to play in the game?: I think it would be difficult for him not to practice to be fine in a game. We need to be smart with this, to get him the reps to assess where he is but not try to kill him Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so that we can get to the game. So we'll be smart with how we monitor him and the number of reps that he gets. But also, we need to challenge him in such a way that we can assess where he is physically.

How would you feel about Ronnie Fouch starting?: I feel fine. I think the way this game plan is set up, I think Ronnie could go in and perform very well.

How does it change the game plan if Locker is limited?: Well, you just can't have the quarterback run. That really limits what you're doing. It really limits some of the zone read stuff, although Ronnie is capable of doing it. It limits it in terms of what you do with the ball in the quarterback's hands to really run with the football. It would be foolish of us to have a bunch of plays where we've got quarterback runs called for Jake or for Ronnie if it's an injured Jake, and Ronnie, that's not his strength. So we'll just have to do it accordingly.

Would you use Keith Price if you had to? : I'd love to redshirt Keith. But if we've got to win the game, we've got to win the game. If it got to a point where neither of those guys could play, we'd play Keith.

Can you describe the nature of Locker's deep thigh bruise: The bruising sets in, the swelling sets in and the bleeding sets in in the leg. But if you ask him five minutes from now, he's going to tell you that he's playing. But the thing that concerns me about it is the overall swelling of it. It's not just where the impact of the hit occurred, as that thing drains in the leg swelling can occur. So we have to watch it closely.

On who else is hurting for UCLA: "E.J. is very doubtful. He had hand surgery on his hand again. I'd be surprised if he could go Saturday, but I've seen stranger things. We'll assess him as the days go by, but he's very doubtful. The rest of our guys are good. We're still fighting a little bit of the flu bug - it kind of hits one guy a day it feels like - but we seem to be rebounding better and better from the sickness stuff. Everrette Thompson last night missed practice because of flu-like symptoms but we're expecting him back today.''

On Jason Wells and what he can do:" I think he can contribute. To what degree and how much, that remains to be seen. But I think he'll contribute on Saturday.''

Any chance Savannah's injury is season-ending? "No. I think he'll be back. When you have surgery to repair broken bones, he can play with a cast. It's just a matter of how sore that thing really is from a threshold standpoint. He's a very tough kid and he's been through a lot of the physical pain from that thing already this year, so that's why I don't count anything out. But realistically-speaking, it would probably be advantageous for him to not go this week and then be able to go versus Oregon State.''

On Cameron Elisara and his stinger: "I think he'll be OK. That thing really subsided. We took all the hits off of him last week, so he feels good.''

On what the coaches discovered during the self-scout last week: "I think some of the things we discovered were 1) our efficiency in the red zone's got to be better. That's been an underlying theme in the games where we haven't performed the way we would have liked to. You look at the LSU game and the fumble on the 3-yard line going in. You look at the Stanford game and the pick basically on the goal-line the first drive of the game. You look at the Notre Dame game and obviously our inefficiencies there inside the 5-yard line. You look at the Oregon game and what we weren't able to get accomplished in that game. You look at the Arizona State game and the interception in the end zone...so to me, that's the one big underlying theme to all this: Our efficiency in the red zone, our ability to score touchdowns but also to eliminate turnovers when we're down there, has got to improve.''

Any young guys stand out during practice last week you want to get in the action now?; "Hopefully we can get Jordan Wallace going. I thought he had a nice week last week. Boyles is an obvious one. i think you're going to see more of Demetrius Bronson as we keep going. i think you're going to see Johri Fogerson get back into the fold, a guy we need to get going. i think you're going to see Dorson Boyce more at tight end. and i think you'll see more of our young defensive ends Talia Critchton and Andru Pulu, I think those are two guys that are going to show up.''