Rico Flores Jr. sprinted as hard as he could across Drake Stadium’s grass surface. The burst the wide receiver showed in the mid-August practices was reminiscent of the ability that made him one of the top transfers in UCLA’s 2024 class.

The Northern California native was just happy to be back. His effort – not as if his teammates weren’t sprinting full effort too – appeared as a man on a mission, trying to flex that he was ready to return to his coaches and training staff as the season got underway.

“Every time I got the opportunity to go show myself, I try to go full tilt or close to it,” Flores, who returned from a torn ACL on Saturday against Northwestern, said of those sprints Tuesday. “When I got those opportunities, I took full advantage of it.”

Flores, who missed the final eight

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