You want to know how Florida senior offensive lineman Mike Pouncey felt at the Gators' first session of spring practice Wednesday? Try leaving home without your right arm. For the first time in the 20-year-old's life, Pouncey walked onto a football field without his twin brother. Maurkice Pouncey, the 2009 Rimington Trophy-winning center, came out for the NFL draft.

Cliff Welch/Icon SMIMike Pouncey won't have his brother to lean on in 2010.

"We never missed a game since we started playing football together," Mike said.

How old were you?

"Six," he said.

Mike played guard next to Maurkice for the last two seasons. Mike had been projected as a second- or third-round pick in the draft. Maurkice is expected to go late in the first round. Maurkice wanted Mike to come out. Mike talked it over with his family. Offensive line coach Steve Addazio suggested that if Mike replaced Maurkice at center, his versatility would increase his value in the 2011 draft.

"I thought it over and over every day," Mike said. "I just finally came to the decision I was going to come back to school to improve my draft stock and graduate. I'll be the first one in my family to graduate."

Not everyone in the family celebrated the decision. Maurkice, for instance.

"He was mad when I told him I was coming back, but I told him it was for the better," Mike said.

The Pouncey twins have never been apart for more than a week. This is the first major decision they haven't agreed upon. But there's one other reason Mike wanted to stay. If he had come out this season, he said, "we'd have to go in different rounds, though. I couldn't live with that. If he goes in the first this year, I got to go in the first next year."

As spring practice begins, Mike will no longer turn to his left and see his brother's No. 56. When he looks behind him, he will no longer see Tim Tebow's No. 15.

Asked about that, Mike laughed.

"When I look across the ball, I won't see 51," Mike Pouncey said, referring to All-America linebacker Brandon Spikes. "That's a good thing."

UCLA, for the first time in coach Rick Neuheisel's three springs, has even a modicum of experience on offense. Four starters return on the line to protect redshirt sophomore quarterback Kevin Prince. The most interesting question on the offense won't be answered until August, when the Bruins will find out how much help they will get from running back Malcolm Jones, the Gatorade National Player of the Year at Oaks Christian High in Westlake Village, Calif.

No, there's more interest this spring in the UCLA defense, which created 30 turnovers a year ago. The Bruins must replace All-Americans at tackle (Brian Price) and corner (Alterraun Verner). Price made 23.5 stops behind the line. Verner intercepted five passes, half of those made by the national leader, free safety Rahim Moore. But keep in mind that most quarterbacks never even looked at Verner's side of the field.

There is an urgency because the UCLA schedule demands an effective pass defense in the first month of the season. On consecutive Saturdays in September, the Bruins will have to stop Andrew Luck of Stanford and Case Keenum of Houston, followed by a trip to play Texas, the national runner-up last season.

The ascent of Texas sophomore Garrett Gilbert to the starting quarterback job ends a streak nearly a half-century in length. Gilbert grew up in Lake Travis, an Austin suburb. The last hometown quarterback to lead the Longhorns offense for an entire season is Mike Cotten, who played from 1959 to '61. If that doesn't sound like a long time ago, consider this: Cotten turned 70 in December.

Austin has produced several good quarterbacks in recent years, including Todd Reesing, who led Kansas to a 12-1 record in 2007. Adam Hall signed with Texas in 1999 before transferring to San Diego State.

There's also a quarterback to whom Texas failed to offer a scholarship. He went to Purdue, led the Boilermakers to the Rose Bowl, and just got through winning the Super Bowl -- Drew Brees.

"Drew was gone [from Austin] before we got here," said Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis, who came in with head coach Mack Brown in 1998. "Let's get that straight."