With just a brief respite at the midseason mark, second-ranked Oregon is beginning its preparations for UCLA next Thursday night.

The Ducks practiced behind closed doors earlier this week before a couple of days off for their bye. They head back to practice as usual today.

Oregon jumped up a spot in the polls after former No. 1 Alabama lost last week. The upset moved Ohio State into the top spot and the Ducks moved to No. 2 ahead of Boise State.

Coach Chip Kelly kept the first couple of practices private — with no fans and no media — and did his best to take the spotlight off the Ducks, while fans excitedly anticipated the possibility of an upset when the Buckeyes face No. 18 Wisconsin this Saturday.

“We don’t look at this as a bye week, we look at this as an improvement week,” Kelly said about what his sheltered team was doing. “We’re just stressing fundamentals, because fundamentals is what wins for you. Blocking, tackling, ball security are huge priorities for us this week.”

Oregon (6-0, 3-0 Pac-10), with its blurringly fast spread-option offense, is led by sophomore quarterback Darron Thomas and running back LaMichael James, a fellow sophomore who is rising up the Heisman hopeful list.

In five games this season, James has rushed for 893 yards and nine touchdowns. He ran for 136 yards and two scores and also caught a TD pass in Oregon’s 43-23 victory over Washington State last weekend.

Thomas, who has thrown for 1,231 yards with 14 touchdowns through six games, hurt his shoulder against the Cougars and his status for the UCLA game has not been released by Kelly.

Similarly, there is little known about the condition of running back and return specialist Kenjon Barner, who sustained a concussion at Washington State.

UCLA (3-3, 1-2) is more of a mystery with an upset victory over then-No. 7 Texas earlier this season but a 35-7 loss last weekend at California. The Bruins also have an open date this weekend.

On Tuesday, the Bruins suspended receiver Josh Smith and F-back Morrell Presley for the Oregon game for violating team rules. UCLA would not release more details, citing student privacy.

Smith is the Bruins’ top kick returner, averaging 27.4 yards on 14 kickoff returns. The junior transfer student from Colorado also caught three passes and rushed for 74 yards in UCLA’s first six games. Presley, whose position is a combination of fullback and tight end, was suspended for a game last season for another undisclosed violation of team rules.

Earlier this week, Kelly pointed to a 24-10 victory over UCLA as one of last season’s highlights.

“I believed that because of how banged up we were going into that game, and how injured our guys were that week in practice, that arguably was our best football game as a team last year,” the coach said. “Now, I know the fans don’t think that, but I know as a coaching staff we believe that, and I know our players believed that.”