While UCLA may have only lost six starters from last year’s 10-3 roster, (five to graduation/early departure and one to transfer), the holes the Bruins are working to fill this spring are sizable.
Head coach Jim Mora is having to fill the voids on defense left by the graduation of defensive back Anthony Jefferson, linebacker Eric Kendricks and defensive lineman Owa Odighizuwa and the early departure of defensive lineman Ellis McCarthy. On offense, starting wide receiver Devin Lucien will graduate this spring and then transfer to use his grad year exemption to play his final season elsewhere. Oh yeah, and then there is that little situation at quarterback where four contenders are fighting to replace Brett Hundley, who leaves after his redshirt junior season, owning or sharing nearly every UCLA record at the position.
Even with Jefferson gone, new defensive coordinator Tom Bradley has a defensive secondary that is highly experienced with the key being positional flexibility. UCLA returns starters Ishmael Adams, Fabian Moreau and Randall Goforth along with Jaleel Wadood who played in all 13 games last season. Marcus Rios played sparingly last year but is closer to his regular size and strength after beating a life-threatening illness prior to last season. The versatility of these five is such that UCLA does not worry about cornerback or safety designations and lists them all simply as defensive backs. To that, the Bruins added five more to the secondary on letter of intent day, giving them the luxury of redshirting at least a few of them for future depth purposes.
Replacing Kendricks at inside linebacker would usually be an impossible task. The Butkus Award winner led the country with 101 solo tackles. Fortunately for Bradley and the Bruins, true sophomores cannot declare for the NFL draft and so they are blessed with the return of phenom Myles Jack for his junior year. He will move from outside linebacker to the inside and with what he has shown in spring practice his athleticism means he will have no problem making the adjustment. The rest of the group looks very set with only a week left of spring workouts. Aaron Wallace and Kenny Young will play on the outside along with Deon Hollins. All three played in every game in 2014. Since the Bruins are still playing a 3-4 defense, Hollins will be the one counted on for versatility as a hybrid outside linebacker/defensive end.
Hollins being able to play upright as a linebacker or down as an end will be key as the Bruins don’t have tremendous depth on the defensive line, and with only one new signee, what we are seeing in spring is what they will have this season. McCarthy’s departure was a surprise to most after three underwhelming seasons. Odighizuwa became a major presence in the middle of the defensive line his senior season. Eddie Vanderdoes and Kenny Clark will anchor the line. Both were starters all of last season and have good spring sessions.
UCLA loses the one wide receiver in Lucien, but it is a position of tremendous depth. Devin Fuller, Jordan Payton and Mossi Johnson all return having started or played in all 13 games last season. So far this spring, Payton has looked to be the favorite target of the quarterback rotation, but there is also a wildcard in the mix. Redshirt freshman Jordan Lasley is showing the breakaway speed UCLA has been missing at the position for years. He is a legitimate deep threat, if he can keep from getting yanked for running his mouth too much. Wide receiver coach Eric Yarber has pulled Lasley off the field multiple times this spring for getting too chippy with teammates. UCLA signed elite high school receiver Cordell Broadus, so the competition at the position will step up this summer. The depth at wideout may also allow the Bruins to make some changes with regards to the tight end position. They have junior Thomas Duarte returning but while he appeared in 12 games last year they used him more as hybrid receiver/tight end. So far this spring, he has still played more wide reciever than a traditional tight end, but the Bruins also signed the second-ranked tight end in this year’s high school class in Chris Clark from Avon, Connecticut. At 6-6, 250 pounds, Clark will give UCLA many more options for the quarterbacks to work with.
Oh yeah: that little QB competition. When Hundley was a redshirt freshman, the Bruins had two signal callers (Richard Brehaut and Kevin Prince) with a wealth of experience. Still, there was little question that it would quickly become Hundley’s team to run. Hundley graduated after the winter quarter and now Mora is spending his spring days watching a competition among four players who have little to no experience.
Jerry Neuheisel came off the bench last season to pull out the win over Texas, but beyond that, the son of the former head coach has seen only mop-up duty in addition to being the holder for the placekickers. None the less, that makes him the candidate with the most college experience. The redshirt junior has had a very respectable spring thus far, clearly being able to run the offense, if lacking some of the physical tools of the other QBs. Asiantii Woulard came to UCLA from Florida three years ago with a lot of expectations, but because of that Hundley guy, he has yet to take a snap in a college game. Still, this spring he has shown good arm strength and the quickness to get to the outside. Redshirt junior Mike Fafaul took a few snaps two seasons ago and while he has been solid enough this spring, solid is not going to win this particular starting job.
That leaves the “anointed one,” true freshman Josh Rosen. He was the top quarterback recruit in the country and qualified to graduate from high school a semester early, so he has been at UCLA studying playbooks since January. He has not lived up to expectations for some, but that’s because the expectations from many watching spring practices are pretty unreasonable for a kid who otherwise would be getting ready for his high school prom right now. In reality, he has shown all of the physical tools that UCLA had hoped for. He has big time arm strength and enough mobility in the pocket to make him an outside threat. While he appears to have a firm grasp of the offense, the decision making against bigger, faster, stronger defenders still needs to improve. The biggest testament to his impact is that he missed Monday’s practice to attend a funeral and it was the most sluggish the offense the has looked all spring.
It would seem to those who have followed the workouts that the job is Rosen’s to lose. UCLA is not going to have a real spring scrimmage, opting instead for another practice, albeit in front of a bigger crowd at the Rose Bowl. So when will we know who wins the starting quarterback competition? Mora made it clear this week that if you want to know who the starter is, you will find out when he lines up behind center for the season opener against Virginia on September 5th and not a moment before.
Main Photo:
