With additional reporting by George Laase.
The UCLA football team is returning nine offensive starters, eight on defense and three special team players. They include Paul Perkins, the Pac-12’s leading rusher in 2014, center Jake Brendel, a four-year starter and three-year captain, linebackers Myles Jack and Deon Hollins, defensive tackle Eddie Vanderdoes, receivers Jordan Payton and Devin Fuller and kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn.
Unfortunately they don’t return an experienced quarterback.
Jerry Neuheisel, Mike Fafaul and freshmen sensation Josh Rosen will try to do just enough to keep the Bruins from losing games.
“Regarding the quarterback situation,” said Coach Jim Mora, “what gives me confidence is that we a have a veteran group to support our quarterbacks. “That gives me some margin of comfort.
“We have an experienced offensive line and we return the Pac-12’s leading rusher in Paul Perkins. We have a talented group of receivers returning. Whoever the quarterback is, he will be able to take advantage of the talented players around him.”
An area requiring improvement is game- breaking speed. There are two types of speed on the football field:
One is sideline to sideline football speed. The other is game-breaking speed.
UCLA has football sideline speed but they need to develop game-breakers. When your opponent scores a touchdown and you are down 14-0, nothing gets you back in the game quicker than a kickoff return for a touchdown. UCLA ranked last, 107th, in Division I college football, in the Pac-12 in kickoff returns last season.
Unless they recruited faster players or if defensive back Ishmael Adams has increased his speed from last year, UCLA must improve there if they expect to compete with elite teams.
“Our team speed has improved,” said Mora. “That’s something that we are always trying to improve on.”
While the Bruins are rated 14th in some national polls, veteran center Brendel said he doesn’t track the rankings.
“Everyone in the Pac-12 South Division has improved,” he said. “This is going to be a very competitive division. Our goal is to build on the success we had last season. If we do that we will be alright.”
UCLA was 10-3 a year ago, tied for third in the division with two other teams. Their three losses last year were to Utah, Oregon and Stanford. The good news is the Bruins do not play Oregon this year. The bad news is they travel to Stanford, Utah and USC.
Under new defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, the Bruins should be better in most of the defensive categories. “We have a lot of guys that complement each other,” said linebacker Hollins. “All we need to do is make plays that come to us. We have a blue collar mentality. We are just as strong as we were last year.”
UCLA opens the season on Saturday, Sept. 5, at home in the Rose Bowl against Virginia at 12:30. Last year the Bruins traveled to Virginia where they won a close game 28-20.
If the Bruins can find replacements for quarterback Brett Hundley, who accounted for over 4,000 yards of offense and Eric Kendricks, who won the Dick Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker last year, they may be able to surpass that 10-win season.
Mr. Finley may be contacted at sfinley50@aol.com
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com