Prince to Enroll Early?

by BruinFanBaby on May 9, 2008 9:45 AM PDT

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Jill Painter of the Daily News is reporting that incoming QB Kevin Prince has told CRN that he plans to enroll at UCLA early, if there are enough scholarships available. From the Daily News:

Prince, recovering from reconstructive knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament, said he could start taking classes in June, but UCLA needs to check its scholarship situation to make sure one is available.

"That's definitely what I want to do now," Prince said. "I don't want to wait anymore. Whether I do (enroll early) or not, I'm preparing to. I talked to coach Neuheisel about it. He was the one who brought it up. He just wants to make sure they have the right amount of scholarships."

Football programs are allowed a maximum of 85 scholarships, and it's unclear how many UCLA still has available. A UCLA official said the school is not over the maximum 25 new scholarships per year.

The school is in the process of figuring out its scholarship allotment for next season. It reportedly offered a junior college offensive lineman a scholarship.

Considering that Cowan will be out for the year and that we don't know how Olson will recover from surgery, I'd say this is a good idea. Prince was slated to enroll in 2009, but I think he'll get a lot out of competing with Crissman, Craft and Rashaan and learning the system from Coach Chow right now.

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Agree, but more importantly...

...notice how it said “reportedly offered a junior college offensive lineman a scholarship.” I think that is the bigger news. It’s good to see CRN & Co. are addressing a major depth issue at OL by going out and finding guys who can, hopefully, contribute immediately.

Sure, Prince enrolling early is all well and good, but I don’t think it’ll impact the QB situation in the immediate future, whereas a JC OL might come in and compete right away.

by norcald503 on May 9, 2008 10:43 AM PDT reply reply 0 recs

I'm not going to get excited

about offering a JC lineman. KD and staff brought in plenty of linemen, they just weren’t very good. Now CRN is no KD, but his recruiting skills and talent evaluation skills haven’t really been put to the test as a Bruin yet so I’m going to wait and see who they bring in before I get excited.

by ryebreadraz on May 9, 2008 11:55 AM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

I'm not getting too excited either, but...

...I’m glad CRN is going after a problem area for our team this year. Bringing in top HS OL over the next few years is the only way to long-term fix our OL depth issues, but I like that CRN is rolling the dice and looking to bring in someone who, might (and it’s a big might), immediately contribute.

Moreover, with Palcic on board, if the JC OL we bring in is half-decent, Palcic will maximize the guy’s potential, I think. I think the problem with a lot of the KD OL guys is that they are just geared for a fundamentally different blocking system, a system, I believe, got exposed the last couple of years.

Either way, I think we both agree that Prince enrolling early would be nice, but the real area we need help isn’t QB, but the OL. Olson will be back and if anyone can make Craft, Forcier, and OR ready, it’s CRN and Chow.

by norcald503 on May 9, 2008 2:23 PM PDT reply reply 0 recs

There was a post

from Painter a few days ago on the lineman: http://www.insidesocal.com/ucla/2008/05/jc-olineman-gets-offer-from.html#comments

Offensive lineman Donovan Edwards (6-foot-5, 285 pounds) of Diablo Valley CC said today that he was offered a scholarship by UCLA. Edwards said he’ll go on his recruiting trip to UCLA this weekend. UCLA is the first school to offer him a scholarship, Edwards said.

I’m not too encouraged by that last sentence there.

by BruinFanBaby on May 9, 2008 3:27 PM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

Yikes

Well, you’re right, that last sentence is certainly not encouraging at all. But he does have decent size (285 isn’t great, but it’ll do), so hopefully Palcic & Co. can whip this guy into shape quick.

Then again, CRN was a walk-on. That turned out okay for us.

by norcald503 on May 9, 2008 5:24 PM PDT up reply reply 0 recs