The Maturity of Kevin Prince

WWL's Ted Miller also hopped on the Kevin Prince for starter bandwagon couple of days ago. His post on the Pac-10 blog has the usual information about Prince skipping his LDS mission and waiting in the wings for his chance to compete for the starting job this spring. However, there were some quotes from Prince that I thought were interesting. Prince for his part is candid about how he wouldn't have been ready if he was pressed into action during last season:

Ask him if he thought he could have been the solution and the redshirt freshman bluntly says... probably not.

"I was kind of overwhelmed by the system and everything I had to know and I hadn't played football for a while because of my [knee injury suffered his senior year of high school]," he said. "I don't know if I would have been ready last year, to tell you the truth."

Prince sounds measured and thoughtful beyond his years. He, in fact, sounds like a coach at times.

Prince also is not getting complacent despite his early success (not counting the scrimmage) at practice field this spring:

Prince isn't taking anything for granted, but, yes, he has noticed a firm pecking order with him ahead of true freshman Richard Brehaut and returning starter Kevin Craft.

"I've been taking the first-team reps and I feel like I've done a pretty good job so far," he said "Obviously, there's so much more to work on, so much to get better at. I'd like to think that I'm leading but you can never be complacent. That's another thing [offensive coordinator Norm Chow] talks about."

It certainly seems like a solid chemistry is developing between Chow and the new Bruin QB:

Chow's Yoda-like reputation obviously has Prince's complete attention. Chow has built successful offenses based on superior quarterback play at every coaching stop -- other than, perhaps, the Tennessee Titans -- so Prince seems eager learn from the Jedi Master.

"He's easy to talk to about anything and he's very wise," Prince said. "Whenever he says something, you know it's going to be useful. On the field, he's a great teacher. He gets intense, which is kind of funny because you wouldn't expect it when you talk to him off the field because he's so mellow. I like working with him because he's done this so many times that he knows everything you are going through."

Well I am sure Chow and Prince have been talking a lot since Friday's scrimmage during which Prince along with rest of the offense struggled against Brian Price led Bruin defense. It should be interesting to see how the Prince and the offense responds this week. and during the final scrimmage this Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

GO BRUINS.