"I've also heard UCLA might start to recruit me and that was my favorite school growing up, but I haven't heard anything from them just yet." - Tyler Bray (circa August '09)*
For those of you who don't know, Tyler Bray, now a freshman in college, just took over the starting QB job at Tennessee last week. In two varsity starts, Bray has thrown for a total of 648 yards, 8 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Thus far in his young career, Bray has thrown 114 passes. Here's how he stacks up to recent Bruin QBs through 114 attempts:
CMP | ATT | YDS | TD | INT | |
Bray | 62 | 114 | 951 | 10 | 3 |
Brehaut | 66 | 114 | 763 | 2 | 4 |
Olson | 74 | 114 | 739 | 5 | 5 |
Cowan | 63 | 114 | 687 | 4 | 3 |
Prince | 61 | 114 | 637 | 2 | 4 |
Craft | 63 | 114 | 570 | 1 | 5 |
Now I'm not saying that Tyler Bray is the next Payton Manning. Nor am I saying that missing out on him is in any way as egregious an oversight as our failure to recruit Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant when they wanted to play basketball at UCLA. However, I would like to know how a top prospect that wants to come to UCLA doesn't even merit an offer.
I understand that neither our scholarships nor our recruiting resources are unlimited but in situations like this, I feel that someone dropped the ball. This seems like the type of slam dunk that recruiters dream about.
* The quote was originally from an ESPN blog but I actually read it in a small town newspaper that my dad had kept. Bray is from the same tiny (pop 10,000) Central California town that my folks live in. Fun fact, Bray may end up being the second most famous athlete from Kingsburg, CA, behind former Bruin Olympic champ Rafer Johnson.