From Rivals To Best Friends, Fauria and Prince

Hope Fauria (no.8) Returns to practice soon. Photo Credit: Erkki Corpuz

An interesting piece from UCLA Magazine takes a look at Joseph Fauria, the tight end transfer from Notre Dame who has emerged as one of Kevin Prince's favorite targets over the offseason. Fauria and Prince are best friends, a friendship that goes back to high school, when Prince was slinging them over to Fauria in the same manner we hope to see them do for the Bruins this season.

"We just know how each other likes to play," explains Prince. Fauria says of his once and current field general, "he knew that wherever he threw the ball — and I say wherever he threw the ball — I was going to catch it."

The big and tall Fauria is being pegged as the catch 'em all guy over the middle, but when he started at Crespi High School, he actually went out as a quarterback only to be beat out by his current QB, Prince.

The best friends actually started off as rivals. "Kevin and I came in as freshmen at Crespi and we both competed at quarterback; he obviously beat me out," Fauria says, tongue firmly in cheek. "I'm still a little sour about that."

"He loves to tell that story," Prince adds with mock pity, recalling a then-gangly 6'4" competitor who the Crespi coaches shifted to tight end.

I'm pretty sure the Crespi coaches made the right decision to go with KP under center and Fauria doing pretty damn well at tight end too. I recommend you check out the whole piece because it has some interesting tidbits on the route each took to UCLA, their difference and similarities and even a quote from KP about the pistol.