FanPost

Bruins Ready for Trojans, Hundley to add to UCLA Legacy

This weekend, the nation’s attention will shift out west to the PAC 12 as the conference schedule features a slew of big matches involving ranked teams. For example, the no. 2-ranked Oregon Ducks face a tricky visit from an improved Colorado team and Rich Rodriguez’s Arizona Wildcats could remain in the hunt with a win at Utah against the no. 23-ranked Utes. However, the conference’s most anticipated game this Saturday features two longstanding rivals with drastically different possibilities for the end of the season, including one with an outside shot at a place in the playoff. I’m of course talking about UCLA vs. USC at the Rose Bowl, and boy what a game it looks to be.

Brett Hundley

Brett Hundley

The Trojans enter the game unranked, and have had a mixed first season under new head coach Steve Sarkisian. With wins over (then-ranked) Stanford and Arizona combined with losses at Boston College and Utah, the jury is still out on Sarkisian despite inheriting a roster with serious NFL-caliber talent on both sides of the ball. UCLA, on the other hand, has been given life after Arizona State’s loss last weekend. A season that began with outside hopes of a playoff spot is still alive, and the Bruins are currently in control of their own destiny. Three straight wins, starting with the Trojans on Saturday, would make UCLA the Pac-12 champion and, given the current landscape of college football, a two-loss PAC 12 Champion cannot be counted out of the committee’s mind for a spot in the final four. In order to run the table and win the conference championship though, the Bruins will need a big month from their star-QB and future first round draft pick, Brett Hundley, a player with the opportunity to finish the season and cement his legacy as arguably the school’s greatest quarterback.

Hundley, a redshirt junior, rose to prominence back in the fall of 2012 in his first season as the team’s starting quarterback. With memorable moments like the 72-yard scramble on his first collegiate play from scrimmage, and the five touchdown performance against then-no.16 Nebraska, the Arizona native quickly announced his presence in Westwood and immediately started rewriting the record books, beginning with the single-season passing yards record he set in his first season. After the team’s 9-5 campaign in Hundley’s redshirt freshman year, both he and the team improved as the Bruins finished with a 10-3 record and Hundley’s completion percentage, yards-per-throw, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and overall passer rating all went up.

That sophomore season thrust the two-year starter into the NFL Draft discussion, and Hundley was viewed as a firm mid to late-first round draft choice, with NFL scouts keenly interested in the quarterback’s ability as a dual-threat in the pocket and running the football. However, Hundley resisted the NFL’s siren song and surprised many by returning to Westwood for his third season to play for Coach Mora on a team that many believed capable of challenging Oregon and Stanford for conference supremacy.

Hundley’s decision to forego the guaranteed riches of an NFL contract for another year of college football was a calculated risk and in order to make it worthwhile, the UCLA quarterback would need to improve as a pocket passer in order to show scouts that he could succeed at the next level without having to rely on his feet. To help aide his development, Hundley sought out noted "quarterback guru" Steve Clarkson, a former college quarterback at San Jose State that had become well known throughout all levels of the game for his work with numerous NFL quarterbacks such as Ben Roethlisberger, Jake Locker, EJ Manuel, Teddy Bridgewater, and Nick Foles, to name just a few and even profiled on 60 minutes for his instruction to many talented signal callers

The work with Clarkson has apparently paid off as Hundley has led the Bruins to an 8-2 record and the doorstep of the PAC 12 Championship. Through ten games this season the quarterback has completed over 72% of his passes, the highest of his college career, and has thrown just four interceptions, also a career low, for a season passer rating of 158. Hundley has also shown a willingness to hang in the pocket longer this season while maintaining his game-breaking ability on the ground, amassing over 500 yards and 7 touchdowns already this season - a pace that would see him also set respective career highs at the end of the season.

Most importantly though, a win this weekend would make Hundley the rare starting UCLA quarterback to finish his career undefeated against USC – the only other being Cade Mcnown, and solidify his status as one of the finest quarterbacks in the program’s storied history. After that ugly loss to Oregon, Hundley has the Bruins peaking at the right time and, despite USC’s talented roster, Sarkisian has failed to inspire in his first season back at Southern California. All in all, winning a rivalry game is never easy, but the Bruins look poised to do so this weekend, giving fans around the country another weekend to dream about the possibility of a PAC 12 championship in Westwood and a shot at the playoff.


This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

Trending Discussions