UPDATED: Josh Rosen Likely Out for the Rest of the Season

As first reported by Tracy Pierson of Bruin Report Online this morning, sources inside the UCLA football program are indicating that Josh Rosen is most likely out for the season.

UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is more than likely out for the remainder of the season because of his shoulder injury, according to multiple sources.

Rosen suffered the injury toward the end of the Arizona State game Oct. 8th. Since then he's only had a very limited time in practice, including on Saturday when he strained to throw a few short passes.

Rosen experienced a severe shoulder sprain against ASU, which has resulted in some nerve damage in his shoulder.

Even before the loss of Rosen, the Bruins struggled mightily to run the football after switching to a more pro-style offense, lacking personnel and depth on the offensive line to pull off the transition from the uptempo spread they ran under Noel Mazzone.

With Rosen out for the last two games and part of the ASU game, UCLA has lost three straight with Mike Fafaul in the role of quarterback, who’s thrown eight interceptions as Rosen’s replacement in those games.

Here’s more about the injury from the BRO article, which is not behind a paywall:

The type of injury is a potentially serious one, with very little method to determine if the shoulder will regain healthy nerve activity and the time frame for recovery. Other quarterbacks who have had a similar injury to Rosen's have had a wide range of recovery results, with some returning within several weeks, and others being out for a more extended period. Some quarterbacks with a severe version of the injury have had to eventually undergo surgery for symptoms that arise from further complications, which could lead to a recovery of multiple months. It has also led ultimately to the end of some quarterbacks' careers.

Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports added:

Whether he needs surgery or not will likely be determined on Thursday when he gets an MRI and further evaluation.

Pre-season, many Bruin fans and writers here and elsewhere had two big points of worry heading into September: Did the Bruins have the right guys on the OL, especially in the interior, to switch to a power running centric pro-style offense? And what about depth at QB if Rosen got hurt?

The first may have lead to the other, as the line not only couldn’t open holes for the talented squadron of backs in the backfield, but couldn’t protect their quarterback.

The doomsday scenario is now in full effect as November begins, and UCLA is 3-5, 1-4 in Pac-12 play.

UCLA's 2016, man pic.twitter.com/SQVE6t8ren

— BUFFALO CHILL CODY (@edsbs) November 1, 2016

A lost season.

UPDATE:

On the Pac-12 Conference call (pun intended) on Tuesday afternoon, Mora denied the reports that Josh Rosen is out for the season. He also reversed course on what exactly the injury is, saying "There is no nerve damage to his shoulder."

He went on:

“I’m not a doctor, so when I’m asked a medical question I do the best I can to answer it,” Mora added. “But I didn’t go to medical school, believe it or not. I don’t have my doctorate, believe it or not. I didn’t go to UCLA medical school, believe it or not. So when I do give an answer regarding an injury, I’m not sure that it’s always going to be the correct verbiage.”

Make sense of that what you will.

Mora has been upfront about season-ending injuries to star players in the past, like losing Myles Jack before conference play in 2015. Still, I'm not expecting to see Rosen back at any point this season.

GO BRUINS.