UCLA’s Quarterback Depth Takes Another Hit: T.J. Millweard Transferring Out of Westwood

At the beginning of this summer Jim Mora's UCLA program took a huge hit on the recruiting trail when the Bruins lost a big QB recruiting battle to Texas A&M. Kyle Allen - a blue chip QB out of Scottsdale (Ariz.) Desert Mountain - Kyle Allen - surprised everyone in the industry by committing to Texas A&M even though many of us who follow the Bruin program closely thought that he'd come into Westwood.

UCLA's current QB depth chart is not all that great. Going into San Bernardino after Brett Hundley we had the following backup guys on our roster:

• Jerry Neuheisel (R.Fr.)
• Asiantii Woulard (Fr.)
• TJ Milweard (R.Fr.)
• Mike Fafaul (R.Fr.)
• Jake Hall(R.Fr.)
• Brendan Cross(Gr.) (graduate)

Well Falaful, Cross and Hall are all walk-ons. IIRC Cross was actually moved to Y position for few reps during camp. No one really knows what we have in Fafaul and Hall.  We certainly hope the Bruins are never in a position where we have to look at them as options for meaningful time in a football game.

Jerry Neuheisel is a greyshirt who perhaps can be serviceable as a backup. And now apparently we can cross Millweard from the backup-QB list (HT PipoBruin):

"I grew up in the Midwest and the South," said Millweard, who is from Colleyville,  Texas. "UCLA is a great school, but it is a different fit for who I am."

Millweard said he had considered transferring in the spring, but decided to give UCLA a chance after talking with Coach Jim Mora.

"He was great," Millweard said. "He tried to make it work this summer. But this was a different college experience than I wanted it to be."

We wish Millweard good luck.

But let's go back to the depth at QB - it's not looking very good for UCLA.

So going into this season - the guy we are going to be looking at as possible backup for Hundley is most likely Neuheisel. Imagine what would have happened if somehow UCLA didn't luck into someone like Woulard - who the Bruins signed in a last minute scramble during the closing weeks of the recruiting season.

In an ideal situation, a project like Woulard (despite his enormous potential) would go through a redshirt season so that he can get used to the pace of D-1 football in his first season. Yet, here we are - looking at the possibility of having to depend on a true freshman if something bad happens to Hundley.

Let's hope we don't have to worry about this during the upcoming season and only backup QB mintues we will see is Neuheisel being called into mop-up duties towards the end of the game. But right now recruiting QB should be one of top priorities for Mora. To date Noel Mazzone has not been as prolific on the recruiting trail as some of his colleagues in Mora's coaching staff.

Remember Brett Hundley is a Neuheisel recruit. Mazzone's main recruit to date was Millweard. Now he is gone. Bruins got Woulard because of stroke of luck. We lost out on Allen earlier this summer and we were left hanging after offering and then rescinding that offer from guys like Eddie Printz last year.

QB recruiting is not something Mora should mess around with. He should ask Bob Toledo about what transpired when he put all his eggs on one elite QB recruit's basket (J.P. Losman) in Cade's last two years at UCLA. While having a raw talent like Woulard on the roster is nice, it'd be dangerous if Mora and his staff do not bring in more viable options at QB this year to bolster the depth chart.

So it's imperative that Mora plays close attention to this situation and bring in a blue chip quarterback in this year's class, who will not shy away from competing against Woulard next season, and at the very least provided some much needed depth in what is shaping up to be a very precarious and uncomfortable situation at UCLA's quarterback depth chart.

GO BRUINS.