UCLA sees Josh Rosen as a help, not a hindrance, to its long-term plans
TUCSON, Ariz. — After he’d knelt one final time, Josh Rosen handed the football to the referee — who turned around and handed it back. For just a moment, UCLA’s freshman quarterback hesitated, unsure what to do. But then he tossed a soft spiral to an equipment manager. And he headed downfield to join a surprisingly muted celebration.
It would be tempting to overcook the meaning of No. 11 UCLA 56, No. 16 Arizona 30. To rave about Rosen’s continued growth and the Bruins’ first-half blitzing of the Wildcats, which extinguished any real hopes of an upset, and to extrapolate from the results to find a sure-fire College Football Playoff contender.
It wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. The Bruins overwhelmed the Wildcats with six touchdowns in seven first-half possessions. They were helped by three turnovers, and Arizona’s best chance to keep pace was lost early in the second quarter, when sophomore quarterback Anu Solomon left after taking a hit to the head. But led by Rosen, the Bruins were very, very good.
Still, it’s far too early to anoint UCLA — or anybody — in the Pac-12 South, which looks even more like a minefield after Saturday than it did going in. It wasn’t just UCLA making an emphatic statement. A little north, USC blew out Arizona State. Up in Eugene, Utah devastated Oregon. The Bruins play both of those teams on the road, in the final two weeks of the season — and that’s a long time from now, for everyone.
And while UCLA was dominant, coach Jim Mora found reason for discontent, starting with Arizona’s 353 rushing yards. Never mind the injuries, which have struck at every level of the defense. It didn’t matter that All-America linebacker Myles Jack’s knee injury this past week was a huge blow. Hey coach, how about that defense?
“Nothing impressed me,” Mora said. “For a team to be able to run the ball like that on us is inconceivable to me. I’ve never seen anything like it. it made me sick to my stomach.”
Got that? But there are a whole lot of reasons to like UCLA. Start with a veteran offensive line, which probably hasn’t gotten enough credit. Move on to underrated running back Paul Perkins, who had 85 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries. But the difference-maker might be the freshman quarterback, who is learning as he goes — but learning very quickly.
“I don’t think he’s been a freshman since he got here,” Perkins said. “He’s just taken the reins of this offense.”
Saturday night, when he threw for 284 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another, Rosen looked a lot more like the guy who opened the season by shredding Virginia than the kid who struggled last week, throwing three interceptions as UCLA barely escaped BYU.
And consider the setting: This was Rosen’s first Pac-12 game, on the road, in front of a sell-out crowd at Arizona Stadium. After the struggle against BYU — his and the team’s — there were suddenly questions about the Bruins.
“Every talking head thought we would lose,” said Mora, while insisting he hadn’t paid any attention to any talking heads.
And yet the answer Mora liked best came afterward, when he described the scene in the postgame locker room as less jubilant than businesslike.
“They’re focused on getting better,” he said. “We’re a very mature group. Last year we were picked to be all this or that, we probably made some mistakes by letting the noise in. I think we’re much better equipped to handle that this year.”
They’re better at quarterback, too, despite the trade of Rosen for veteran playmaker Brett Hundley. And despite his youth, Rosen appears equipped with poise to go with the precocious talent.
“He’s a great kid,” senior receiver Jordan Payton said. “He comes out here in this full red house and slings the ball. He was ready.”
And that, as much as anything, is why UCLA seems capable of making a run at the Playoff. The schedule is difficult, but the roster is filled with talent, even after the defensive losses. And the quarterback is growing rapidly.
“I think his experiences the first three weeks are the reasons he can come out and have success like this,” UCLA offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said. “He’s still gonna have some growing pains going through the season, but I think the last couple of weeks we’ve started to learn a little bit.”
Two of those interceptions against BYU, when Rosen was 11 of 13 for 106 yards, came when he was scrambling away from pressure and confused by the coverages. A week later, in that full red house, he scrambled but kept his composure.
“That’s one of the things I keep saying is impressive about him,” Mora said, “is his ability to move from one play to the next and diagnose what happened and learn from it and move on.”
In the first half Saturday, when UCLA forged a 42-14 lead, the Bruins converted 7 of 8 third-down tries. The first was Rosen’s 10-yard scramble on third-and-9 during the Bruins’ first possession, setting up a touchdown that answered Arizona’s first drive and set a tone. More impressive was the last, when Rosen escaped a sack on third-and-8, kept his eyes downfield and then feathered a perfect strike to Payton for 59 yards. Two plays later, Perkins scored and it was 42-14.
“He’s just a very, very composed young man,” Mora said. “Things don’t get to him. He’s like everyone else, he has nerves. He gets a little uptight at times. But in my whole career, I’ve never been around a starting freshman quarterback. So this is by far the best starting freshman quarterback I’ve had.”
A year ago, Rosen was starting in high school St. John Bosco. To hear him tell it, there’s not a whole lot of difference.
“Everyone is just a little bit bigger, a little bit faster,” he said.
But a week after playing like a starting freshman quarterback, Rosen’s rebound was impressive. His progress provides hope that he might be the catalyst to propel UCLA toward something special.
But along with everything else he’s picked up in the last few weeks, Rosen has learned this much: Things can look like very different from one week to the next.
“You just connect sometimes,” Rosen said. “Sometimes it comes off your finger a yard too hot, and sometimes it comes off well. Tonight we connected pretty well.”
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