Rosen regains comfort level
Josh Rosen provided verbal confirmation Tuesday of his visible return to form, saying he had recaptured the confidence he possessed before suffering a seasonending shoulder injury last October.
“I’d say about three or four days ago, I kind of felt that I was my old self on the field,” the UCLA quarterback said during his first session of training camp with reporters. “I started to hit my stride on the field and become the player that I think I was a while ago when I was rolling.”
Rosen added that he never doubted himself but felt emboldened by the success he’s experienced in new offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch’s offense, saying “something just kind of clicked.”
“You have to be confident in who you are,” Rosen said, “but there’s also some confirmation that you have to give to yourself that you get out on the field and you throw that pass and you’re like, all right, I feel pretty good.”
Rosen said his comfort level had increased in the new offense, allowing him to accelerate his pace of play. He said he liked the versatility of Fisch’s play calling and all the options it presented.
“You can do anything,” Rosen said. “The puzzle pieces are there, it’s all about how you want to arrange them to call anything you want.”
Rosen declined to address his recent comments to Bleacher Report contending that college football and academics were incompatible, saying that he would discuss only training camp. Asked for a possible solution to his claim that academic advisors were concerned only with keeping players eligible, Rosen said, “We’ll see.”
Kickers hit reset
Austin Kent smiled a few times when he met with reporters, fulfilling his pledge to loosen up. Meanwhile, J.J. Molson spoke mostly in a solemn monotone.
UCLA’s sophomore specialists seem to be reversing the approaches they used during a freshman season they gladly left behind. Both arrived last year as highly touted recruits only to lose their starting jobs amid sustained inconsistency.
Molson made 12 of 20 field-goal attempts, including only two of seven from 40 to 49 yards. Kent averaged 38.3 yards per punt, tied for second worst among Pac-12 Conference players who punted at least 21⁄2 times per game.
While Molson reclaimed the starting kicker’s job by season’s end, Kent became entrenched behind Stefan Flintoft on the depth chart. Two punts against Washington State in mid-October perfectly encapsulated Kent’s season: He booted one 61 yards but watched another trickle backward a yard, earning a rebuke from coach Jim Mora after failing to run after the punt and knock it out of bounds.
Looking back, Kent said part of his struggles might have been rooted in his mind-set. “I was kicking to not mess up instead of going out there and kicking to have fun,” said Kent, who had averaged 47.2 yards as a senior in high school.
Molson sounded this week like someone who felt he had too much fun as a freshman, saying he needed to “hit almost like a reset button.”
“I realized that the football-first mentality is what I really wanted and I felt a great responsibility for the guys,” Molson said. “It’s the worst feeling having to come off the field not having any points and seeing the disappointment on their faces, but that motivated me this offseason to really put in that extra work.”