Taking a leap
UCLA opens the season against Virginia on Saturday with a freshman quarterback and without the lofty expectations the Bruins experienced a year ago. Times staff writer Chris Foster examines the matchups and story lines:
Game management
UCLA was picked to finish third in the Pac-12 Conference’s South Division, behind USC and Arizona State. The major reason?
Lack of experience at quarterback.
UCLA historians think Josh Rosen is the first quarterback to go straight from high school into the Bruins’ starting lineup for a season opener. The game plan: “You just go, and adjust as you go,” Coach Jim Mora said. “You see what’s working and you see what you may be struggling with. In terms of limiting, putting restrictions on him, you don’t do that.”
Having nine starters returning on offense should help. The main thing Rosen has to do is “protect the ball for us,” offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said.
Rosen has swagger but was humble after he was tabbed as UCLA’s starter. “I’m just going to be distributing the ball to our phenomenal players,” he said.
Job ‘Perk’
Virginia cannot focus only on Rosen. The Bruins return four starting linemen and have Paul Perkins at running back.
Perkins led the Pac-12 with 1,575 yards rushing last season. Expect him to have a heavy workload again, especially in the opener.
While focused on Virginia, Perkins sees this game as a first step.
“Even though we won 10 games [last season], we have great ambitions on winning the Pac-12 title,” Perkins said. “The Alamo Bowl win was great, but we have our eyes set on doing bigger and better things.”
In a rush
Virginia defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta can be expected to throw a heavy rush at Rosen. Last season, the Cavaliers sacked UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley five times.
Virginia defensive end Eli Harold and linebacker Max Valles opted to leave for the NFL after combining for 16 sacks last season. The Cavaliers have replaced three linebackers, though their defensive line remains solid with Mike Moore, David Dean and Andrew Brown.
UCLA’s protection is buoyed by center Jake Brendel and tackle Conor McDermott, who was sidelined
for last season’s game while recovering from injuries. Brendel has been a rock-solid starter for three seasons, and the Bruins’ pass blocking improved considerably in 2014 after McDermott was inserted to protect the quarterback’s blind side.
New but familiar
This is the fourth consecutive season Virginia has opened the season with a new starting quarterback. But Matt Johns is familiar to the Bruins. He came off the bench late in the second quarter a year ago and nearly rallied the Cavaliers to victory.
Johns was so effective in three starts that incumbent Greyson Lambert bolted to Georgia as a graduate student (and won the Bulldogs’ starting job).
Resume game
The game features head coaches in radically different situations in terms of job security.
Mora is snug after raising the Bruins from mediocrity, going 29-11 the last three seasons.
Mike London was on the hot seat last season and the temperature is rising. Virginia finished 5-7, losing five of its last six games.