Brett Hundley (17) and the Bruins have their eyes set on a Pac-12 title. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports)
When Brett Hundley announced he would come back to UCLA for his redshirt junior season, it signaled opportunity. He admitted to being a “deer in headlights” when he entered college at the age of 17, but now he’s 21 and the unquestioned leader of the Bruins’ offense — and he’s ready to see how far he and his teammates can go this upcoming season.
This year’s Bruins are deep and talented on offense and defense and arguably have the best leader at quarterback in college football in Hundley. In UCLA’s pistol formation, he rushed for 748 yards a year ago while completing 67 percent of his passes for 3,071 yards. He accounted for 35 UCLA touchdowns.
“I think our team and coaches have a lot of faith that he’s going to do the right thing,” said Bruins head coach Jim Mora. “I think the reason is because he’s put the work in. He just doesn’t show up and kind of wing it.”
Hundley indeed wanted this 2014 edition of the Bruins to be special as he has worked relentlessly since the 42-12 romp of Virginia Tech in the Sun Bowl. He’s been busy with the fundamental work inside of the UCLA offense and perfecting his own fundamentals that are most assuredly going to take him to the next level. With those augmented, it has been the film room where Hundley has placed great emphasis.
“This offseason, I had to get in film room more,” Hundley commented, “One of the keys at quarterback is the film room, breaking down defenses and film study, and understanding the game better. Once you get a greater grasp at that, you can be a better quarterback. You don’t have to just focus on your ability.”
Mora noted that he wanted to put Hundley in position to discuss the game with NFL quarterbacks as Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, and even Tim Tebow talked to him about the various progressions of leadership. Mora says this further enhances his understanding of different nuances of the game.
“I think after two years in the system, he was able to do that,” Mora said of Hundley’s assertion of off-the-field intangibles. “He understands what we’re doing on offense and that you can always increase your knowledge, but it was time to expand and learn more about the rest of the game. He did a tremendous job of that.”
On the field, Hundley has a nice pair of backs in Jordan James and Paul Perkins, who took an equal share of the handoffs last season in pistol. There is also Myles Jack, who is a linebacker by trade also doubles as one of the team’s fullbacks. Jack averaged seven yards per carry and scored seven TDs in his role as a short-yardage runner.
This combined with a deep wide receiving corps, led by Devin Fuller and Devin Lucien will give the experienced Hundley lots of options plus his own feet when he trails outside the pocket and uses his intuition to make plays.
“I think Brett developing as a passer and the receiving core we’ve got should help us run the ball,” explained Mora of the philosophy behind this team, “You know, Brett, I like when Brett takes off and runs. I count those as runs. Those go in the run yardage. But my personality, I’d like to be able to just pound it at people. We’re getting closer to where we can do that.”
Hundley has a chance to take the Bruins to the big time in 2014. But the Bruins face a tough Pac-12 schedule, with a trip to Arizona State coming 12 days after a non-conference test in Austin against the Texas Longhorns. Oregon, USC, and Sanford all visit the Rose Bowl, which is almost a gauntlet in itself, albeit on home turf.
An opportunity to do something that hasn’t happened in 60 years, which is win a national championship, is an appealing one. The Bruins were ranked number one in the Coaches poll that season, but number two in the AP after losing the Rose Bowl, 28-20, to Michigan State.
“Their mindset is like mine, which every day has got to be a great day,” noted Mora, “When you have a strength and conditioning coach like Sal Alosi and commands the respect that he commands from them and they react the way they react to him, it makes it very, very easy. That is one of the things that’s exciting for me is that I don’t see our kids being distracted by people coming around.”
