UCLA Football: The Brett Hundley Era Begins, The Kevin Prince Era Ends

Big time news, for UCLA football freaks: Redshirt freshman Brett Hundley will be the Bruins’ starter in 2012.

From the press release:

"UCLA Head Football Coach Jim Mora has named redshirt freshman Brett Hundley the team’s starting quarterback.“All four quarterbacks have raised their level of play significantly since my staff and I took over, and we are excited about all of them,” said Mora. “That said, Brett has consistently demonstrated the qualities we value in a starting quarterback and is an outstanding leader who commands the respect of his teammates. He has shown excellent decision-making skills, and his accuracy and timing continue to improve with each practice. In addition, he has shown the mobility and creativity needed when a play breaks down.”"

Yes, we know: Brett Hundley is a freaking bad-ass that the UCLA fan-base has wanted to start ever since he stepped foot on campus.

This was always the end-game, it seemed, at least ever since Hundley proved to be starter-worthy during the Spring Game back in May. Hundley was, marginally, outperformed by Richard Brehaut — who I admittedly chose as the favorite to win the job — but this fall, nothing but praise has come out of San Bernardino with regards to Hundley’s play.

The dude is going to be great, we’re sure, and we hope he doesn’t flame out. In fact, we’re 97 percent sure he’s going to be all we expected him to be, since his work ethic has been incredible and his leadership skills have improved pretty significantly.

What’s just as significant, though, and what UCLA fans will forget, is that this is the end of the Kevin Prince era in UCLA football. Prince was often given a crap-load of flack for not being able to throw the football well, being injured all the time and for looking like this every time he lined up behind center:

Ironically, that was probably the face he made when Jim Mora announced Hundley as the starter.

Still, Kevin Prince will sit his senior season and, for UCLA fans, that’s just fine, since preference for seniority was one of the things that plagued the Bruins during the Neuheisel era.

Prince fought like a madman, though, and we thank him.

But this is about Brett Hundley now, and it’s about — hopefully, a new era of UCLA football.

We’ll have more on this as we count down the days til Rice.

GO BRUINS!!!