What Is The State Of UCLA Football’s Offense?

The offense of the UCLA Football team has taken a few hits in the last few weeks, which prompts the question, “will they be ready for the Foster Farms Bowl?”

Since we last left the UCLA Football team, the Bruins had lost to USC which had eliminated them from competing in the Pac-12 Championship Game. Although, to the delight of Bruin fans, the Trojans got lambasted by Stanford in the conference title game, 41-22.

Though that helped ease the suffering — as did the hiring of Clay Helton –the Bruins still have problems of their own.

Two weeks ago, freshman offensive lineman Fred Ulu-Perry had left the Bruins and returned home to Hawai’i and is said to be transferring to the University of Hawai’i. Though Ulu-Perry did not make a huge impact this year, the Bruins are down one more player.

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But that is not all.

Last week, news emerged that offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone had been hospitalized for blood clots in his lung. Though it was unknown if he would return, Mazzone did show up to a practice later in the week. Unfortunately, as Head Coach Jim Mora referenced, it is unknown if Mazzone will be at the game.

But that’s not all.

Two days ago, the UCLA football team got news that offensive lineman Alex Redmond has left the team and signed with an agent, making him unavailable for the Foster Farms Bowl this Saturday, leaving the Bruins with a hole to fill on the offensive line.

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So, not only do the Bruins not have an offensive coordinator, but they also have to figure out what to do on the line.

So what does that mean for the UCLA Football offense? Well, first things first, if Mazzone cannot be at the game, the Bruins should still have a game plan. Now who will run it is yet to be seen. Though Mora is the head coach, he is more of a defensive mind, which means one of the offensive coaches could take the reins.

Now out of all the coaches available, running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu has the most experience and was even has experience as an offensive coordinator when he was at USC. Though he has been with the program two years and knows how this team operates, how much control will he actually have?

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Additionally, not to say that he will favor a run game, but how will he balance the attack, especially since Nebraska has a fantastic run defense and a horrible pass defense. There is no doubt that the Bruins will go to RB Paul Perkins for a ground attack, but will QB Josh Rosen see a bigger role given the defense he is going against?

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There is no doubt that Mora will have this team ready for the Foster Farms Bowl, no matter what hand he is dealt with staff and players, but never the less, it will be interesting to see what the Bruins do when they have the ball this Saturday.