The Past, Present, And Future Of UCLA Quarterbacks, Part II: The Roller Coaster Of QB Recruiting

Michael Hanna

Sep 25, 2014; Tempe, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone: a man with a quarterback recruiting plan? Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

In Part I of this series that is intended to provide an in-depth examination of the makeup and importance of UCLA‘s quarterback depth chart, we glanced back at the dark days of UCLA football’s not-so-distant past in order to show why it is vital for UCLA for maintain a fully-stocked quarterback cabinet. We also alluded to the fact that, even though he was slated to be a back-up, Asiantii Woulard’s transfer from UCLA has left the cabinet perilously light (with the notable exception of one very large piece).

In this second piece in the series, we’re going to take a deeper look at UCLA’s quarterback recruiting. The Jim Mora Era at UCLA has, to date, been marked by many successes, but plagued by a couple key issues as well. The fairly turbulent experiences that the Bruins have annually endured in the ever-competitive world of quarterback recruiting stand out among the most notable of those issues. Chronicling those winding tales on a year-by-year basis, the reasons for UCLA’s current quarterback depth quandary begins to emerge:

Next: Quarterback Recruiting Under Mora Begins

Nov 28, 2014; Pasadena, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins wide receiver Devin Fuller (7) runs against Stanford Cardinal linebacker Peter Kalambayi (34) during the second half of the game at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

2012

Targets: T.J. Millweard (3*- Fort Worth, TX), Devin Fuller (4*- Westwood, NJ)

How it went down: After Jim Mora’s hiring in December 2011, he and his staff scrambled to put together what turned out to be a quality initial recruiting class on short notice. Upon Noel Mazzone‘s hiring from Arizona State as offensive coordinator, the Bruins immediately moved to fill the quarterback slot in the class with T.J. Millweard, who was Mazzone’s QB commit at ASU. It didn’t take very long for Mazzone and UCLA to flip Millweard.

As an added bonus, the Bruins were also able to capitalize on Greg Schiano‘s departure from Rutgers to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL and haul in elite New Jersey dual-threat QB Devin Fuller, beating out the long-favored Scarlet Knights.

Signees: T.J. Millweard, Devin Fuller

UCLA Bruins

Progression at UCLA: Upon Millweard’s arrival on campus, it became clear that the big Texan had significant work to do on his mechanics in order to be a quality Power Five quarterback. Furthermore, his path to early playing time was soon blocked off by the emergence of a redshirt freshman phenom in Brett Hundley. Millweard, who never looked the part at UCLA, eventually transferred to Kansas in the summer of 2013 after only a year in the program.

With Hundley’s presence also mitigating any chance for Fuller to play quarterback, Fuller moved to wide receiver not too long after his arrival in Westwood and has been a fixture at the position ever since. This was a move that many had long predicted for Fuller and Hundley’s grip on the top quarterback spot for the foreseeable future only accelerated Fuller’s move to receiver.

Remaining on the roster: Devin Fuller- moved to WR as a true freshman

Next: Trends Begin To Emerge In 2013

Sep 25, 2014; Tempe, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Asiantii Woulard on the bench against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium. UCLA defeated Arizona State 62-27. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

2013

Targets (in chronological order): Eddie Printz (3*- Marietta, GA), Troy Williams (4*- Harbor City, CA), Hayden Rettig (4*- Los Angeles, CA), Asiantii Woulard (4*- Winter Park, FL)

How it went down: Not too long after offensive line coach Adrian Klemm left SMU to join Mora’s coaching staff at UCLA, Eddie Printz, the quarterback out of Georgia that Klemm had recruited to SMU, chose to follow suit and flipped from SMU to UCLA. As the spring progressed though, the coaching staff became disenchanted with Printz, finding him to be a quarterback prospect with a limited ceiling. Eventually, a messy breakup occurred in which UCLA cut ties with Printz and those around Printz subsequently went on the offensive in the media, lambasting the UCLA coaching staff.

The UCLA coaches turned to two committed local prospects instead: Troy Williams from Narbonne, a commit to Washington, and Hayden Rettig from Cathedral, a commit to LSU. The Bruins pushed hard for both, but couldn’t convince either to flip.

In the end, UCLA was the beneficiary of some good fortune when Elite 11 MVP and highly-rated dual threat QB Asiantii Woulard decommitted from South Florida after Skip Holtz was fired as the Bulls’ head coach. The Bruins moved aggressively onto Woulard and were able to land him on National Signing Day 2013.

Signees: Asiantii Woulard

Progression at UCLA: Once he arrived at UCLA for his first fall camp, Woulard immediately began to turn heads, as his physical talents were apparent to anyone who saw him and his upside seemed limitless. He just seemed to ooze potential out of every pore and it looked like UCLA had lined up its successor to Hundley. However, as his career at UCLA progressed, Woulard stagnated as he struggled to pick up some of the finer points of the position, like reading defenses and going through his progressions.

This past spring, it became apparent that Woulard was not likely to start at any point for UCLA, as he was outperformed by true freshman phenom Josh Rosen. Seeing the writing on the wall, Woulard understandably chose to transfer out and pursue a starting position at another program rather than be a career backup in Westwood.

Remaining on the roster: None

Next: Caught By Surprise In 2014

Nov 15, 2014; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Kyle Allen (10) was thought to be a strong lean to UCLA before he shocked Bruins coaches by committing to the Aggies. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

2014

Targets (in chronological order): Kyle Allen (5*- Scottsdale, AZ), Brad Kaaya (4*- West Hills, CA), K.J. Carta-Samuels (4*- San Jose, CA), Aaron Sharp (3*- Humble, TX)

How it went down: UCLA identified Kyle Allen early as its top quarterback in the 2014 class and recruited him aggressively. Allen established himself as the clear-cut #1 quarterback recruit in the nation during the spring camp circuit after his junior year and it is to the credit of UCLA’s coaches and evidence of their scouting prowess that they were on Allen long before he saw his stock soar nationally.

The Bruins were believed to have Allen all but in the bag after the youngster from Scottsdale came out to UCLA’s Spring Game in April 2013 and enjoyed himself immensely, but Allen proceeded to shock the recruiting world by abruptly announcing a couple weeks later that he had committed to Texas A&M. Rumors persisted among recruitniks that a couple very prominent Elite 11 coaches (it’s not too hard to guess the names) had gotten in Allen’s ear and strongly advised Allen not to choose UCLA, telling him he would be stuck behind the previous year’s Elite 11 MVP Woulard on the depth chart in Westwood. Allen apparently took that advice to heart and turned to College Station, where Johnny Manziel had just dazzled the nation and won the Heisman Trophy, instead.

Taken sharply aback by their failure to land Allen after he had seemed Westwood-bound for so long, the Bruins’ coaches seemed unsure about how to proceed with 2014 QB recruiting. They had evidently not even considered the possibility that Allen might commit elsewhere and, as a result, were left without an immediate alternative to pursue.

For a while, they considered not taking a 2014 quarterback at all, as they were secure in the knowledge that Woulard would presumably continue his upward developmental arc and that the motherlode of all California quarterback classes loomed in 2015. Eventually, the Bruins coaches, feeling that they needed a 2014 quarterback after all as Signing Day neared, identified Miami commit Brad Kaaya as a priority UCLA target, but they could not flip the Chaminade HS quarterback from his commitment to the Hurricanes.

UCLA’s coaches then kicked the tires on San Jose QB K.J. Carta-Samuels, a former Vanderbilt commit (and eventual Washington signee) who was looking at other schools after James Franklin left the Commodores to take the vacant Penn State job. However, after seeing the dynamism that Hundley’s running had brought to the offense, they instead chose to pursue dual-threat quarterback Aaron Sharp from the Houston metro area. Sharp ended up flipping to UCLA from Kansas State very late in the 2014 recruiting cycle.

Signees: Aaron Sharp

Progression at UCLA: Sharp’s film showed a quarterback with elite speed and good touch, but a lack of zip on his throws and an unorthodox throwing motion that inhibited consistent accuracy. That, indeed, is exactly what Sharp turned out to be, and the UCLA coaching staff wasted little time in having Sharp work in at wide receiver on the scout team during his redshirt season. His move to receiver became permanent after Rosen’s arrival in the spring.

Remaining on the roster: Aaron Sharp- moved to WR as a redshirt freshman

Next: Winning The Lottery In 2015

Sep 26, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Former St. John Bosco quarterback Josh Rosen (3) will take the reigns of the UCLA offense as a true freshman in 2015. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

2015

Targets (in chronological order): Ricky Town (4*- Ventura, CA), Josh Rosen (5*- Manhattan Beach, CA), Blake Barnett (5*- Corona, CA)

How it went down: As strange as it seems to say in hindsight, UCLA’s first offer to a 2015 quarterback went out to St. Bonaventure’s Ricky Town. Town was one of the first quarterback prospects to impress in a class that would soon be chock full of them, and UCLA quickly prioritized Town once he burst onto the scene as a high school sophomore. Town, though, was adamant about playing in a pro-style offense in college and committed to noted pro-style adherent Doug Nussmeier and Alabama right before his junior year.

With Town clearly looking at different programs even before his commitment to the Crimson Tide, UCLA began to expand its search for a 2015 quarterback as well. The Bruins offered St. John Bosco’s Josh Rosen before Rosen’s junior season, and it was an offer that had been long coming after Rosen lit up that spring’s camp circuit and clearly established himself as an elite prospect.

However, the perception of Rosen, the son of two Ivy League-educated parents, was that he had long wanted to leave Southern California and expand his horizons at an elite academic institution outside the area. Stanford and Cal stood out for Rosen at the time. The Bruins, realizing this, continued to scour the area for quarterbacks.

Once again savvy with its early quarterback evaluations, UCLA offered Santiago’s Blake Barnett before Barnett had exploded into the national consciousness as a 5-star quarterback recruit. However, the true prize was out in Bellflower putting together a legendary junior season at eventual national champion St. John Bosco.

Fortuitously, around the time UCLA offered Barnett, the Bruins got a huge slice of luck: Stanford, long believed to be Rosen’s dream school, passed on Rosen earlier in the summer, believing Town to be a better fit for the culture of the program and offering Town instead of Rosen. On top of Stanford’s questionable evaluation, Cal was in the midst of a disastrous 1-11 season in 2013.

With Bay Area schools no longer looking like viable choices, Rosen suddenly began to see UCLA in a new light and Mora, whose family lives near Rosen’s family in Manhattan Beach, and the Mazzones (Offensive Coordinator Noel and QB Coach Taylor) led the charge to lock down Rosen while the window of opportunity was open. In the end, the Bruins got the prize they desperately craved, as the top quarterback recruit in the country committed to UCLA on March 20, 2014, stayed solid throughout the process, and enrolled at UCLA this past January.

Signees: Josh Rosen

Progression at UCLA: Pending injury, Rosen will be the starter at quarterback for UCLA for at least the next three seasons.

Remaining on the roster: Josh Rosen

Next: A Long Shadow Looms Over 2016

Sep 26, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; St. John Bosco Braves quarterback Josh Rosen (3) couldn’t help but cast a long shadow over UCLA’s 2016 quarterback recruiting efforts. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

2016

Targets (in chronological order)^: Malik Henry (5*- Westlake Village, CA), Devon Modster (4*- Rancho Santa Margarita, CA), Matt Lynch (3*- Broomfield, CO)

How it went down: With Rosen’s shadow looming large and California having a thin group of high-end quarterback prospects just a year after it was bursting at the seams with them, UCLA was always likely to face hurdles in finding its man in 2016. The Bruins were, again, early to the recruitment of their top target Malik Henry, but after Rosen’s commitment to UCLA, Henry quickly narrowed his choices down to Florida State and Notre Dame instead (eventually picking the Seminoles).

UCLA then turned its focus to one of the few other local blue-chip quarterback recruits: Tesoro’s Devon Modster. Wait, Tesoro? That’s in south Orange County. My people!

Despite being considered the favorite to nab Modster, UCLA again found itself haunted in quarterback recruiting by the Specter of Rosen, as Modster surprisingly chose to be the second quarterback in Arizona‘s 2016 class rather than the only one in UCLA’s class.

By the time Modster had made his decision, the local QB pool, as shallow as it already was, had essentially become barren, with the likes of Armani Rogers (Los Angeles, CA/Hamilton), Max Gilliam (Thousand Oaks, CA/Thousand Oaks), and Ian Book (El Dorado Hills, CA/Oak Ridge) all making commitments to rival Pac-12 schools. Consequently, the only available local quarterback who had anything resembling Pac-12 potential was Patrick O’Brien (San Juan Capistrano, CA/San Juan Hills), but, preferring more of a dual-threat quarterback than a pro-style one for their offensive system, the Bruins instead left the state to nab Matt Lynch out of Colorado, a former Colorado State commit who became available after Jim McElwain left the Rams to take the Florida job last winter.

^The Bruins also recently picked up class of 2016 4-star athlete Dymond Lee (West Hills, CA/Chaminade) nominally as a quarterback, but for our purposes, he won’t be included in this analysis since it is almost inconceivable that he will end up at any position other than wide receiver down the line (a la Devin Fuller).

Commitments: Matt Lynch

Next: Analyzing The Recruiting Fallout And Impact

Sep 25, 2014; Tempe, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Problems And Circumstances

It seems fair to say that consistent issues are plaguing UCLA’s quarterback recruiting. These are the elements that seem to exist in most of these yearly recruiting tales for the Bruins:

Despite doing, for the most part, a good job identifying the top quarterback talents in the class and jumping into their recruitments early, UCLA hasn’t been able to garner early commitments from the quarterback recruits at the top of its board.
Making matters worse, UCLA has also done a poor job maintaining relationships with viable “Plan B” targets to whom it could immediately turn and secure a commitment if the recruits at the top of the board said “no”.
After plans A and B have fallen through, the Bruins have been left scrambling to collect whichever quarterback is available once the best talents have been picked off. They usually have to go way down their QB board to bring in a raw, boom-or-bust quarterback prospect who is athletically gifted but needs time to develop and learn the various ins-and-outs of the quarterback position. Josh Rosen’s recruitment was the only exception.
Once on campus, that raw quarterback fails to develop and either, once his lack of a future as a UCLA quarterback becomes clear, changes position (Fuller/Sharp) or transfers to another program in which he sees more potential for the kind of live game action that will accelerate his development curve (Millweard/Woulard). Josh Rosen’s situation is the only exception.

Among the many facts one can highlight from those four-plus years of escapades on the quarterback recruiting trail, here are a few that stand out:

How did UCLA football get itself to a place where the entire program’s ability to compete for championships in the near future will likely depend on one teenager?

In the Mora era, which started in December 2011 and is in the midst of its fifth recruiting cycle, only one quarterback signee remains on the UCLA roster as a quarterback: Josh Rosen.
In the Mora era, only one quarterback signee committed to UCLA more than a month before his respective Signing Day: Josh Rosen.*
In the Mora era, only one quarterback signee for UCLA has come from the state of California: Josh Rosen.
In the Mora era, no quarterback signee has taken a live snap in a real game for UCLA, although that will likely change soon with Josh Rosen (sensing a theme yet?).

*Note: Matt Lynch does not sign until February 4, 2016.

We will explicitly say this again just to make sure it’s understood: once it saw an opening with Rosen, UCLA did extremely well to take advantage of that opening and bring in a player who projects to be its most gifted passer since Troy Aikman. Rosen is such a singular talent that everything that went right to bring him in goes a very long way towards glossing over everything that went wrong with quarterback recruiting in the 2013, 2014, and 2016 classes.

http://t.co/sbp1LBrwGJ - Josh Rosen Wows at Elite 11 Camp, 'Best UCLA QB Commit Since Troy Aikman': http://t.co/v2Vcw9igpg
— UCLA Bruins (@BR_UCLABruins) July 7, 2014

However, Rosen’s recruitment stands out as the clear exception to what has been the rule. For a program of UCLA’s caliber to consistently run things down to the last second in the era of the way-too-early quarterback commitment and a program in UCLA’s location to consistently need to leave the area to find anyone willing to join its class late in the process speaks very poorly to the planning and execution of these recruitments.

To be completely fair to Noel and Taylor Mazzone, though, hindsight vindicates many of their scouting evaluations. Also, circumstances have often, for various reasons, been beyond their control.

In 2012, on a month’s notice, Noel Mazzone brought in Millweard, who he had recruited for months at Arizona State before coming to UCLA. That was a perfectly logical and defensible grab in such a small time frame.
In 2013, none of the quarterbacks in question panned out in what turned out to be an awful QB crop, so despite a small media mess with the Printz clan, it’s fair to give UCLA’s coaches a pass on that awful class.
In 2015, they got it absolutely right.
And 2016 was always likely to yield a project player, given the aforementioned Specter of Rosen looming over this quarterback recruiting cycle for UCLA.

However, 2014…

Next: The 2014 Problem

Oct 4, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Miami Hurricanes quarterback Brad Kaaya (15) throws a pass against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the first quarter at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The Ones That Got Away

The 2014 recruiting cycle is the one that, in hindsight, truly hurts: missing on two players who were starting-caliber QBs in Allen and especially Kaaya left UCLA a year behind the eight ball and at the mercy of handing the job, after Hundley’s early departure to the NFL, to a true freshman rather than a redshirt freshman who at least had a full year of immersion in the program under his belt. The big tactical error in 2014 quarterback recruiting was not having that clear Plan B in place to put the full-court press on Kaaya in the event that Allen threw a curveball. The immediate realization upon his enrollment that Sharp was unsuited to be a college quarterback made the misses in 2014 sting even more.

Developmental Issues

Where the Mazzones have truly fallen short and lack circumstantial excuses is on the developmental side of things. Even stipulating that Woulard was the best talent out of the four quarterbacks taken from 2012 to 2014, he was still unable to even beat out the far less talented Jerry Neuheisel for the backup spot last season. When a player of Woulard’s unquestioned limitless physical gifts is lagging behind a player of Neuheisel’s unquestioned limited physical gifts, that signals a problem in coaching as much as an inherent lack of something in the player.

Furthermore, despite Noel and Taylor Mazzone’s pedigree in working with NFL quarterbacks, they have consistently shown too much confidence in their abilities to take raw quarterbacks — ones that are physically superlative but essentially need to learn the nuances and mechanics of the position — and mold them into finished products capable of leading UCLA to championships. To date, based on the progress of the quarterbacks fitting that bill (Millweard, Fuller, Woulard, Sharp, and even Hundley to an extent), this has not been a fruitful strategy for UCLA and is a key reason why the quarterback depth chart projects to be scarily thin for the next few seasons.

Part I is available here.

Michael Hanna

UCLA football and basketball fanatic who dabbles in lawyerly things on the side. It should probably be the other way around...