UCLA Football: Why Josh Rosen should stay one more year
UCLA football’s Josh Rosen has a big choice ahead of him. Head for the NFL Draft or stay with the Bruins and try to win a championship with Chip Kelly.
Josh Rosen has two choices to consider after his bowl game. The first one is head to the NFL Draft where he will most likely be picked in the top five. The second choice is sticking with the UCLA football team and trying to do with Chip Kelly what he could not with Jim Mora in the last three years…
Win a championship.
Rosen is NFL ready. There is no doubt he will be successful at the next level and should enter to the NFL Draft… eventually. Several teams would love to have his talents on their squad, but with that in mind, Rosen can wait a year and try to put some more wins on his resume as well as capture a Pac-12 Championship. Though it would also be nice to be in the hunt for a national championship, let’s take one step at a time. Chip Kelly just got here. They’re barely putting his name on his office door.
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But the reality is, that is the goal. Kelly is not coming in here to take it step-by-step. He’s coming in to win and win now.
UCLA already has a roster full of talent, and it looks like they’re bringing in another top recruiting class, which should get even better with certain recruits now giving attention to the Bruins because of Kelly.
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Either way, Rosen playing for Kelly, or any coach for that matter, will be a good thing. Though it seems Rosen is not the prototypical quarterback that would thrive in Kelly’s system, the Bruins are never at a disadvantage with him under center. If anything, Rosen can learn a lot from Kelly and take his game and his team to another level. If Rosen can be a multi-dimensional quarterback and add a bit of a rushing game to his repertoire, well, that is just dangerous.
But let’s bring it back to UCLA. Next season, Rosen can possibly win some hardware with the Bruins. That’s not a stretch to say with Chip Kelly in command. Can they get to the Pac-12 Championship in their first season with their new coach? It’s not out of the question.
Troy Aikman on Josh Rosen: "Selfishly for UCLA and what Chip’s trying to build, I hope he comes back."
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) November 27, 2017
Additionally, Rosen could be one of the top Heisman picks next season. Kelly had taken former Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon from being an unknown quarterback to a college football superstar who was in Heisman contention in 2007. Rosen has already been in Heisman talk the last two years, so imagine what Kelly can do to boost his status?
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Either way, Rosen has two very good paths laid out in front of him. If he goes to the NFL, that is great, we all knew he would. If he comes back to play for UCLA, it could be even opening.