Offseason edition looking back on the 2016 season

The 2016 season would be the beginning of the end in the Jim Mora era. The team would finish 4-8 and struggle most of the season on offense as injuries piled up and Josh Rosen had to miss half the season. Mike Fafaul would step in at QB and although he had a big arm he was very inaccurate only completing 52.1% of his passes. Rosen only played six games and completed 59.3% of his passes for 1,915 yards and 10 touchdowns. The offense took a huge step back only averaging 24.9 points per game. Which was good for 96th in the nation.

This season was a huge disappointment after the previous four seasons. Where Mora had the Bruins in the top 10 on multiple occasions but not being able to get over the hump. Rosen coming off of a good freshman season had given the Bruins high expectations as they started the season at No. 16 in the nation. They would lose the opener against Texas A&M and never really gain any confidence through the season. They would lose to Stanford again during this season continuing the bad luck streak against them.

There was not too much to highlight on the season. UCLA would also lose to their rival USC for the second straight season. Mora would get one more season after this to try and right the ship in the positive direction again. Rosen going down with injury really derailed what the team could do. We saw many times under the Rick Neuheisel era what not having a legit quarterback can quickly do to an offense.

Takkarist McKinley was a huge bright spot on this team. He had 18 tackles for loss and 10 sacks on the season. Turning that into being a 1st round draft pick by the Atlanta Falcons. Fabian Moreau also played very good in coverage and turned himself into a 3rd round pick. Along with Eddie Vanderdoes and Jayon Brown getting drafted. The defense would be shredded of their talent and take a huge step back heading into the 2017 season which would end the Mora era.