‘The Drive’ premiere follows UCLA football through training camp

The first episode of the second season of Pac-12 Network’s show “The Drive” premiered Wednesday night, with a concept similar to HBO’s “Hard Knocks.” Both shows give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at a football team.

While “Hard Knocks” covers an NFL team going through training camp, “The Drive” follows a Pac-12 team from fall camp to the end of the season, telling the team’s story week by week. After following both Pac-12 South champs Arizona State and conference bottom-dweller California in the show’s inaugural season last year, UCLA is the choice for year two. And it’s easy to understand why.

The Bruins, ranked seventh in the AP Top 25, are a trendy national championship pick with a dark-horse Heisman candidate in redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley. Neither the team nor Hundley are short on potential or hype as the 2014 season beckons.

UCLA also has one of the most intense coaches in all of college football. Seriously, Jim Mora and this staff seem made for this show, whether this team was ranked No. 7 or No. 70.

Whether UCLA makes good on its promise, how it handles the hype and how it deals with the inevitable adversities that come with a football season should make “The Drive” a compelling show to watch. But that’s all for later, here are some of my thoughts on the first episode of “The Drive”:

– As someone who spent two weeks at Cal State, San Bernardino watching this team, I came away impressed with how the show covered the team’s fall camp. I think the episode lacked a little in conveying the conditions of San Bernardino, but it also delivered some cool visuals, both of the practice field and campus.

– Viewers were treated to a number of Mora speeches, from creating a standard to what it means to be a UCLA football player. Probably the biggest difference Mora has brought to UCLA outside of the win-loss column is the change in culture. Viewers really get to see how he did that when he delivers those speeches, breaks down the team after practice and talks to them during meetings. I was happy to see that the show was able to capture those types of moments.

– Sadly, this episode was surprisingly light on showing defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. He’s always one of the best people to talk to, but I’m sure viewers will see plenty of him in other episodes throughout the season.

– With no game to review or prep for, the show understandably devoted a lot of time to the expectations surrounding Hundley. The footage of him moving into his dorm at UCLA with redshirt junior wide receiver Devin Lucien their freshman year in 2011 was a nice find, and a cool juxtaposition to where he is now.

– Speaking of where he is now, Hundley said he bought five copies of Sports Illustrated that featured him on the cover page. Hundley added how he dreamt of one day making it onto the front of that magazine as a kid. No telling how many he bought of the issue from two weeks later, which he also graced the cover of.

– It’s kind of eerie how similar redshirt sophomore quarterback Jerry Neuheisel is to his father – former UCLA football coach and current Pac-12 analyst Rick Neuheisel. The face, the voice, the mannerisms – I guess the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.

– Jerry Neuheisel calling sophomore linebacker Myles Jack “the savior of Westwood” as he was drinking water was one of, if not the, quote of the night.

– Mora running up that hill in San Bernadino after a practice was one of the best behind-the-scenes moments of the episode. Not only was it an impressive display of endurance by Mora, but Pac-12 Network producers said they had three different people accompany him on that run up the hill with one at the bottom, one about midway up and another further along. The group was gone for a couple of hours.

– Now that the season will be underway by the time the next episode airs, it will be interesting to see what makes it in each week and what gets cut. Mora has full editorial control so I’ll definitely be watching for what he allows. I’m thinking not much.

– Jordan Lee

Email Lee at [email protected].