Quarterback, O-line to be key factors in season opener against Virginia
Junior right tackle Caleb Benenoch is part of a UCLA offensive line that has logged more starts than any offensive line in college football. The Bruins’ linemen have 131 combined starts, with 22 coming from Benenoch. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Claire Fahy
Sept. 3, 2015 12:23 a.m.
UCLA football’s Saturday season opener at the Rose Bowl has a lot of familiar components.
The opposition is the same, as are the keys to the outcome. The Virginia Cavaliers are once again the Bruins’ first challenge of the season while the quarterback and the offensive line appear to be critical factors.
Favorites to beat the Cavaliers by a 21-point margin, the Bruins barely managed to escape Scott Stadium with a 28-20 victory last year.
“They gave us an incredible game last year in Virginia,” said coach Jim Mora. “We got fortunate, we made some plays in the first half that got us a little bit of lead.”
No. 13 UCLA scored all its first-half points off of defense, crediting its lead to Virginia’s poor decision-making as much as its own defensive playmaking.
While in a familiar situation, the Bruins are a much different team. The most apparent departure from last season is at quarterback, where true freshman Josh Rosen steps in for three-year starter Brett Hundley, who graduated to the NFL after last season.
A top recruit out of St. John Bosco, Rosen will face up against the Cavaliers’ Matt Johns, a junior who was largely unnoticed at the high school level. While Rosen is shouldering a lot of responsibility, to his coaches and teammates the freshman appears unfazed.
“He’s always had the confidence, since the first day I met him Josh has been Josh – he’s a very confident kid. He doesn’t get rattled,” said junior defensive lineman Eddie Vanderdoes. “You want a quarterback that’s got a good sense in the pocket, that doesn’t get rattled, that stays calm.”
Ensuring that Rosen gets the chance to collect himself in the pocket is his offensive line, which in last year’s battle with Virginia all but disappeared, allowing Hundley to be sacked five times. The absence of redshirt senior center Jake Brendel in that game played a large role in that collapse, as did the Cavaliers’s relentless blitz game.
“In my opinion the offensive line not only sets the tone but the tempo for our offense,” Mora said. “Being able to eliminate penetration and being able to eliminate negative plays – that’s what we’re looking for.”
The offensive line will be protecting a new quarterback in the backfield, but junior offensive lineman Caleb Benenoch maintains that that doesn’t affect the way they play their game.
“In my opinion, I don’t think anything’s changed,” Benenoch said. “When Jerry was in, when Josh is in, I think we kind of take it upon ourselves as an offensive line to set the tone in terms of an offense and we have a veteran group up front – veteran receivers, veteran running backs – so the quarterbacks just need to come in and do their job.”
