Bruins face undetermined quarterback situation ahead matchup with Cardinal

This post was updated Oct. 17 at 10:53 a.m.

The Bruins have yet to lock in a starting quarterback, but the Cardinal will likely be relying on their third-string signal-caller come Thursday night.

UCLA football (1-5, 1-2 Pac-12) will take on Stanford (3-3, 2-2) in a midweek matchup in Palo Alto, but the Cardinal will be without starting quarterback K.J. Costello for the fourth time this season. Costello – who has missed Stanford’s last three games with a thumb injury – racked up 344 yards and five touchdowns against UCLA last year, leading the Cardinal to their 11th-straight victory over the Bruins.

Costello’s backup, quarterback Davis Mills, left Stanford’s most recent game with a calf injury, and Stanford coach David Shaw said Wednesday that he would miss Thursday’s game as well. Mills tossed five touchdowns and one interception with a 64.5 completion percentage in Costello’s place before going down against Washington.

Coach Chip Kelly said Monday that his team would be preparing for both quarterbacks at practice this week.

“I think both quarterbacks – and you don’t know if you’re going to get which one – are skilled and really throw the ball,” Kelly said at Monday’s practice. “We saw (Costello) last year … and it was as impressive of a performance from a quarterback as I’ve seen from an accuracy standpoint.”

But with Mills not suiting up, Shaw said Jack West will be the Cardinal’s quarterback.

West did not attempt a pass after coming in to replace Mills against the Huskies, and he finished his freshman year 1-of-4 with four passing yards. The former four-star recruit out of Alabama would be making his first career start Thursday night should Mills be held out, but he will have running back Cameron Scarlett lined up alongside him in the backfield.

Scarlett has accumulated 702 yards on 140 touches so far in 2019, putting him on track for over 1,400 yards from scrimmage by year’s end. The redshirt senior is the most recent in a long line of Cardinal running backs who put up conference-leading stats, following in the path of future NFL Draft picks Toby Gerhart, Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love.

“They’re not as much smashmouth as they probably were with Love and McCaffrey, but they can still run it,” Kelly said. “Scarlett’s a really good, physical running back. … Stanford has a formula to run the football and they’ve always been good at it.”

The Bruins have an undetermined quarterback situation of their own, with sophomore Dorian Thompson-Robinson returning to practice Monday but not locked in as UCLA’s Thursday night starter. Kelly said Monday that Thompson-Robinson and redshirt sophomore Austin Burton would split reps as the No. 1 quarterback at practice this week.

Regardless of who starts at quarterback, sophomore wide receiver Chase Cota said he will have to prepare for Stanford’s veteran secondary that has given UCLA trouble in the past.

“They have good corners, good safeties, but I think that they’re just physical, they always have been – that’s Stanford,” Cota said. “We’re just going to have to take it to them like they’ve taken it to us.”

Cota may have been aware of the Cardinal’s 11-game winning streak over the Bruins, but redshirt freshman cornerback and Memphis, Tennessee, native Rayshad Williams said he didn’t know the recent history of the matchup.

When he was told UCLA hadn’t beat Stanford since 2008, Williams said it gave him some extra motivation heading into Thursday.

“It makes us all hungry,” Williams said. “The whole team, day by day, we’ve been preparing to get ready for them each week, so with us knowing that, me knowing that, that just brings more sparks for all of us.”

The Bruins and Cardinal will kick off at 6 p.m. at Stanford Stadium.