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Josh Rosen the only choice for UCLA Bruins quarterback job

By Patrick Schmidt

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Josh Rosen is not like most freshmen and the UCLA quarterback is starting to show why he’s so special and should be the Bruins starter.

The UCLA Bruins have one of the more intriguing quarterback competitions to watch this spring and into the fall with Jerry Neuheisel, Asiantii Woulard and true freshman Josh Rosen competing for the job vacated by Brett Hundley declaring for the NFL Draft.

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Neuheisel, a rising fourth-year junior is the player to beat but the anticipation is Rosen will be given every opportunity to win the job and for good reason as the nation’s No. 1 quarterback recruit. Chants of “Chosen Rosen” would break out at St. John Bosco where Rosen led to a 16-0 record and a national championship in 2003.

Expectations for the 6-4, 215-pound Rosen are as high as the Terry Donahue Pavilion in the Rose Bowl and he is arguably the most physically gifted quarterback at UCLA since Troy Aikman was a consensus All-American, winner of the Davey O’Brien Award and finished third in the Heisman in 1988.

He enrolled after his senior season at St. John Bosco to take part in spring practice with a chance to win the quarterback job. His first priority when he arrived on campus was earning the trust and respect of his teammates and show them that he’s a hard worker.

"“Everyone is going to be looking at me to see how I react to the first time I get yelled at,” Rosen told the LA Times in January. “They are going to want to see how I react to the first time I get told to do something. If I put effort into everything I do around the team, I can earn their respect.”"

Head coach Jim Mora said whoever wins the quarterback job will have to be a leader and Rosen is putting is already showing the intangibles you’d see from a fifth-year senior.

The spring practices are already paying dividends for Rosen who ran with the first-team offense again on Monday and had his best session this spring.

He had his first reps with the first team last Thursday and showed growing pains as you would expect from a freshman in his first practice with the starting offense. He tossed an interception and muffed a handoff but after that he looked the part and showed good command of the offense.

Rosen is the son of two Ivy League graduates (Penn, Princeton) and had a 4.3 GPA entering his senior year in high school so it’s no surprise to hear how quickly he has learned the playbook.

I think the competition for the quarterback job was over as soon as Rosen enrolled for classes in January. He is too talented to keep on the bench and he’s already shown to be a quick learner.

The reps with the first team will increase and Mora will challenge, so he can overcome his growing pains on the practice field in the spring and fall camp and not in November against USC with the Pac-12 title on the line.

Neuheisel is a quality backup and will push Rosen until the Sept. 5 opener vs Virginia, but the best decision for Mora for the present and the future is an easy one. The quarterback competition was over before it even started. The choice is Rosen. It was made determined the day he committed to UCLA.

Hundley helped lead UCLA back to national prominence but Rosen can take them to a national championship, maybe even as soon as this year with 18 returning starters and both specialists returning from a 10-win team.

Those lofty expectations have followed Rosen around since fans at St. John Bosco chanted “Chosen Rosen” at his high school games.

Next: Top 10 Pac-12 Quarterbacks Entering Spring Practice

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