UCLA Football: Projected 2-deep depth chart for 2017
UCLA football enters the 2017 season coming off a horrendous 4-8 campaign, but is there enough depth to turn things around?
Everything was in place for UCLA to have a fantastic season in 2017. Many were picking the Bruins as a dark horse College Football Playoff contender, and almost everyone expected them to contend for a Pac-12 title.
Fate, and college football, are cruel. The Bruins’ blue-chip quarterback and future NFL first-rounder Josh Rosen was hurt early in the season, the team struggled to move the ball whatsoever on the ground, and Jim Mora’s crew slipped all the way to a 4-8 finish.
Most of the same team returns, for better or for worse. Rosen is healthy, a young offensive line got older, and Mora is feeling the pressure to get things turned around in Los Angeles. Will he? It’s anyone’s guess, but the Bruins’ two-deep surely isn’t short on talent. Let’s dive in.
Offensive Line
Starting tackles: Kolton Miller (LT), Kenny Lacy (RT)
Backups: Jake Burton, Mike Alves
If the Bruin offense is to improve in 2017, they’ve got to become more well-rounded. To do that, they need their offensive line to do a much better job of run blocking. The good news is that most of last year’s unit is back, with four of five starters returning. The only loss is left tackle Connor McDermott, and massive junior Kolton Miller will be be man slated to replace him. Miller has ten career starts under his belt and should be more than up to the task of protecting Josh Rosen’s blind side.
At right tackle, the Bruins will be relying on senior Kenny Lacy to provide veteran leadership to a line that didn’t generate nearly enough push up front in 2016. The backups are promising, but unproven — Jake Burton and Mike Alves are both high three-star redshirt freshmen, but UCLA would prefer if they weren’t called into action much this season.
Starting guards: Andre James (LG), Najee Toran (RG)
Backups: Josh Wariboko-Alali, Stephan Zable
The battle at left guard is a fascinating one, as a pair of highly-touted sophomores in Andre James and Josh Wariboko-Alali will be squaring off for the right to start in Week One. James started seven games to Wariboko-Alali’s two last season and entered fall camp as the presumed first-stringer, but the competition will likely continue throughout the season, especially if the line continues to struggle.
Najee Toran, a senior, is a safer bet to lock down a starting spot. Jim Mora brought in a handful of impressive offensive line recruits, including four-star Steophan Zable, but they likely won’t make an impact until future seasons.
Starting center: Scott Quessenberry
Backup: Gyo Shojima
This is an impressive pair of players, albeit for two different reasons. Quessenberry, a senior, earned First Team All-Pac-12 honors last season and is the anchor of this line. He’s undoubtedly the best player on this offense not named Josh Rosen, and will be an invaluable piece of the Bruins’ most uncertain unit in 2017. Shojima, on the other hand, may not earn any significant playing time behind Quessenberry, but he earned headlines last season for being the first ever Japanese-born player to play a snap at the Division I level. That’s quite the unit.