UCLA Football: What is Wrong With Josh Rosen?
UCLA football has had three offensive coordinators in the last three years. That lack of consistency showed in Josh Rosen‘s play against Texas A&M.
As a football coach I’ve seen sophomore slump. However, Josh Rosen is in year three as an NCAA Division 1 Quarterback and that slump has continued. He ended the first half on a low note, underthrowing a seam route. His wide receiver, Jordan Lasley made a great catch re-adjusting to the football and UCLA just pounded in the touchdown running a fullback dive play from under center like it’s 1996.
Rosen was the top rated pro style quarterback in the 2015 signing class. He was featured in Bruce Feldman’s, “QB: The Making of The Modern Quarterback.” Rosen was portrayed as cocky, arrogant, un-coachable because of his high IQ and country club lifestyle. He’s a tennis guy. That’s not quite the ‘rising up from nothing’ story we love to hear. It’s not the ‘my dad was a high school coach’ story like Brett Favre. Rosen’s parents were a journalist and a spine surgeon.
The Mazzone year
Year one saw Rosen coached by Noel Mazzone, the N-Zone guru who is now the Offensive Coordinator at Texas A&M. Noel and his nearcult following of cronies that hawk his system (and damn it’s a great system I’ve stolen so much from for my playbook) at coaching clinics followed him from LA to College Station. that nicluded his son Taylor Mazzone. Mazzone’s system is quite simple- they thrive in one-word tags that we saw Gruden rip Cam Newton (yes, NFL MVP and Super Bowl runner-up QB Cam Newton) on his show.
Have a look at this https://t.co/YLodscXUsF UCLA Quarterback Josh Rosen Puts Inflatable Hot Tub In His Dorm Room! | TMZ
— Charlie H. Willis (@KirtlandFCUorg) August 18, 2017
Mazzone creates a simple playbook with easy reads built on zone blocking from his offensive line and. Then he run pass options from his skill guys. It’s easy for the quarterback to run the N-Zone playbook and Rosen thrived in it as a freshman. It was similar to his high school offense, but also added the pre-determined reads via the RPO game that made it an easy transition.
Rosen threw for 3,600+ yards and 23 touchdowns as an eighteen year old. UCLA still had a bright star at that point and Jim Mora Jr. wasn’t considered the king of the hot seat.