QB:
Prince was great in the first half against SDSU. In the second half he however struggled. Whether it was adjustments made by the defense or just freshman jitters, the offense stalled. However, unlike Craft, Prince has been shown to have strong arm and actually moved the offense in practice against our D. Craft all last year never moved the offense with any flow both in games or in practice. Also, Chow has praised Prince a lot and handpicked him as our QB during his recruiting year so there is a bit of a buzz on him.
RB:
C Ramierez - was suppose to be the started but he will be out with an injury. He has always been injury prone during his UCLA career and honestly a lot of the fans were hoping for other RB to get some carries instead of C Ram.
J Franklin-will probably get the starting nod, he had the best spring out of all the RB and has a zip in his step which UCLA RB have lacked in the past. He took his first carry for a TD last week however kind of stalled after that. Bit too much shuffling in the back field for my taste, tends to stop and go a lot instead of hitting the hole.
D Coleman bigger back who was thought to have been more of a FB rather than RB when recruited. He however lost a lot of weight and clocked in at 4.5 during spring. No shuffling from this boy, he is gonna hit the hole or create one himself. The question on him is his quickness, while he did get a better than expected 40 time during spring, he still however had the slowest burst off the ball out of all Rbs for UCLA. Even with somewhat of a slow burst, he still had 17ypc in our first game against SDSU.
M Knox will probably see some playing time in different packages, but will not be surprised if he gets fewer than 3 to 4 carries. He is Maurice Jones Drew minus the speed and the leg strength. Shifty small runner, listed at 5'8 but I say more toward high 5'6. Broke Cali HS records for rush yds I believe. Honestly from what I saw he was the best pure runner out of all the Rbs. However with his size he struggles to pass block and with our OL being so young that is a big disadvantage when compeiting for playing time.
WR:
T. Austin Decent hands, good route running. Really lacking in size and somewhat in speed. He is also our punt returner and kick returner. Austin is shifty and very dependable in catching the ball, however he lacks the top end speed that you would want in your WR. Numerous times he would find the hole in the KR and PR only to get caught from behind. Kind of a possession receiver with a small stature.
T. Embree A walk on, son of a bruin who claimd that as soon as his son step on to the field that he would be the best WR for UCLA. People thought that was crazy but Embree started catching anything that was near him in practice and then he started doing that during games. If it's near him he is gonna catch it, and QB know it hence he becomes their favorite target. However, lacks the top end speed . I would describe him as another very dependable possession receiver, but with greater size than T. Austin.
N. Rosario Tall WR with high jumping abilities. Has all the tools but tends to pout and is thought of as being somewhat lazy in his work ethics. Rosario has the biggest upside but is still a third option in WR due to this negative perception that exists about him.
TE:
Logan Paulson: Big giant TE. Mostly used as a blocking TE with somewhat of catching abilities. Just a giant of a man who we got over Stanford. Very smart and team player who is the team leader.
R. Moya: More of a receiver type of TE. Not much of a blocker, at least not last year. He was basically K.Crafts favorite target last year.
Other notables:
R. Carroll WR who ran a 4.2 in 40s. I think broke California track record for 100 meters. Speed is not the question but rather his route running and catching abilities. Gotten great reviews during spring and was used as a decoy during the first game. He had a deep route that was over thrown by Prince, Carroll however had his man beat by like 3 steps at least.
D.Thigpen RB/WR I am sure you guys know about this fella but dont wanna get into that mess. He has gotten great reviews. While he lost to Carroll in a foot race by a hair, his quickness might be fastest of the team. He again might be used as a decoy or in trick plays like reverses.
OL: Young rebuilding. Looked better than expected but that was against SDSU. It's still a question mark so let's see how they handle the Vols aggression.
Defense:
Lot of hype, B.Price is projected to be a low first round to a high second round pick. Dont wanna go through all the names here but we have a strong CB in Verner who probably has taken back more INTs for TD than any other bruin I can remember. Verner is another kid we got over Stanford who is a math major and is just a smart individual, honestly lot of the kids we get over Stanford are not very athletic but Verner is both. The corner on the other side suffered a broken leg in the first game so his replacement will be C. Viney. Great feet but small stature and was blew by many times last year. Thought to be a bust but he worked himself back into a backup and when replacing Hester (CB who broke his foot) he did a pretty good job. I am sure Tenn coaching staff will concentrate on Viney's side for their passing attack.
There you go guys. Let's have a good game with no injuries. Go Bruins.