SD Further Look: The Nottingham Situation
Pretty clearly, Rick Neuheisel was heavily affected by the late-in-the-game decision by Brett Nottingham of Monte Vista to spurn the Bruins for Stanford. Forget the swiping of an even bigger Cardinal recruit in linebacker Jordan Zumwalt - Neuheisel wanted Nottingham.
"I was disappointed when we lost our QB during the middle of the class," Neuheisel said. "What happens in QB play, you get a commitment early on and you say no to an entire crop of QBs who look elsewhere. Rather than deal with that, I thought it was prudent to go ahead and use the spot for another position."
UCLA will enter next season with Kevin Prince, Richard Brehaut and Nick Crissman as the major options at quarterback. Say what you will about Prince and underperforming - he was a redshirt freshman competing behind a spotty, albeit improved, offensive line. With more weapons - the Bruins lose main targets in Terrence Austin, Logan Paulsen and Ryan Moya but gain the services of Josh Smith and Joseph Fauria, and a year of experience for Randall Carroll, Morrell Presley and other young offensive players - I expect Prince to make huge strides next year.
How do you feel?
Does the loss of Nottingham still sting?
Should UCLA have poached another quarterback?
Should the Bruins make a major move early for a 2011 elite QB?
I don't like offering just to offer. let's get a good one in 2011!
I think its messed up he decomitted late but im over it especially if he's schollie went to Shirley/Riley. As long as Prince/Brehaut dont have serious injuries i think we'll be OK there.
As for 2011 the Staff definately needs to bring in a QB, more importantly a TOP RANKED QB, with Lil Nueheisel.
It's no brainer to go after an elite QB for 2011 since there will be no one else behind Prince and Brehaut. Unless, they'll go into the direction of having Freshman to start at QB every 3 years or so.
I think we could have given more rides, so the Nottingham ride didn't free up anything.
Losing Nottingham was a bummer. Not getting another quality DT was a bigger bummer. Hopefully Moore can partially alleviate that sting by getting into school here, but i'm skeptical about that one.
This staff has now proven they can compete for the best out there.. no doubt in my mind 2011 will land us one of the Best.. Nottingham who???
did you guys hear about Seantrel Henderson??
I think the Bruins would have better luck with Quarterbacks if they could come up with better protection. Would you want to play for a team whose QB's who keep getting smacked around and injured?
What about Henderson?
Nottingham was a tolerable loss. Seems like it might have stung Rick's ego more than it really did the roster. All the same, it was a loss. Glad it at least energized him to go out and get other guys. Clearly the right move to get another position instead of burning an offer on a two-star.
Numerous recuiting services/gurus described this as a relatively weak QB class.
No Barkley or Clausen at the top; no real pros-in-waiting.
So if we simply missed out on an above-average QB in a down year for QBs, I don't see it being catastrophic.
However, it would be nice to use this snowballing momentum to land a BIG Kahuna next year.
I'm with Jon, though. I think Prince showed flashes last season.
I may be the only one, but I thought he was down right McNown-like at times (which, in college, was spectacular). You put some of Cade's supporting cast around Prince and I think you'd get similar production.
I think Wednesday went a long way toward bolstering that supporting cast.
give kevin prince a chance. he was banged up last year and i'm positive that we win one maybe two more games if he didn't get hurt. with more weapons this year, he will excel.
of course, we'll need a quality QB for next years class.
Jon,
Does the fact that we only got 22 guys mean we have more scholies to give next year?
Given what people are saying about next years QB class being weak, I think it was big to lose Nottingham. If Bre thinks he is going to ride the pine behind prince for 3 more years...he may transfer..then what are we left with?
You never know what kids are thinking. I think we need to have a back up plan.
For certain we pick up little Jerry N, but gotta have a better guy than that. He MAY develop into a major QB, but he will take a while to develop. With all the talent being brought in, I am sure a major QB signing is in the works soon.
The problem with Prince is that he seems to be a little reckless and often injured. If he stays healthy, then we're okay. But if he get hurt again, its down to Brehaut and Crissman (also on the DL a lot). A little thin at the QB spot.
Rick will land a great QB next recruiting season
On a side Note: i don't think his boy is a top QB but his name will come up a lot because he wants to go to UCLA.
I think the issue of losing Nottingham is the same as everyone - it sucked, plain and simple. I think the potential for the sting to last for a while, however, is due to the fact that we did not redshirt Brehaut. Had we done so, IMVHO, losing Nottingham would not have been as bad. Now what happens if Brehaut bails for lack of playing time? It was an opportunity to redshirt a high caliber QB for the future so we could even things out given that we now have Brehaut and Prince in the same class.
Henderson:
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=4885616
I hope Brehaut gets a legitimate shot at competing for the QB position. If he has more potential than prince, I would want to develop him more and utilize him as much as we can, since we burned his redshirt.
Elite QB in 2011 definitely. The loss of Nottingham hurts a little but I won't be crying myself to sleep after the loss. Plus, I don't think it will affect us as long as our QBs stay healthy.
You never know how things turn out...remember good recruiting classes from a few years back with Aundrea Dean, Corey Harkey, E.J. Woods, Jake Dean (transfer), Nick Crissman (3RD String). Injuries play a big part but what i think this years class does is provide depth!! We got two big DT, and three solid OT's and big speedy linebackers and DE's and safeties(plus Shaquiell Richardson, Jordan James Etc..). Lets hope Rick and Chow go for more offense next year
I think the biggest loss was the loss of the DT to Oregon. We needed that NOW. Having Nottingham probably just would have chased Prince or Brehaut away, and I am not sure what we have with either of those guys at this point.
I wonder what Nottingham was told?? He will not play for at least 2 years at Stanford, because of Luck.
I like the idea of Jerry Neuheisel walking on. UCLA has had pretty good luck with walk-on QBs: John Barnes and, of course, Rick Neuheisel himself. What better coaching can Jerry get as a QB than straight from his dad?
I agree with coach Neuheisel's approach. Give the scholarship to a good recruit at another position rather than take a so so QB just to have a QB in this year class. Whatever "leftover" QB we get, after Nottingham flipped, is not going to help this season and our top 3 QBs have 3 more years of eligibility so we don't need a new QB to take over for at least a couple of years. We also have two walk-ons that are supposedly decent QBs. This also means that UCLA needs to LOCK DOWN an ELITE QB for 2011. If we win on the field and coach Chow gets an extension then it would be much easier to convince an elite QB to sign with us.
Evan Crower why,why,why is this QB committed to Stanford next fall??
http://hscalifornia.scout.com/a.z?s=153&p=8&c=1&nid=4530583
Jerry Neuheisel will walk on next year and it wont involve a scholarship as employees kids get to go to school for free. How do you think Fu$c always has so many scholie's to give, they make the father a conditioning coach or some B.S. like that.
Mater Dei has a QB that will be #1 in Cali next year, he would be great if we can get him.
GO BRUINS!!!
There are only 14 seniors listed for next season's squad so you figure that altho 4-5 scholarships will open up for whatever reason (injuries, transfers, etc.) so we won't have as many to offer next year. Therefore, we need to be more selective on who is offered in the upcoming months...
We need to give Chow a 2/3 year extension so that we can lure a top notch QB in 2011!
lane kiffin is a punk. seriously. it's kind of sad.
USC football: Lane Kiffin says Trojans 'waste time' recruiting players who choose UCLA
"I watched it over the weekend, just to see if it's the same, and it's really still the same," he said. "I guess we waste time continuing to recruit them. We know within the first 10 minutes whether they're the type of guys that want to play here or there." --
Good god! Not the employees' kids go to school for free rumor again. That's only true at private schools, the employees at UCs have to pay for their kids to go to school.
Don't know if Nottingham would have been but none of the current quarterbacks are NFL quality.
I truly think the biggest loss was Tony Jefferson. He committed a long time ago and decommited after the 'SC game. I really think he would have been an impact player here and although he was kinda liberal about the word "commitment" I still would have liked to have him.
What's that? $10K for tuition, and another $10K for the dorms? Done.
http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/7734/pac-10-recruiting-wrap-ucla
"I watched it over the weekend, just to see if it's the same, and it's really still the same . . ."
Watched what over the weekend?
If young Mr. Brehaut has qualms about learning how to becomea QB look back into UCLA QB history and see that there was a rich tradtion of seasoned QBS who sat and waited their turn before having tremendous success:
Jay Schroeder (5th Yr Senior starter)10 Year NFL career
Rick Neuheisel (5th Yr Senior starter)1 Yr NFL 2 Yrs USFL
Steve Bono (5th Yr Senior starter)14 Years NFL career
Matt Stevens (5th Yr Senior starter) 1 Year NFL
Troy Aikman (Jr/Sr starter) 12 Yr NFL career
"How do you feel?" We just landed a top 10 class. I feel great.
"Does the loss of Nottingham still sting?" Uhmmm, no. We have 3 solid sophomore QBs heading into next season.
"Should UCLA have poached another QB?" Who exactly? No.
"Should the Bruins make a major move early for a 2011 elite QB?" Sure, why not. I mean, jeez, we only have 364 days and a full football season left before next signing day!
We will definitely land a top QB next year. Not sure about a dad-son routine at UCLA with QB. Look at the Hawkins situation at CU. What a mess. I believe we landed some extraordinary talent. Great guys...great players. Rick must focus on stud OL recruits next year. All these flashy RBs are fine, but they need the road-graders. And of course, do anything that's almost legal to reel in at least 2 monster DTs.
I think they should go after an elite 2011 QB, and I think they have a great shot at landing one. There are lots of selling points: 1) they did not take a QB in the 2010 class, meaning the recruit would have a great opportunity to compete for playing time, 2) the strong recruits of the last few years should start performing, and I expect the offense to pick up next year, and 3) the opportunity to play for Norm Chow (enough said).