Neuheisel squelches talk of controversy

UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel told reporters during a Sunday conference call that if healthy, sophomore Kevin Prince will be the starting quarterback for the Bruins’ matchup at Cal on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

“He says he feels good today,” Neuheisel said. “We’ll wait and see what he looks like on Tuesday. No more (X-rays) or anything, just a basis of how he feels. I just saw him, and he said he felt great.”

Sophomore Richard Brehaut led UCLA to a 42-28 win over Washington on Saturday at the Rose Bowl after being told on Friday that he was starting in place of Prince, who suffered a knee injury in a 34-12 Week 4 win over Texas.

Brehaut completed 12-of-23 passes for 128 yards and had a crucial one-yard touchdown run as the Bruins rebounded from a 28-20 deficit. Brehaut’s 128 passing yards were the most the offense has had this season.

“I thought he played pretty darn good,” Neuheisel said. “He had a couple of really good plays. Some inexperience showed up at times. Ran himself into some problems, didn’t realize how to take advantage of some protection issues. But for a first time out, I thought he was terrific.”

After the game, Brehaut said he was most pleased with the way he ran the offense, particularly his reads in the zone run of the Pistol offense, which led to 437 rushing yards, the school’s highest total since 1979.

“I don’t think there was one time where we were in the wrong call,” Brehaut said. “That’s my job as a quarterback. It’s not about hitting every ball. It’s not about the great runs. It’s about making the sure offense is in the right call every time. We had some audibles; on that last score we were in a zone-read, and I saw that there was two guys coming off the weak side, and I checked it to an inside zone play on the strong side, and we ended up scoring.
“That’s what it’s about as a quarterback.”