Conference call notebook
UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel got mixed news in junior quarterback Kevin Prince's injury report on Saturday.
The oft-injured Crespi product cleared his concussion symptoms and will resume the standard protocol, but he also suffered a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder on the same play early in the second quarter of the team's 38-34 loss at Houston.
On a 2nd-and-6 from the UCLA 31-yard line, Prince took a keeper to the right sideline but was leveled and upended by Houston defender D.J. Hayden.
"The concussion cleaered last night, no lingering effects this morning," Neuheisel said. "There will be a protocol, but that portion of the injury will be fine by saturday. The question then is the shoulder, and we'll just have to wait and see."
It was a disappointing turn of events for Prince, who emerged as the starting quarterback after a heated fall camp battle with Brehaut, though they were expected to split time.
Prince missed three games during his redshirt freshman season because of myriad injuries, and he was sidelined for seven games last year with a knee injury after missing most of fall camp with a back injury.
"It's very frustrating," Prince told reporters on Saturday night. "Going through camp, being able to participate the whole time, then to play one quarter and be done with it that quick."
Brehaut relieved Prince and played admirably, throwing for 264 yards and two touchdowns, rushing for 87 yards and a score and not surrendering a sack while bringing the Bruins back from a 31-14 halftime deficit.
Neuheisel also said that freshman Brett Hundley would move to No. 2 on the depth chart if Prince were unable to play.
Franklin off to the races
Returning 1,100-yard rusher Johnathan Franklin got off to a good start with a 128-yard, one-touchdown effort against the Cougars. He also added two catches for 17 yards.
Franklin only got 16 carries, though, despite averaging eight yards a carry, and Neuheisel said the need to pass the ball took precedence.
"It's a game situation; we held the ball for 22 minutes in the second half, and we're trying to fight back into the game," Neuheisel said. "If we're ahead and chewing clock then we can certainly add more carries. Johnathan is gonna carry somewhere between 20 and 25 in a game."
Franklin only had four games with 20-plus carries last year despite having the highest individual rushing total for UCLA since Skip Hicks in 1997. He averaged 17.8 carries per game last season.
Bumps and Bruises
Neuheisel said that senior linebacker Glenn Love has a dislocated shoulder and would be out "a couple of weeks."
I'm a big KP fan, but you gotta stop putting yourself in position to get hurt. Otherwise, you can't be counted on.
Sorry Blur. I'm just as big a fan as you are, but KP "and I never thought I would say this" is more fragile the Ben Olson. His time has come and gone and Richard Brehaut was looking like Cade McNown out there against Houston. The KP experiment is over! He needs to hang it up!
KP might want to consider a career change. Has he ever played baseball? Maybe he could take over Brehaut's spot next season... :)
ucla34, you're absolutely right about KP's time having passed. Too bad. We can't count on him, so we gotta move on.
How about the fact that Brehaut looks like a true gamer out on the field. Coach can say he doesn't know all the reads and whatever, but just look at his play. No picks! Two touchdowns through the air and another on the ground. He also slid on a few if his runs, picking up first downs.
When he picked the ball up off the turf, threw a completion on the run while getting creamed by a defender; that play right there defines it for me. GAMER. You don't coach that.
He's not perfect, but neither is Prince. Prince's first completion of the game, a bunch of us held our breathes as it looked like it might get picked off. His balls just kind of float out there a little bit.
Neuheisel will never give Brehaut his due. I think he doesn't understand the value of being a true gamer. One who may not be the best study, may not he the best practice player, but when the lights go on, they get it. He doesn't get that. Maybe Jon can ask coach about that, I'd love to see his response. Assuming it doesn't come out in full coach-speak mode.
Maybe you can let him know that the fanbase is growing tired of that; you know, the coach-speak..
1) You need to throw to Fauria more.
2) Kudos to the coaches that your guys didn't quit at halftime, down 17.
3) Given how much better he runs the running game, I think KP was the guy to go with first. But now's the time to stop this stupid competition and go with one guy to get all the practice snaps and all the game snaps this week. He has to go with RB.
4) the defense has very little time to get things figured out. They looked like there was no place they'd rather be less than on that field saturday.
Ya...Neuheisel hates Brehaut...That's why he recruited him and convinced him to enroll in school early...
I think Neu is hard on Brehaut because he feels like Brehaut has the talent to be so much more, but just doesn't push himself hard enough or commit to the game as much as he would like.