Mora: Alamo Bowl won’t override Brett Hundley’s body of work

UCLA had barely touched down in San Antonio on Sunday afternoon when the NFL draft again reared its head.

Shortly after the Bruins were welcomed at their team hotel by a three-man mariachi band, someone asked a question that will no doubt pop up again this week: Will the Alamo Bowl be quarterback Brett Hundley’s last chance to audition for the pros?

Head coach Jim Mora said emphasized that NFL scouts likely wouldn’t weigh one game more heavily than the 39 others that the third-year starter has played at UCLA.

“You look at the body of work,” Mora said. “Now, you’re also looking for patterns. What gives a guy trouble or where he excels. In that respect, one game can start to predict a pattern. But I think if you’re an instant evaluator, if you go off one game or one throw or one tackle or one quarter, that’s where you run into failings.

“The important thing is that you look at the body of work. The important thing is that you predict where that player will be in one, two, three, four, five years. How they fit into your scheme, your system. How they are as leaders.”

Hundley has also tried to downplay the importance of the bowl game on his draft stock, dismissing concerns about where he might be picked. Asked about his expectations are come April 30, the redshirt junior replied simply: “To get drafted.”

“A lot of people put so much on where you’re going and when you get drafted, but as long as you get the opportunity, I think that is the biggest thing,” Hundley continued. “I mean, you can go in the first round, you can go in the second round — but are you going to stay in the league, are you going to continue to be playing? You see people all the time going in the second round but to stay on is the goal. Whenever it may happen, wherever I get drafted to, I think the opportunity matters the most.”