Apparently Pat Haden’s letter got to UCLA just in time, because UCLA linebacker Myles Jack withdrew from school and will enter the NFL Draft. It’s not a bad decision. But for the traditionalists, it is probably jarring to have someone do all this the first week of October instead of December or January. Will he show up on sidelines at any more games this season?
Roquan Smith, Cordell Broadus, Chris Clark, now Myles Jack??
Like rats jumping off a sinking ship. Recruits: take note!!
informed sources are saying his bogus high school transcripts are about to light a fire under UCLA and it is best for both parties.
Myles must value his education. Obviously he’s making an educated decision..
Roquan Smith, Cordell Broadus, Chris Clark, now Myles Jack??
Like rats jumping off a sinking ship. Recruits: take note!!
Pony Express arrives at Scott’s office!
Pony Express arrives at Scott’s office!
Ah, Scott, the kid doesn’t want to go to class. Wake up.
Exactly he QUIT! wake up scooter!
Scooter hit the snooze button… again…..
Ah, Scott, the kid doesn’t want to go to class. Wake up.
Myles is a great Bruin and I imagine we will miss him far more than the rest of the conference. Wish him all the best at the next level.
Yeah, real team-oriented type of guy to just withdraw and leave his team a quarter of the way into the season. Must be a great team culture over there.
I think this reflects more on the fact that a kid has an opportunity to make millions of dollars rather than abandoning his team. I can’t say I would begrudge anyone who put themselves in a position to make life changing money, rather than sit on the sidelines to wave a towel.
The kid should finish with his degree before limping into the NFL – there is nothing good about this decision
He has an insurance policy. That may have affected his decision as well. I don’t know the particulars of the policy, but returning to school and playing football is still risky.
Defend him all you like, but the truth is he QUIT. It’s an awful example for the UCLA football program and will not play well with recruits’ parents. So defend all you want, but he’s a quitter.
Sorry BJ, but that is hardly the case. He would still be playing if he hadn’t gotten injured. He would have played out his year and then declared. The injury moved up the timetable. That’s all.
Not really, he quit on his team, his education and showed he doesn’t care about UCLA football or Mora. It’s good for SC recruiting.
It has no effect on SC’s recruiting whatsoever. Except it may help flip Mique Juarez to UCLA now that it is clear there is an opening. SC will do fine in recruiting no matter what, unless Sark implodes.
It helps ALL schools recruiting against UCLA.
Dream on!
You’ll be the one dreaming about being a Trojan as your program is going down the toilet. Eddie next, then Clark.
Sark will be the gift that keeps on giving.
We’ll see. If it’s true, your team and mine will have the same number of NC over the next 10 years: ZERO
That is probably about a 90% probability.
Egh, a college degree is great for your average person, but for those that have unique ability (i.e., elite athletes, tech wizzes, etc.) there is no point in not monetizing that ability, especially when it is fleeting.
like 5th rounder Brett Humphries? get lost !!
I think Ellis McCarthy is probably a better example from your side, but Brett is still making more as a 5th rounder than any job he would have gotten with an undergraduate degree from either UCLA or USC.
More? ….Yes…. but for how long?……and what marketable skills will he have, after his playing days are over?……coaching?….
It is a gamble, no question, but most people will never have the opportunity to make in a life time what a player who can sustain time in the NFL would make over a two contract career, even as a backup. On the other hand, I suppose if any of these guys thought it was a better idea to go to Wall St. they would make more over the long term than almost any pro athlete, besides the uber elite guys, but I don’t think most of these guys have that skill set.
Exactly – so short sighted
I don’t know that another year would have moved Brett up in the draft. A lot depends upon who else is in the draft and the NFL guys seem to prefer the ones that played in a pro-type system. Handley had a nice preseason and it will be interesting to see how he develops in Green Bay. It’s a good place for him and I think he will develop faster there than another year at UCLA.
You may be right, but who are the top QB’s coming out this year?… Jared Goff, Christian Hackenberg and that’s about it….both pro-types, as you put it…..good to see that’s being brought along slowly, instead of just being thrown into the fray.. heck, if running QB’s like Michael Vick and Randall Cunningham were able to stick around as long as they did in the NFL, then maybe Hundley has a chance…..
perhaps…I’m pretty sure he could have stayed and accomplished something conference championship? Heisman? rose bowl? degree ? and all that 5th round money would still be there for him..
I think most Bruins would have loved to have BH back for another year and he probably suffered in the draft for not returning, but then again, he probably would have gone higher if he left the year before. I can’t blame anyone for betting on themselves and maximizing their talents while they still have them.
100% agree.
I’m not going to hold it against him that he is leaving to the NFL before getting his degree. MANY MANY athletes do this. Just look at the Trojans who came back to get their degrees. And in all honesty, degrees are really overrated as so many people have them now and the jobs are not there. So good for him.
yea just like Brett Hundley 5th round pick how did that work out? what a joke!! Myles Jack quit!!
I think Myles has more of an NFL future than Brett, but I would hardly say either quit.
well I think you are wrong on both counts. Both me first guys
Under that logic, isn’t everyone who leaves early “me first”?
Only three games into his junior year he decides to drop out?…..he obviously had his mind made up before the season that he would be going pro……Good luck, Myles…..I guess he doesn’t have any unfinished business….must be a nice feeling
Maybe he just wants to wipe his face clean from Mora’s constant face cupping
He is heading somewhere to rehab the knee away from school and focus on getting ready for the combine. Not exactly a surprise.
No, not a surprise, but being shortsighted with regard to the value of an education is, at least it is to me….but then again, college is not for everyone….there’s nothing wrong with going to a trade school…. college football has basically become the minor leagues for the NFL anyway, as college basketball is for the NBA…..unfortunately, the quality of college basketball has suffered and it has become almost unwatchable, at least until tournament time…..I’m hoping that college football doesn’t suffer the same fate….
College basketball is a joke these days. I think Jack is ready and probably wants to make some money and not risk further injury. I wonder how much money Matt Barkley and Brett Hundley may have cost themselves by not coming out earlier. It is strictly a business decision and he can always come back to school if he makes enough money.
I realize that everyone’s personal situation and needs are different, but one doesn’t have to look back very far to see the early draft announcement stories of George Uko, George Farmer, Xavier Grimble and Ellis McCarthy, who left UCLA after only 8 career starts….all of them undrafted free agents…to me, it feels more like a crap shoot, than a business decision…
Yes, but none of those guys stood out in college. I am not familiar with Uko, but Farmer, Grimble and McCarthy did zip in college. McCarthy got really bad advice and with Vanderdoes out with injury could have improved his stock greatly. Perhaps Ellis just wasn’t much of a student and didn’t like school. Myles Jack has shown himself to be NFL ready. He shut down Agholor last year repeatedly and Agholor went in the 1st round.
We shall see… I just get very cautious about a player being overhyped in college.. especially with media created “monsters”, such as Brian Bosworth
Hey, maybe it’s both a crap shoot AND a business decision!
Uko’s departure really bothered me. He had a pretty decent year and I thought the next season he was gonna blow up. As a fan I wanted him to come back to school and I thought he needed another year of football. His draft status evaluation was 6-7 rounder and I don’t think he was drafted. He was even told to stay by Sark.
I heard Farmer was planning to come back, but he couldn’t get a players injury insurance policy. His player history was full of injuries. They felt he was too much of a risk.
this is the truth. leinart came back, didn’t get hurt, but lost a ton of money…
I’m not sure if he’ll be a first rounder, but he’s proven himself in college.
Vanderdoes may be gone, but I think he should stay. He has been solid and very good, but he hasn’t stood out like Myles Jack.
Well it sure looks like it was to Mora.
Why wouldn’t he show up on sidelines at any more games this season?…. what…..UCLA doesn’t allow drop outs to hang out on the sidelines?… Would Mora stoop that low?….wouldn’t that be bad PR, like the nightmare we had with Lendale White?
Rumor has it that Mr. Jack has just hired Mr. Bucket as his Agent!
I heard it was because he lost his insurance for rehab?
We all know the Bruins enjoy football more when school’s not in session. As a Bruin fan I’m sick about this.
What a fine example of a student athlete. He obviously placed great value on his UCLA education.
its not like he was coming back for his senior year. I think this comes down to a decision of signing with an agent and doing rehab at a private training center vs. staying in school, doing rehab with the UCLA trainers and having his scholarship cover some room and board. If the same thing happened to someone like Sua Cravens, I would think you would have a very similar situation. Guys at their level are majoring in professional sports and the NCAA requires that they also take classes in something other than their future profession.
“Guys at their level are majoring in professional sports” — exactly. If we were starting from scratch, it might not make much sense to put the NFL’s developmental league on college campuses, but that’s where we are.
Let’s say for argument’s sake that college athletics started with crew racing between Harvard and Yale. At that time the teams were formed from the best rowers among the students already enrolled at the schools purely for academic purposes.
That, to me, is the essence of what college sports was meant to be.
What we have today is so far removed that you can’t even make a comparison.
Having said that, college football is still my favorite sport and I love watching it in its current configuration every Saturday during the fall.
The way I look at it is that it’s just kind of an accident of history that the modern American university is a collection of somewhat unrelated enterprises all operating on the same campus. I mean, look at USC — does it make sense that hydrocarbon research, film studies, law school, and a minor league NFL team are all part of the same institution? Maybe not, but it doesn’t offend me. By the same token, I can’t get too offended if a player takes an “it’s just business” attitude.
Not to mention managing the old Olympic Stadium across the street.
nothing left to prove on this level, the kid is beasty on both sides of the ball.
I don’t blame Myles Jack for entering the upcoming draft, because he doesn’t want to risk another injury. But I hope he’s not banking on becoming a 1st round pick, because based on the circumstances he probably won’t go until 4th or 5th.IMO
It all depends upon how his rehab goes. If he is fully recovered and knocks their socks off at the combine, he will go in the 1st or 2nd round. We will see.
I’m not sure what it says about Jack save that his career is pro football – I get that. What doesn’t make sense is Mora’s comments about his (Jack) limited game time.
That’s the same bull PC did to mark Sanchez the problem for UCLA is that USC’s name is national and the pros prove the dominance of Troy – UCLA does not have that rep and consequently it can ill afford a HC going off on a player with recruits watching.