The UCLA Bruins concluded their spring practices for 2011 with a spring game at chilly Drake Stadium that came and went virtually without incident.

In front of a solidly blue but mostly subdued crowd, Rick Neuheisel unveiled a team that can best be described as a “work in progress”, with plenty more to be done in the four-and-a-half months left until the Bruins open their season with a road game against the Houston Cougars.

It’s tough to take away too much from a game in which the coach has the power to overturn calls by the officials, as Neuheisel did on a catch by Randall Carroll, but, nonetheless, here are some observations from the evening “action” between the white-clad offense and the blue-garbed defense.

Brett Hundley Makes His Long-Awaited Debut

The biggest story of the day was the unveiling of quarterback Brett Hundley.

The five-star recruit from Chandler, Arizona has been the talk of the town ever since he verbally committed to Coach Neuheisel at the end of last summer. Hundley graduated early from high school and enrolled at UCLA back in the winter to be ready to compete for reps under center in the spring.

Reports out of spring practice about Hundley had been mixed, to say the least, though it’s not exactly earth-shattering news when a 17-year-old kid struggles out of the gate.

All of that—the hype, the talent and the inexperience—was on display at Drake Stadium on the UCLA campus during the spring game. After watching and waiting patiently from the sideline for the first half hour or so of the scrimmage, Hundley took to the field in a black #17 jersey to the applause of the attendant crowd.

Hundley quickly rewarded the enthusiasm of the Bruins faithful with two quick completions, the second of which went to redshirt sophomore Ricky Marvray, whose hands seemed to finally have caught up to his route-running.

Hundley followed up those completions with a pair of designed runs, showing off his shifty feet and mobility, though the fact that defenders were allowed to tackle the quarterbacks only via two-hand touch mitigated the impressiveness of his scampers to an extent.

Unfortunately, that was about the extent of Hundley’s definitely positive plays for the day. He finished off that drive with a slow lob to the sideline on what was supposed to be a quick out and an incomplete pass to Randall Carroll in the end zone that was nearly picked off, on a nifty defensive play, by Aaron Hester.

The rest of Hundley’s afternoon consisted of a series of overthrows, underthrows and near picks, with a few decent tosses and useful scrambles sprinkled in between.

Hundley finished the day with only 57 yards on seven completions in 13 attempts, though he did account for one of the offense’s scores with a touchdown on a short pass to Malcolm Jones. Overall, not the best first showing, but not exactly the worst either.

Richard Brehaut

The story was remarkably similar for Richard Brehaut, much to the chagrin of the Bruins fans in attendance and, perhaps even more so, to the coaches on the sideline, though his passing did appear to be improved from his previous two seasons.

The junior-to-be accounted for 102 yards on 11-of-20 passing, including a pretty connection with Nelson Rosario in the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown. In addition, Brehaut threw several strikes throughout the afternoon to Rosario, Marvray and Taylor Embree, eschewing his characteristically lofty throws for sharp darts to his targets.

Of course, there were those other moments when he looked like the Brehaut of old, well overthrowing his man on some occasions and just flat out stinking it up in the red zone on one drive in particular.

All in all, though, Brehaut looked to be turning the ratio of positive-to-negative plays just a bit more in favor of the positive, most impressively when completing passes under duress. Fans of the Blue and Gold can only hope that Brehaut will be even better once the season rolls around, with several months to continue his development in the meantime.

Absences

The Bruins will need Brehaut to step up his game regardless, but especially if Kevin Prince doesn’t play, as was the case today.

Prince sat out the spring game alongside three of the team’s starting offensive linemen—Sean Sheller, Jeff Baca and Kai Maiava—all three of whom will be seniors in the fall.

The rising redshirt junior quarterback did not participate in spring practice after undergoing surgery on his troublesome right knee, while the three offensive linemen were held out of the spring game after suffering various injuries in the practices leading up to it.

All four should be good to go by the time fall camp gets started this summer, though their collective absence was apparent.

Particularly up front, as UCLA’s patchwork O-line struggled in pass protection, which, at least in part, accounted for the inconsistencies of Brehaut and Hundley under center.

So while new offensive coordinator Mike Johnson may not have been pleased by his group’s performance on Saturday, he can at least take comfort knowing that he’ll (probably) have more healthy bodies to work with when the fall rolls around.

Running Game

As was the case during the misery of the Bruins’ 4-8 season last year, the one shining bright spot for the offense was the running game.

Johnathan Franklin, UCLA’s leading rusher from a year ago, ripped off 50 yards on four carries, 39 yards of which came on a single speedy scamper early on that enlivened the crowd, if only for a fleeting moment.

Franklin certainly wasn’t the only ‘back who impressed at the spring game. The stable of sophomores—Malcolm Jones, Jordon James and Anthony Barr—gave everyone in the vicinity plenty of reason to think the offense might actually put up some points in 2011.

James utilized his quickness and elusiveness to rack up 45 yards on seven carries while Jones (three carries for 25 yards) and Barr (six carries for 22) demonstrated the kind of power that will likely add an interesting dimension to the team’s offense—assuming they’re able to carry that onto the field when the plays actually matter.

Defense

There was no greater reason for optimism on the field than the play of the defense.

Granted, the offense was down three starters and a back-up along the line while debuting a more-or-less new offense with Mike Johnson at the helm.

Then again, it’s not as though the defense wasn’t dealing with its own set of challenges, what with new defensive coordinator Joe Tresey trying to match wits with Johnson and Neuheisel.

However, it became quite clear throughout the course of the scrimmage that Tresey has a fair amount of talent to work with—at least more than Johnson has at his disposal on offense.

Aside from a few plays on which it was gashed for big runs, the first unit took care of business, though it was the second and third units that really opened up some eyes on Saturday afternoon.

Particularly noteworthy was the play of sophomores-to-be Eric Kendricks and Tevin McDonald. Kendricks, who figures to provide some interesting depth in the linebacking corps, had some solid tackles and a nice tipped ball at the line of scrimmage on a Brehaut pass. McDonald, whose brother T.J. plays at USC, made impressive use of his pads throughout the game, waking up the crowd with a bone-crushing hit on wide receiver Randall Carroll who, miraculously enough, managed to hang onto the ball.

Or so Neuheisel dictated to the “referee” on the scene.

Either way, the defense figures to be the Bruins’ strong suit in 2011, even without Akeem Ayers and Rahim Moore—both of whom may very well be first round picks in this month’s NFL Draft.

Outlook

It’s tough to gauge too much from a spring game, especially for a team like the Bruins, with so many changes to the coaching staff in the offseason, injuries on offense and the addition of a highly touted freshman into the mix.

As underwhelming as Saturday’s proceedings may have been, there’s still plenty of reason for optimism in Westwood. For one, the Bruins’ offensive backfield is stacked with runners, each of whom has a distinctly useful style with the ball in his hands. The quarterbacks were still inconsistent, though the flashes of brilliance displayed by Brehaut and Hundley should, theoretically, extend into full swaths of of light between now and September.

For good measure, the defense appears to have more than enough talent to make up for the departures of Ayers and Moore.

And, if nothing else, Rick Neuheisel will be working even harder this time around to get his kids to play to the best of their ability, as his future at his alma mater likely hinges on whether or not their collective performance improves enough to net a few more wins in 2011.

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