UCLA names a starter at quarterback

Last season, UCLA had much difficulty finding a productive starter at the quarterback position. In preseason practices, they shuffled three quarterbacks, Kevin Craft, Christian Forcier, and Osaar Rashan, around before eventually selecting Craft as the team’s starter.

Smart move? I highly doubt it.

In his first full season as a starter in 2008, Kraft was underwhelming, as he completed just 55.6% of his passes and had a dismal touchdown to interception ratio of 7:20. I’m sure UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow was reminiscing about his coaching days at USC, where he had a much easier time tutoring Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

But with spring in the air, Chow and the rest of the UCLA fanbase are hoping that there will be a rebirth of quality play at the quarterback position. But that new life won’t be sprung from the arm of Kevin Craft, as Rick Neuheisel officially announced that Kevin Prince, not Craft, would be the team’s number one quarterback.

If Prince, who redshirted last season, is in fact the starter when UCLA opens the season at home against San Diego State, he would then be the first UCLA freshman to open at quarterback since Bret Johnson did back in 1989. It will certainly be a big jump for Prince, who ran the scout team for half of last fall and spent the rest of the time as the backup to Craft.

So for those expecting Prince to turn the Bruins into an upper-echelon Pac-10 team and threaten USC’s dominance atop the conference, it might be wise to be a little more realistic at this point in time. The fact of the matter is that Prince has looked widely inconsistent throughout spring ball. During the Bruins’ spring game last Saturday, his first six passes were incomplete with one being intercepted. Despite a slow start, he went on to complete eight of 14 passes for 91 yards and a touchdown. So the potential is obviously there. It’ll just take some time.