Sophomore Richard Brehaut stepped in for an injured Kevin Prince in UCLA’s 42-28 win over Washington State Saturday.
UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel has reinstated redshirt sophomore Kevin Prince as the team’s starting quarterback, at least for now.
Sophomore Richard Brehaut made his debut performance as the team’s starter on Saturday against Washington State and performed adequately as a replacement for the injured Prince, but Neuheisel appeared ready to go back to his first-string man for next week’s game at California, given a clean bill of health.
“I’ve been told (Prince) has been cleared,” Neuheisel said in Monday’s press conference. “We want to be careful we don’t overwork him, but my thought is he’ll be ready to go.”
Prince had fluid drained from his knee on Sept. 26 following the team’s game at Texas and then sat out all of last week’s practices because of soreness.
After last weekend’s game at the Rose Bowl, Prince claimed he would be ready to go for the next contest in Berkeley.
“I wanted to be out there the whole time (against WSU), but the smart thing was to rest up and come back for Cal next week.”
Meanwhile, Brehaut was 12 for 23 against the Cougars, amassing 128 yards passing, which is the highest game total the Bruins have had all season.
He did not throw any interceptions and he even had a 1-yard rushing touchdown early in the fourth quarter to give the team its final lead.
“I thought he deserved this opportunity and I thought he went out and performed pretty well,” Neuheisel said after the game. “There are a couple things that we’ll fix ““ throws he wants back ““ but for the most part, pretty darn good for a first start.”
Neuheisel did not officially make a decision on whether Prince would be playing on Saturday until hours before gametime, but Brehaut was told he would be starting on Friday afternoon.
“I was preparing all week like I was going to get the start,” Brehaut said. “Obviously I’m thinking about things a whole lot more than I usually am on a Friday night, but I felt good. I slept well.”
Prince gave good marks to his teammate after watching him from the sideline.
“He hasn’t had as much experience running it in those game type situations, but I thought overall he did a great job,” Prince said. “As the game went on, he got better and more comfortable.”
In his postgame remarks, Neuheisel said he could have played Prince “in an emergency,” and apparently didn’t consider the WSU game one.
When the new week of practice starts on Tuesday, the head coach said he plans to have Prince back in the saddle.
“Kevin’s still got the lion’s share of experience and he’s performed well enough for us to have great confidence that he’s the best quarterback right now,” Neuheisel said. “But Richard obviously is moving in the right direction given his performance the other day.”
Neuheisel said he welcomes the competition between his two gunslingers.
“Because of the way Richard played, Kevin will be more excited to get back in there,” Neuheisel said. “That kind of competiton raises the level for everybody.”
Yet he still denied that the relationship between the two is adversarial.
“I think they treat the game kind of like golfers treat the golf course,” Neuheisel said. “You’re playing the course, you’re not necessarily playing the other guy. And you appreciate the other guys who are doing the same.”
Backs Keep on Running
The backfield of redshirt sophomore Johnathan Franklin and junior Derrick Coleman has become quite an offensive force and their statistics from Saturday’s game were fittingly impressive.
Franklin rushed for 216 yards in Saturday’s game, while Coleman had 185, each of which were career highs.
They became the first pair of Bruin running backs in school history to rush for at least 180 yards each in the same game.
Franklin’s total was the highest by a Bruin since All-American and current NFL star Maurice Jones-Drew, who had 322 yards in the 2004 season.
This was also Franklin’s third straight 100-yard rushing game.
Coleman’s 73-yard run in the fourth quarter that set up UCLA’s go-ahead touchdown was the longest play from scrimmage for the Bruin offense this year.
For a team that sometimes lacks offensive consistency, Franklin and Coleman were as steadily brilliant as possible, combining for five different rushes of over 20 yards over the course of the game.
Neuheisel praised the offensive line for contributing to the team’s rushing explosion.
The “filthy five,” as they’ve been called, also did not allow a sack in the game.