Of all the days on which UCLA football’s three early enrollee freshmen could do their first spring practice interviews, Thursday may not have been the best one.
Two of them had midterms.
“I have a midterm in a couple hours that I was just studying for last night,” said freshman linebacker Josh Woods.
Just moments after Woods left practice for class, freshman defensive back Nathan Meadors stood before reporters for the first time as a Bruin. Schoolwork was at the forefront of his mind as well.
“My favorite class (is) probably ‘Earthquakes.’ … I have a midterm for that today, so that’s where I’m going after this,” he said.
If Woods and Meadors have spoken to fellow early enrollee quarterback Josh Rosen, they’d know to leave a little early to go to their midterms. The trek from the Hill to campus can take longer than expected for a student who has just transitioned from a 36-acre high school campus to a 419-acre college one.
“Honestly, I’d say the biggest transition (for me) is just getting everywhere on time with college in general,” Rosen said. “It’s kind of been tough. … I mean, like my first week or something I was about five minutes late to every class, sort of underestimated how long every walk was.”
Early enrollee freshman football players such as Rosen are thrown into a crash course of time management from the first time they step onto a collegiate campus. It’s not just the increased paced of college football that they have to prepare for, it’s the increased pace of the school day as well.
Workouts at 5:30 a.m., training table sessions, class, mentor meetings, film study and more. It’s a far cry from a structured day in high school, which consists of classes from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Rosen said.
“The most difficult thing (is) with regards to just being in college – it has nothing to do with football,” Rosen said. “I mean you gotta go from here to there, to here to there. I mean we’re up at like 5:30 on most days, we have to get a little snack in before the dining halls are even open – and then you’ve gotta go lift.”
Though Rosen may still be trying to gauge how long it takes to get to class, his timing was precise on the field Thursday. He completed 11 of his 17 passes during 11-on-11 scrimmages – including seven of his last 10 – proving he’s all the more ready to seize that starting quarterback role by the start of fall camp.
But Rosen said he still doesn’t know if he’ll be the starter.
“I don’t know, we’ll see,” Rosen said. “Whoever starts, we’re all gonna be supremely confident in them, because if they did win the job, they won it for a reason – they’re gonna be the best quarterback and the best man to lead this football team.”
After getting acclimated to the UCLA campus and the football team over the past few months, Rosen will have little time to get adjusted to the Bruins’ home field at the Rose Bowl. He’ll play there Saturday in the Spring Showcase, but UCLA’s next game in Pasadena doesn’t come until the season opener on Sept. 5.
New announcer speaks to media
The three freshmen weren’t the only new faces to be interviewed after Thursday’s practice. New play-by-play announcer Bill Roth, formerly the announcer at Virginia Tech, spoke about his new job.
“It was gonna take a really special place for me to ever leave Virginia Tech – something very unique, something iconic – and this is the only place that I would consider leaving for,” Roth said. “This is a tremendous privilege for me.”
Roth said he watched every UCLA men’s basketball game this year “just in case” he’d be offered the Bruins’ play-by-play position after Chris Roberts retired. Now that he has the job, Roth said he’s going to devote his entire summer to becoming acclimated with the team and the players.
“I feel like I’m somebody who needs to study for the GREs,” Roth said with a laugh. “My chore over the next three months is to learn as much as I can.”