Months of using the term “by committee” may finally be tossed aside in favor of “duo” come UCLA’s season opener this Saturday against Nevada.
As many as six names — Jordon James, Malcolm Jones, Steven Manfro, Paul Perkins, Damien Thigpen and a young Craig Lee — have been used in the Bruins’ running back conversation this year leading up to the conclusion of fall camp. On Wednesday, while Mora mentioned he saw roles for as many as four, he identified just two — James, a redshirt junior and Manfro, a redshirt sophomore — above the rest of the pack.
“I think we’ve narrowed it down,” Mora said. “Jordon’s our starter and Steven’s our backup guy right now and they’re the guys we’re going to ride most often, but I think there’s certainly a role for Paul and I think there’s certainly a role for Malcolm as well.”
James, who backed up now-Green Bay Packer Johnathan Franklin in 2012, carried the ball a grand total of 61 times last year for UCLA, gaining 234 yards, good for a below-average 3.5 yards per carry. Throughout the spring and into the fall, however, James has been the Bruins’ most consistent backfield force, providing reliable pass protection, a must for a UCLA team that relies heavily on redshirt sophomore quarterback Brett Hundley.
“I think it comes with maturity,” James said. “Being in this offense for the second time you understand schemes and defenses and you just know what the linemen are doing. If you can’t pass block, you won’t play.”
One of Mora’s main concerns with the running backs last spring was their tendency — Perkins, a redshirt freshman, Jones, a senior, and James included — to try to make their moves at the line of scrimmage. This habit forced a particularly athletic James to run into closed holes, yielding unsatisfactory gains on the ground.
With an entire spring and summer to try to plant his feet more effectively upon taking the handoff and running downhill, James has shown improvement, something running backs coach Steve Broussard attributes to knowing his own strengths and when to use them.
“It’s just taking what the defense gives you and understanding the plays,” Broussard said. “Jordon is quick. He has the ability to bounce outside and he’s jittery. He has some elusiveness to him. It’s just getting him to understand when and when not to bounce to the outside.”
Malcolm’s Return
Roughly a year after deciding to leave the UCLA football team, citing his frustration with his lack of repetitions in the team’s 2012 opener at Rice, Malcolm Jones is once again in the good graces of the program, having earned a scholarship for the 2013 season.
Announced to the media by Mora on Monday as one of four players recently placed on scholarship for the upcoming season, Jones said he first found out about the arrangement with a Mora slip of the tongue at last week’s senior appreciation dinner.
“Coach Mora brought up all of the seniors and then just, one by one, talked about us a little bit and then he kind of just blurted it out to everybody that I’m back on scholarship,” Jones said. “It was really good, more of a relief than anything.”
Though Mora mentioned the scholarships will be limited to one-year installments so as to keep the players competitive, that won’t make much of a difference for Jones. The former Gatorade National Player of the Year in high school football applied for a waiver for a redshirt year during the offseason but was denied, a product of playing six too many plays in Houston last season.
Knowing this year will be his last, Jones, who figures to earn some goal line snaps at running back this season, said he expects there to be a little bit more force every time he lowers his shoulders this season.
“All summer, I wasn’t entirely sure if it was going to be my last year or not,” Jones said. “Now that I know it’s my last year, I’m a little extra motivated to get everything done and work as hard as I possibly can.”
Jones’ first course of action will be acclimating himself to the intensity of Saturday college football once again. While it’s been over a year since his last game action, this Saturday brings back an even longer-lost experience in playing at the Rose Bowl, something he hasn’t experienced in a true game setting since November 2011.
“It’s been quite a while, so I’m just excited to go out there and be with the fans and be with the team and see how everything plays out,” Jones said.