Though Brett Hundley passed over the NFL and returned to school for another year, the thought of playing on Sundays affected his Saturdays.
It showed in his game, as the redshirt junior quarterback tried to be the player that pro scouts wanted him to be, rather than the one that No. 18 UCLA needed him to be.
Following UCLA’s win over Arizona, Hundley said that he didn’t run the ball as much earlier in the season to show NFL evaluators what he could do as a pocket passer.
As Hundley tried to look more like a pro-style quarterback, the pressure got to him. Literally.
Hundley ran less and was sacked more, and the UCLA offense – though still productive – was far less dynamic than it had been expected to be.
“In this offense, we always have something mainly downfield,” Hundley said. “But at the same time, we have the underneath and intermediate routes and stuff like that – there’s always an option or two.”
For much of the season, Hundley has been one of the national leaders in completion percentage because of his ability to complete short-to-mid-range passes.
But after UCLA allowed a season-high 10 sacks in its 30-28 loss to Utah, it became clear that Hundley would have to turn to a different option.
For Hundley, that meant more running. For UCLA, it meant a more productive offense.
In the four games since their loss to the Utes, the Bruins have averaged 286.25 yards on the ground after averaging 167.8 in their first five games. If the 286.25 held through the entire season, that mark would rank among the top-10 in the nation.
While Hundley has turned four of his five best rushing performances in his UCLA career over the past month, he is hardly the only one responsible for UCLA’s revitalized ground attack.
“The difference is Paul Perkins is really lighting it up,” said junior receiver Jordan Payton. “I think Brett rushed for 150 yards or something like that (against Arizona). We’re harder to stop when we have those two running like that.”
While Payton was a bit off on Hundley’s rushing total – he finished with 131 yards – he was spot on with his second point.
Together, Perkins and Hundley have formed one of the top backfield duos in the nation, accounting for 4,044 yards of total offense and 28 total touchdowns.
While Hundley has just recently got his legs going, Perkins has been a steady contributor all season. The redshirt sophomore running back has run 98 yards or more on the ground in six out of nine contests and has run for no less than 78 yards in any game.
On his second carry in UCLA’s 17-7 win over Arizona on Saturday, Perkins became the 13th Bruin to cross the 1,000-yard mark in a single season and currently sits 12th in the nation with 1,071 yards on the year.
His average of 119 rushing yards per game through UCLA’s first nine games puts him just under the average of 123.9 per game that UCLA single-season rushing leader Johnathan Franklin had in 2012, his record-breaking year.
Not that Perkins is counting.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know until I got off to the sidelines. Somebody told me that I rushed for 1,000 yards,” Perkins said. “It’s a great accolade to have under my belt, but like I said earlier – the offensive line – they do a great job of blocking up front. I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys.”