Chosen Josh Rosen is no more, at least in regards to the remainder of UCLA football’s 2016 season.
Unfortunately, the sophomore quarterback from Manhattan Beach, Calif., was injured in UCLA’s 23-20 loss to Arizona State in early October, and the school recently confirmed that Rosen won’t be able to play for the rest of the season. He won’t undergo surgery, according to a report from Kyle Bonagura of ESPN, and he doesn’t have nerve damage in his shoulder.
With that said, the injury is obviously bad enough to keep him out for the rest of the season. Perhaps it’s a preventive move from UCLA — thinking about Rosen’s long-term future both with the Bruins and in the NFL — and head coach Jim Mora made it seem that way in a recent comment on the matter.
“We’re going to always do what’s best for our players and their long-term care, their long-term health, their long-term well-being,” Mora said, via Bonagura. “Sometimes that means protecting them from themselves.”
Perhaps Rosen’s sprit is willing, but his flesh is weak. There was also no timetable set for his recovery, so it’s tough to know.
The fact of the matter is that after a freshman season that saw him throw for 3,670 yards and 23 touchdowns (with 11 interceptions), Rosen’s sophomore campaign is officially over.
It died on the table.
That’s a disappointing fact, to say the least. Rosen was supposed to be one of the top quarterbacks in college football this season and UCLA had legitimate hopes of competing in the Pac-12 because of that.
Even before his injury, though, Rosen wasn’t all that great.
He led UCLA to just a 3-3 record, throwing for only 10 touchdowns while tossing five interceptions in the process, including three to start the season against then-unranked Texas A&M (the Aggies are now No. 4 in the new CFP rankings). For a player who was chosen to be the next great one for UCLA, it was a season that was anything but great. The former five-star couldn’t live up to the hype and he hit somewhat of a sophomore slump. Some may say he hit the sophomore wall.
But if Rosen hit the wall, his team backed up and hit it again with him on the sidelines. UCLA lost Rosen’s final game of the season, dropping a close one to ASU, 23-20. The Bruins have gone on to lose three more in a row, dropping games to Washington State, 27-21; Utah, 52-45; and Colorado, 20-10.
Redshirt senior Mike Fafaul has stepped in to replace Rosen and, well, it has been a bag of mixed results for the 6-foot-1, 199-pound signal-caller from Cockeysville, Md.
Against Washington State in Pullman, Fafaul did complete 24-of-40 passes for 258 yards and three touchdowns, which is the good. The bad? He also threw three interceptions, including one with 45 seconds to go in the game that effectively iced it for the Cougars. UCLA was down 21-27 when Fafaul was picked off by Charleston White.
It was more of the same for Fafaul against No. 19 Utah. The good? He threw for 464 yards and five touchdowns. Wow, the good in this instance is pretty good, right? Unfortunately, though, we haven’t mentioned the bad. Fafaul did throw the five scores, but he also was intercepted by the Utes four times and he fumbled once, for a total of five turnovers.
Last but not least during this stretch was Thursday night’s game against Colorado. Fafaul did throw a touchdown and 185 yards, but again, he was picked off.
So for those keeping score at home, Fafaul has thrown nine touchdowns and nine interceptions in UCLA’s past three games. He’s had a case of the good, bad and ugly for the Bruins, when even just a little bit more ball security could have been the difference between this four-game losing streak and a little bit of hope on the horizon. Remember, all of these games have been relatively close, so every offensive possession matters.
“It is terrible, I don’t like losing,” Fafaul said after the Colorado loss, according to Blair Angulo of Scout.com. “It is just hard right now but we are going to keep fighting. We are going to keep swinging till the last game.”
(Photo by Carlos Herrera/Icon Sportswire)
Fight is really all Fafaul and the Bruins can do. After going 10-3 with bowl wins in both 2013 and 2014, UCLA scraped together a 8-5 season in 2015, which wasn’t awesome but that’s to be expected when starting a true freshman. This season was supposed to be the big breakout for UCLA — with Rosen leading the way — but that’s no longer a reality. The reality for the Bruins is that there are only three games left in their 2016 seaosn, and they’ll need to win all three just to become bowl eligible.
UCLA will have to win against Oregon State, against USC and then at Cal. Two of the three games are at home, which is good news for the Bruins, and all are winnable. They are winnable games with a caveat, though: Fafaul needs to take care of the football.
He’s proven himself capable of running the offense and being able to find the end zone. He’s almost thrown as many touchdowns as Rosen had in half the playing time, so it’s not like he’s devoid of talent.
Especially in close games, though, and especially in games where there’s a lot on the line, every “make” and every “miss” matters.
If UCLA is to have any shot at at the very least gaining bowl eligibility and trying to save the dignity of the 2016 season, Fafaul is going to have to be the player who steps up. Sure, he probably wasn’t expecting to be starting quarterback for UCLA in November, but this is the position he’s in, and it’s a position he’s likely dreamed of his whole life. He has a chance to be “the guy” for the Bruins and rewrite his legacy in his final snaps with the program. UCLA may not have title aspirations anymore this season, but the Bruins can still go out on a positive note.
Sure, it’s not like Fafaul is getting any production out of his backfield — to say the least — but his receivers are catching footballs. Junior Darren Andrews caught eight for 116 yards against Washington and six for 88 yards and a score against the Buffaloes. Senior tight end Nate Lese caught eight for 146 yards and two touchdowns against Utah, so Fafaul certainly does have some nice targets to throw to.
He just needs to stop throwing into the hands of UCLA’s opponents.
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