Aug. 27--The future is now for UCLA football.
The Bruins on Wednesday announced that freshman Josh Rosen will be their starting quarterback.
Rosen was among the most highly ranked high school quarterbacks in the nation last season as a senior at Bellflower St. John Bosco High.
He graduated early from high school in order to participate in UCLA's spring practice, and was immediately impressive.
It required three weeks of summer camp for UCLA's coaches to be sure.
"I can't say it was one thing," head coach Jim Mora said. "You evaluate every little thing. I can't say there is a check list, but when you watch guys as long as we've done it at some point it becomes apparent to you. You've seen enough and say, 'it's time to make a decision and go."
Rosen and UCLA's other quarterbacks faced tremendous pressure from the Bruins defense during training camp. The Bruins blitzed often during 11-on-11 drills, which gave Rosen a taste of what may come during the regular season.
"We can play defense," Mora said. "It was a great test every day for all our quarterbacks. I thought Josh handled the pressure better every day. He became less flustered and delivered the ball where it needed to go."
Mora said that he would stick by Rosen no matter what.
"I made it very clear I'm a one quarterback type of coach," Mora said. "I like to put a guy in that position, support the heck out of him, hope he has success, and rally around him if he's struggling."
Rosen was not made available to the media Wednesday. He was scheduled to talk on Thursday.
In the final days before UCLA broke summer camp at Cal State San Bernardino last week, Mora seemed to make a point of being tough on Rosen -- perhaps a final test to see how the young quarterback would respond.
Rosen beat out redshirt junior Jerry Neuheisel for the job. Neuheisel was the backup to Brett Hundley the last two seasons, and performed well in a reserve role.
UCLA will have an experienced group around Rosen, with all five starters back across the offensive line, and the Pac-12 Conference's leading rusher last season, Paul Perkins, in the backfield.
UCLA opens its season on Sept. 5 against Virginia at the Rose Bowl.
Times staff writer Mike Hiserman contributed to this report.
