UCLA to see what numbers come up after rolling dice on freshman QB Josh Rosen

Josh Rosen will start at quarterback in UCLA's opener at the age of 18.

Sept. 4, 2015 3:50 PM PT

UCLA’s Josh Rosen will be following a lightly traveled path as he emerges from the tunnel at the Rose Bowl to face Virginia on Saturday.

The pregame music blaring from the speakers should be Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced.”

How far the 13th-ranked Bruins go this season might rest on the shoulders of their 18-year old quarterback.

“There are a lot of things that are impressive about Josh,” Coach Jim Mora said. “We’ll see on Saturday when something good, or something not so good, happens and how he reacts.”

Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway is the only first-year freshman quarterback to lead a major-college football team to a national title.

California’s Jared Goff sits at the other end of the spectrum.

Goff recalls coming out of the tunnel at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley in 2013 brimming with confidence.

He was a wet-behind-the-ears freshman from Kentfield Marin Catholic High — where he had passed for 92 touchdowns with only 18 interceptions — but he said moving immediately into the Bears starting lineup “felt very comfortable. I was ready.”

The first game ended in a 44-30 loss to Northwestern, the first defeat in what became a 1-11 season.

“I could go on for a couple days about what I learned that first season,” Goff said.

No one is predicting that kind of season for UCLA, but coaches who have rolled the dice with freshmen know what probably will come with Rosen in charge.

“There are times you really wonder, ‘Should we have done this?’ ” said former UCLA Coach Terry Donahue, who played Tom Ramsey and Cade McNown as freshmen. “This can be a painful process.”

Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer said his best option was Holieway after Troy Aikman was injured in the fourth game of the 1985 season. The result was an 11-1 season and a national title.

“I had two other quarterbacks on the roster; both were faster and one was bigger,” Switzer said. “Jamelle had that savvy. The prerequisite to playing quarterback is being smart.”

There seems little doubt Rosen has the smarts. UCLA coaches force-fed him a diet of defensive looks and blitz packages during training camp, a two-week cram session before Saturday’s test.

Yet there are only so many things a freshman can learn. The rest has to be experienced.

Rosen came to UCLA from Bellflower St. John Bosco High with swagger and the nickname “Chosen Rosen.” He said facing high-caliber players who went on to play in college helped prepare him. Goff, now a junior, would tell him that no matter what he saw in high school, it is nowhere near the talent he’ll see in college.

“The size and speed of the defensive ends and linebackers is amazing,” Goff said.

Goff passed for 3,508 yards and 18 touchdowns, with 10 interceptions, as a freshman and admitted, “I was winging it a little bit while I learned.”

Goff joined a California team that was being overhauled by first-year Coach Sonny Dykes. UCLA returns nine starters on offense, including four on the offensive line and Paul Perkins, the Pac-12 Conference’s leading rusher in 2014.

Rosen’s mandate is clear.

“He needs to do a good job of being the point guard and distributing the ball,” offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said.

Holieway walked into a similar situation. Oklahoma was ranked third when Aikman was injured against Miami. Switzer made one big adjustment — he switched back to the wishbone formation — and handed Holieway the ball.

“He came to Oklahoma ready to play,” Switzer said. “We just turned him loose and he came out of the chute warm.”

Switzer also noted the Oklahoma defense had been “one of the tops in the nation for years. They got the ball back in a hurry.”

Dropping a freshman into an already established lineup doesn’t always work, though.

Matt Barkley, fresh from Santa Ana Mater Dei High, won the USC job as a freshman in 2009. The Trojans, bulging with talent, were ranked fourth nationally in the preseason and won their first two games, including a victory over No. 8 Ohio State in Columbus.

But the season headed south from there. USC, which had won six consecutive conference titles, finished 9-4 and dropped to fifth in the standings. Barkley threw for 15 touchdowns and had 14 passes intercepted.

“The disadvantage is not having game experience,” Donahue said.

UCLA went to three Rose Bowls in four seasons in the 1980s with senior quarterbacks. The first was in 1982 with Tom Ramsey, who had been thrust into the starting lineup as a freshman in 1979.

Donahue went back to a freshman during the 1995 season, inserting McNown into the lineup in the fourth game. “If the freshman is the best player, then, hey, do it,” Donahue said. But, he added, “as anyone will tell you, inexperienced players make mistakes.”

Donahue said the path is easier for a freshman these days. Defenses have become more sophisticated, but freshmen can enroll in college early and participate in spring practice — as Rosen did — which is a big advantage.

“You can make mistakes in practice and it doesn’t cost you a game,” Donahue said.

McNown led the Bruins to the precipice of the national title game as a senior in 1998.

Where Rosen leads the Bruins remains to be seen. But Goff can offer some advice for this season.

“Enjoy every second, don’t hesitate,” Goff said. “Don’t wait to be good. Be good today.”

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