Breaking Down Brett: A Look at Brett Hundley & UCLA's Passing Attack

I should probably preface this by saying I am no where nearly as astute when it comes to breaking down film and understanding the nuances of plays as the officially sanctioned writers here on TKP. I should also acknowledge the fact that I was a 160 lb. backup center in high school (thank THE LORD for the crab block, yall), so most of my knowledge comes from sideline observation of my coaches and doing the complete opposite of what they did, which turned out to be the silver lining of two seasons where we won a total of two games.

Utilizing my backup center knowledge paired with the knowledge Ive acquired from playing NCAA Football (RIP) since my boy Joey Harrington was on the cover, I decided to try my hand at reviewing some film on Brett Hundley (R-Soph.), who was in Heisman contention for much of the early season.

Although hes more compact at 6'3" and 222 lbs. according to UCLAs official website, Hundley is reminiscent of 2011 LT3 in terms of playing style on first glance. He isnt afraid of contact when he runs, and he can break tackles in the pocket. But UCLAs wide receiving corps [which I have unofficially dubbed Shaq-Fu] of Shaq Evans (R-Sr.) and Devin Fuller (Soph.) give Hundley the confidence and freedom we saw LT3 exude in Blacksburg when #81 and #19 anchored the receiving spots.
These are his stats on the year, courtesy of ESPN. The most surprising stat to me are the 33 sacks, which is actually a decrease from 52 in 2012. (For comparison, LT had 29 this year)

Without going into too much detail, UCLAs passing offense is based upon an up-tempo spread attack that relies on the skills of Shaq-Fu to get into space. I saw both run a lot of crossing patterns, out routes, and comeback routes, and they utilize their quickness and shake & bake to get off defenders. Of course, it always helps them to get open when they have this guy in the backfield.

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Ladies and gentlemen, meet Brett Hundley. Hundley excels at escaping the pocket if things break down, and Tech is going to have a long day (see vs. Maryland) if he gets a seam and they cannot get him down at the first point of contact.
Passing-wise, Hundley is about as inconsistent as LT3 when it comes to throwing the ball. His accuracy is spotty, and sometimes hes either right on the money or 10 yards off. He has a tendency to stare down the man he wants to throw to, and it usually sets up defenders the ability to break on the ball.

Here are the two extremes of Hundley:

• Bad Hundley

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Receiver Devin Lucien (Fr.) is #widethefuckopen at the top of the screen on a...screen... yet Hundley completely bypasses the safe option to go for the kill-shot with receiver Thomas Duarte, whom he watched from the moment the ball was snapped. This allowed NMSU DB Davis Cazares to read and break on the ball.
Unless the ball is thrown 300 mph with pinpoint accuracy, theres no way this play results in anything positive. This is Hundleys biggest apparent weakness (and one Ill touch on again later) inability to check down in a lot of situations.

• Good Hundley

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Yup. Cant throw a football much better than that. Hundley most likely saw the single coverage on Shaq Evans pre-play, as he immediately looked to him following the play-action.

UCLA loves to exploit one-on-one man coverage, especially with Evans. Theres a pattern you can find throughout all of UCLAs games this year where if Evans has a man one-on-one, theyll either call a go or comeback route in order to get the ball into the hands of their best offensive play-maker and team captain. VT NEEDS KYLE FULLER TO PLAY IN THIS GAME. His strengths effectively neutralize Evans open-field voodoo moves, and plays like this

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(which seem to be UCLAs passing bread-and-butter) wont be as effective against the tackling skills that KF17 brings to the field.

Paired with Hundleys ability to create time for their routes to develop, the UCLA passing game is dangerous if theyre allowed to get hot. HC Jim Mora and OC Noel Mazzone do a great job of trying to get Hundley into a rhythm passing with short slant routes and out patterns, but his biggest confidence booster is when he runs on QB read options.

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Does he remind anyone else a bit of Cam Newton? I mean, he even does the Newton Superman TD celebraish. Granted, Hundleys not the fastest guy on the field, but his quickness, field vision, and awareness are insane. If VT is unable to read and react to the read option of UCLA and tackle Hundley before he spots a hole, its going to be a long day.

For all of Hundleys physical abilities, he still has a tendency to exhibit an all too familiar deficiency. He seems to have questionable decision-making early on, and it seems to appear again late in close games. Either he has a lot of confidence in himself to make a throw into a non-existent window, or he just sometimes seemingly decides pre-snap who hes going to throw to, a habit weve seen Loeffler spending all season attempting to exorcise LT3 of.

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On this play, Hundley completely decides to forgo checking down to his running back swinging into the flat, missing an opportunity for a 20+ yard gain. He instead watches Darius Bell in the slot (called the Y in UCLAs offense) from the very beginning of the play, apparently dead-set on getting the ball to him on his curl route. The key for VT defensively will be capitalizing on Hundley early while hes cold and not letting him get into any sort of rhythm.

Overall, I think that Hundley presents, as Joe and French have stated on numerous occasions, a formidable challenge that can exploit the weaknesses that VTs defense has exhibited throughout the season vs. QBs with his particular set of skills. Itll be up to the defensive line first and foremost to bring him down at the point of contact and the defensive secondary to effectively neutralize the short, quick passes that UCLA tends to use in an attempt to lull the defense to sleep before throwing deep to one of their multiple home-run threats. Its important for Foster & Co. to establish the fact that they can stop dual threat QB's in order to go into the off-season on a high note.

As an endnote, I feel like it's important for me to highlight Mr. Hundley's life outside of football. All to often, we as avid fans can get a bit worked up (understatement of the century) when it comes to the players we vicariously live through, and it's important to remember that all of these kids have a life they must live off of the field. Hundley is a kid I'd be more than proud to have at the helm of my team, and UCLA certainly seems to have gotten a good one.^{Hopefully on Dec. 31st he's as bad as the Star Wars Christmas Special, though.}