Given that Brett Hundley grew up just 10 minutes from Sun Devil Stadium, some people might assume he dreamed of playing quarterback at Arizona State. Or perhaps he dreamed of following in his father's footsteps and playing at Arizona, only about two hours to the southeast.
Turns out it was neither.
"I sort of just wanted to get out of Arizona," Hundley said by phone this week. "They're both great schools. I took visits to them, checked them out, but at the end of the day I just felt like I needed to leave and just sort of get out of Arizona."
A Chandler High School product and now the starting quarterback at UCLA, Hundley returns to the Valley this weekend as a rising star in college football.
Hundley, a redshirt freshman, has led the Bruins to a 5-2 record, which includes an impressive win over Nebraska. He ranks second in the Pac-12 in passing yards with 1,916 and yards per game with 273.7. The offense he leads ranks third in the conference with 505.3 yards per game and fifth in scoring offense with 31.7 points per game.
"These first seven games went quite well," Hundley said. "I think I could have done a lot better, but, you know, there are going to be ups and downs to every season. Me personally, I've done what I needed to do and shown I can do the things I've been coached to do."
Three years ago, ASU wanted Hundley to be a Sun Devil. He visited his junior year of high school but didn’t show much interest afterward. During that visit, though, he met with then-ASU offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone. The two talked only briefly and didn't stay in touch given Hundley's limited interest in ASU.
But in a twist of fate, Mazzone is now the one tutoring Hundley at UCLA. After Dennis Erickson was fired by ASU and Rick Neuheisel by UCLA after last season, Mazzone headed west to join new UCLA coach Jim Mora's staff.
"Coach Mazzone has been one my biggest assets, biggest helps this year," Hundley said. "He's helped me set a good foundation to do the things that I'm trying to do."
Mazzone helped develop Brock Osweiler at ASU last season, and Osweiler became a second-round draft pick after just one season as a starter in college. When Hundley won the job at UCLA, Mazzone compared him to Osweiler, his most recent pupil.
"Brett's a little bit more athletic (than Osweiler), as far as with his feet," Mazzone said. "He can create things with his feet, he can get out of trouble. He's a pretty athletic kid.
"It was the same way when we ran into the season with Brock. Brock hadn't played much. Brett hasn’t played much either, so we've still got to go through that learning curve of experience."
Hundley's inexperience showed in a 43-17 road loss to Cal on Oct. 6, a game in which he threw four interceptions. He rebounded the following week, though, leading UCLA to a 21-14 win over Utah.
Hundley might have entered this season with one year as a starter already under his belt if not for a knee injury prior to last season. The injury, along with a resurgence by former UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince, led to Hundley redshirting the year under Neuheisel, who is now an analyst with the Pac-12 Networks.
Like Mazzone, Neuheisel was drawn to Hundley's athleticism. Before being fired following a 6-8 season, Neuheisel planned to install a pistol offense at UCLA. He figured Hundley would be the perfect quarterback to run it.
"The thing about Brett is he’s a great quarterback who’s very athletic. He’s not a great athlete playing quarterback," Neuheisel said this week. "It doesn’t matter who they play; there’s not going to be a better athlete on the field than Brett Hundley. He has that ability, like all great quarterbacks who have legs as weapons, to look like he’s running in slow motion yet nobody can catch them.
"It’s like Cam Newton. Cam never looked like a house on fire when he ran, but nobody could catch him."
Neuheisel obviously never got to see Hundley run the pistol offense, but he believes Hundley's athleticism made it easy for him to adapt to Mazzone's offense. A year of observing and studying helped, too.
"Probably back then, maybe the first half of the season, I wasn't happy over (redshirting)," Hundley said. "But like I said, everything happens for a reason, and now I'm glad it did happen.
"I tell a lot of the freshman here that are redshirting that it's honestly one of the best things that can happen to you, just being able to get your feet wet and getting to understand the college game."
Hundley's ability to understand the game quickly and his ensuing success — he became the first UCLA quarterback to pass for 300 yards in three consecutive games — has the Bruins positioned for a shot at the Pac-12 South title. The winner of this weekend's game in Tempe, Ariz., will likely be USC's primary competition for the division title and an opportunity to play in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
This game represents the biggest of Hundley's young career, and he'll have a large contingent on hand to see it. Friends and family have been texting him this week in anticipation of his homecoming, and some have wondered if all the extra attention might be a distraction. Mora, however, is not worried about his young signal caller.
"I know he's excited, but what you see with Brett is a kid that's very level-headed at all times," Mora said. "That's what we've seen since spring ball — a guy that's kind of unaffected on game day by the environment, by what's happening in the game. He maintains great focus. I think that's a sign of his maturity.
"So he'll be excited. He'll have a lot of family members there, but that's OK. I think he's the right kind of kid to handle it."
FOXSportsArizona.com's Craig Morgan contributed to this story.
