Jared Cohen
The Pros2Preps.com team is in Los Angeles this week for University of Arizona and Arizona State University basketball playing USC and UCLA but took a break from hoops to catch up with a Valley star, UCLA and former Chandler High School quarterback Brett Hundley.
Hundley is coming off a great first full season as the starting signal caller for the Bruins that saw him throw for 3,740 yards, completing 66% of his passes and tossing 29 touchdowns. Hundley has now become one of the faces of the program and has been very pleased with his development to this point.
“Just progressing as a quarterback and mentally with the game and how much mental aspect there is to the game,” Hundley explained. “Knowing defenses and protections and stuff and it’s coming a long way. I still have a long way to go but it’s grown a lot since I came here.”
The Bruin quarterback had many crowning achievements last season but none bigger in his eyes was the win over USC. Hundley failed to beat rival Hamilton during his time at Chandler High, so in a sense, last season was a big monkey off the back for him.
“Now I am happy, now I can finally say I beat a rival,” Hundley joked. “Surely it’s nice to say we beat SC so, we beat SC.”
Hundley also greatly values the education he is getting from UCLA. He is double-majoring in Economics and African American Studies and plans to graduate in the fall of 2014. He gained confidence in knowing that the NFL could absolutely be in his future after his play in 2012, but he has also developed a passion for business and dealing with money after college.
How much Hundley beams when talking about his school is starting to reach many others in Arizona which is somewhat creating a recruiting pipeline from from Phoenix to UCLA. Some of the state’s top prospects like defensive back from Marcos de Niza Priest Willis, running back from Centennial Jalen Ortiz and offensive tackle from Mountain Pointe Kenny Lacy are all apart of the Bruins latest class to start next fall. Hundley believes the best in Arizona are starting to see what he saw when he was being recruited.
“They are starting to see what UCLA has to offer,” said Hundley. “As you can see the sun is shining bright. It’s 75 degrees out here at a beautiful hotel. It’s a lot of things to sort of jump into here in LA and there are a lot of good things. UCLA has a great academic side to it as well as a football program.”
Hundley is currently working out looking to build on his 2012 success and getting ready for UCLA spring practice which is quickly approaching. He didn’t give an answer when ask who is now a bigger man campus between him and UCLA basketball’s Shabazz Mohammed, but did say he could definitely take him in a game of one-on-one.
