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After putting NFL on hold, Hundley adjusting to different pressures

Arizona Sports News online

Courtesy UCLA Athletics

Courtesy UCLA Athletics

In life comes big decisions.

Crossroad decisions.

Former Chandler High standout, now UCLA star quarterback Brett Hundley made likely his biggest to date earlier this week announcing he’s putting the NFL on the back burner and returning to Westwood for his junior season. After redshirting his first year on campus, Hundley burst on the national scene in 2012 and improved in all facets of his game last fall scoring 36 total touchdowns and amassing nearly 4,000 total yards.

He wasn’t quite ready to give up college life but now, with his fame, he’s more careful about who he talks to and what he says when he does.

People want to “get a piece” of Brett Hundley.

“It’s everybody,” Hundley told Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat in a recent phone interview. “I’ve had friends. Well, people who I thought were friends do stuff like that. These aren’t just adults…it’s even people here on campus who are trying to do stuff like that…if you hang around good people, you’re going to be a good person yourself.”

It all comes with the territory, especially at quarterback. Especially the leader of an exciting Bruin team who won ten games and came within a play or two of winning the Pac-12 South. They capped their season with a 42-12 blowout win over Virginia Tech in the Sun Bowl. Hundley threw for 226 and added 161 on the ground. He accounted for four total touchdowns.

He put in his paperwork with the NFL and received some mixed results regarding his potential draft status.

“A lot of people were saying the first-round, all the way to the third-round in some cases,” Hundley explained. “A lot of mock drafts had me going in the top 10, top 15 which is truly an honor but there were some teams that had me in the third round. So it was sort of scattered.”

Hundley said he took some time after the Sun Bowl to return to Arizona and step back from the situation before reaching his decision.

“After a high like [the Sun Bowl] anybody would say go to the league, you’re ready,” he said. “But you really have to sit down and think and not just base your decision off emotion at the moment.”

A Valley native, Eric has had a passion for the Arizona sports scene since an early age. He has covered some of the biggest events including Super Bowls, national championships and the NBA and MLB playoffs in his near 20 years in local media.

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