Tag: chase griffin

Going deep on UCLA’s quarterback depth in 2025

The Bruins lack experience at quarterback heading into 2025. This could be a wild ride.

Though football season is many months away, the UCLA Bruins are hard at work building their program for 2025. After a bevy of offseason moves along the coaching staff and in the transfer portal, UCLA football head coach DeShaun Foster’s team will look very different in 2025. The most notable shakeup for the 2025 season will be the quarterback position.

After finishing his redshirt senior season, former Bruin Ethan Garbers will no longer be with the program, leaving a significant hole in the lineup. In an up-and-down season with the Bruins, Garbers finished with 2,727 yards on 69.6% passing with 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

In addition to Garbers’ departure, the Bruins lost three more quarterbacks. Chase Griffin and Nick Billoups finished their final season of eligibility with the Bruins after the 2024 season. After starting one game last season against Penn State, the Bruins lost Justyn Martin to the transfer portal.

Today, the Bruins have only four remaining quarterbacks on their roster heading into 2025, not including incoming freshmen, none of whom have taken a snap in the Big Ten, let alone the NCAA.  The Bruins quarterback room consists of rising sophomores Henry Hasselbeck, Dermaricus Davis, Karson Gordon, and redshirt sophomore Luke Duncan.

Though the transfer portal could change the Bruins’ fortunes in an instant, at the moment, UCLA has a severe lack of experience at the quarterback position.

As the offseason turns into the preseason for UCLA, the quarterback competition will begin to heat up, and front-runners for the job will emerge.

For newly hired Tino Sunseri, his abilities as both a quarterback coach and offensive coordinator will be tested as he and the coaching staff separate the wheat from the chaff in the UCLA quarterback room.

Chase Griffin earns another big honor

Another big honor for Chase Griffin.

UCLA Bruins redshirt senior Chase Griffin has been working hard off the field. Now, he has received another honor, being named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, per the official release. Griffin was previously named to the Wuerffel Award Watch List prior to the season.

“Redshirt senior Chase Griffin of the UCLA football team was named Tuesday to the 2024 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® and earned an Allstate Wuerffel Trophy semifinalist spot in the process. The awards are considered college football’s highest community service honors.”

The Good Works team is made up of 22 student-athletes and one head coach. On top of that, Griffin was also named as an Allstate Wuerffel Trophy semifinalist.

The Wuerffel Trophy recipient will be announced in December during the College Football Awards show, but this is another big honor for griffin as he concludes his college career and begins his journey to the next chapter.

Chase Griffin named to Wuerffel Award watch list

What an honor for Chase Griffin.

The UCLA Bruins received some news on one of their own this week. Chase Griffin was named to the Wuerffel Award watch list for the 2024 season. The award is given to the player in college football with the most impactful leadership within community service.

The winner of the award in 2023 was Ladd McConkey of the Georgia Bulldogs. The previous two seasons Isaiah Sanders from Stanford won the award and Dillan Gibbons of Florida State took it down.

On the field, the senior public affairs major is a great leader as a 23-year-old signal caller. She has played just four games with the Bruins, with six touchdowns and two interceptions in his career.

The entire list for the Weurfel list can be found here:

Griffin and the UCLA Bruins will start their season on August 31st against Hawaii. Griffin is expected to be behind Chase Garbers under center as the back up for the Bruins.

Report: Angel Reese had second-most NIL deals across all college sports

Reese will be carrying major deals into the WNBA, including her multiyear, exclusive partnership with Panini America.

SponsorUnited recently released its Name, Image, Likeness
Marketing Partnerships 2023–24 report, which offers an in-depth analysis of brand endorsements and social media collaborations across 17 college sports. According to the report, former LSU player Angel Reese had the second-most NIL endorsements over the past year with 26 deals, tied with UCLA quarterback Chase Griffin.

Reese also had the highest follower growth of any athlete across her social media accounts and the highest number of deals in SEC women’s basketball. The report also found that 35% of brands invest exclusively in NIL athletes versus major pro sports athletes. However, players like Reese will be carrying major deals into the WNBA, including her multiyear, exclusive partnership with Panini America, which includes autographed trading cards and memorabilia.

The report also found that while male athletes currently represent 65% of all NIL athletes, women athletes average a higher number of brand deals than their male counterparts at a rate of 3.5 to 2.5. There is also a broader distribution of deals across sports for women than men. NIL deals for male athletes are predominantly seen in football at 72%, while women’s deals are more evenly spread across basketball (35%), gymnastics (18%) and volleyball (15%).

Additionally, NIL deal distribution among the top 100 most endorsed athletes is balanced between women (52%) and men (48%), which is a marked difference from the previous year’s distribution of 62% men and 38% women.

Reese is no longer in college athletics, as the Chicago Sky drafted her No. 7 overall in the 2024 WNBA draft. However, her partnerships will continue to increase, and she will continue to make waves in professional sports, just like she did in college.

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