Air Craft

Kevin Craft, a highly regarded juco quarterback, has given a verbal commitment to the Bruins. He was thought to be a lock to SMU (He was following June Jones from Hawaii) but apparently Norm Chow and Rick Neuheisel convinced him to come to Westwood. Craft is 22 years old and he has two years of eligibility remaining. He'll add some depth to the quarterback position that will lose two seniors after the 2008 season.

Craft is coming to UCLA from Mt. San Antonio College where he was the California Junior College Player of the year. He completed 60% of his passes while throwing for 4,231 yards and 44 touchdowns to only 10 interceptions. He played his high school ball down in San Diego and he spent a season at San Diego State University. His father, Tom Craft, was the coach for the Aztecs when Kevin committed. When Tom was fired, the younger Craft followed his Dad to Mt. SAC.

Craft could be a good substitute at QB for the next two years. If we, as Bruin fans, learned anything this past season, its that you can't have two many experienced quarterbacks. In the 2009 year, he could have a shot at starting. At that time, he'll be one of the only quarterbacks who has some on-field experience at the collegiate level.

I'm not going to get too excited about Craft until we see him in practice. He was given 5-stars by Scout, but that doesn't mean a whole lot for juco guys. Rivals only gives him 3-stars but they do put him on their juco top-100. He only had a few schools on his radar (Hawii, SMU, and UCLA) this year and, when coming out of high school, he signed with San Diego State. Not exactly an impressive list, but maybe this kid has just flown under the radar. His numbers at Mt. SAC and in high school were very impressive. At the very least, I think he'll be an adequate backup and he could play his senior year.

(photo credit: AP)