LOS ANGELES — UCLA is lucky to have Ethan Garbers.
New head coach. New conference. New offensive coordinator.
And without Garbers, the unquestioned starter at last, the Bruins would also be hustling to incorporate a new quarterback heading into this massively important season, starting Saturday at Hawai’i. They would be, if the redshirt senior wasn’t so resolute, so steadfast.
Dues-paying is often just another way of describing dealing with a lot of bunk, so it’s not a particularly popular endeavor these days.
But not all of us are so lucky as to have our hopes and dreams served up on a silver platter.
Sometimes a guy who is destined to become a big-time college football quarterback might not look the part – or get the start – as a high school freshman. Or sophomore.
It might take until his junior season of high school for it to start to click – for him and for everyone else tuning in.
Sometimes a guy just has to make a dent in the time allotted, in Garbers’ case racking up 9,461 yards and 128 touchdowns in his junior and senior seasons, including leading Corona del Mar to the Division 1A CIF State title and a perfect 16-0 record in his final year.
But sometimes – oftentimes – the best-laid plans drift off-line.
A guy can kick off his college career playing for a coach other than one who recruited him, taking no snaps, the freshman getting the short stick, sitting on the sideline and realizing Seattle doesn’t feel like home.
He can transfer back from Washington to UCLA, expecting a better fit, only to have the Bruins’ incumbent QB decide to hang around. Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s invigorating senior year left Garbers on backup duty for an extra season before, finally, he was named the starter before last season’s opener.
Well, technically. The starter in name only.
You remember this time last year, when UCLA’s former head coach Chip Kelly couldn’t decide on a QB. The candidates then: Garbers; five-star freshman Dante Moore; or transfer Collin Schlee.
Kelly decreed, “All three of those guys will play.”
But the way football math works is that two quarterbacks = no quarterback. And three quarterbacks? Now you’re going backward.
By saying none of his signal callers separated himself from the others, Kelly’s message wasn’t that they were all good enough to lead the Bruins in their final Pac-12 season, he was saying none of them were.
But Garbers was, it turned out; if he had appeared in enough games last season to qualify, his 67.1% completion percentage would have ranked 17th nationally, fifth in the Pac-12 Conference and No. 3 in the Big Ten as it’s currently configured.
It’s just that Moore – the highest-rated prep quarterback Kelly has successfully recruited – wasn’t in Westwood to wait his turn.
Two quick strikes, and Garbers was out. A couple of interceptions in Game 1 vs. Coastal Carolina did it; Moore was in, learning on the job, taking lumps and taking L’s. Those results might have been chalked up as growing pains begetting future gains if not for the Bruins’ surprising defense.
That defense – ranked 10th nationally at the end of the season – created a dilemma: Prioritize a true freshman’s education or maximize the chances a talented defense was giving the Bruins to win now?
It took five games for Kelly to pull Moore (who had an undisclosed injury and has since transferred to Oregon) and turn back to Garbers, who immediately led UCLA to back-to-back victories before throwing three touchdowns in a 38-20 route of USC.
Following that rousing win at The Coliseum, Garbers spoke up in defense of the embattled Kelly, who has since quit and taken a job as an Ohio State’s offensive coordinator. Despite all the delays and dismissals at his position, Garbers told us: “This entire performance was for (Kelly). It shows a lot about our team and this culture.”
It showed a lot about Garbers, I thought.
How lucky UCLA was to have someone so competent and capable, all class. And clutch too. Because, despite feeling less than 100%, he came off the sideline to rally UCLA to a 35-22 victory in the L.A. Bowl in December.
Highest graded bowl game performances so far this season pic.twitter.com/MjVuzvZRJV
— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 26, 2023
“The team needed me, that’s my biggest priority,” Garbers said that night, when he earned Offensive MVP honors after he completed 9 of 12 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns after Schlee (now at Virginia Tech) was hurt during the third quarter.
Now the Bruins need Garbers again. They really do.
And they know they can count on him, that he’s steady, solid, tough and tough-minded. That if they’re in games against their new Big Ten opponents, the QB who will be running new coordinator Eric Bieniemy Jr.’s offense will be a reason why.
They know how much Garbers cares. How competitive a dude, whether he’s lining up a 10- or 12-foot putt on the golf course or rallying UCLA to a bowl game victory. How unshakeable his confidence has proved.
That he won’t quit.
“They’ve all known me for the past five years, they’ve seen me work day in and day out and I think just that in itself speaks for itself,” Garbers said this week. “Definitely the friendships I’ve built here will last a lifetime, for sure. You really create a special bond when you’re working together for the common goal with someone and it’s great, I can feel it.”
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“I mean, you could just tell the way that they follow Ethan, the way that they talk about him,” said DeShaun Foster, the Bruins’ first-year head coach, of his QB and fellow Orange County native. “Everybody has seen what he’s been through and what he’s gone through here at UCLA, and just to continue to be resilient and come out on top is just good stuff.”
“Last year was obviously tough for him … a weird deal for him, I’m sure,” said Corona del Mar coach Kevin Hettig, who served as the offensive coordinator for both Garbers and his older brother, Chase. “But the great thing about this game and his experience going through that, he’ll be better for it. Not just in football, but when football is done. It’s about grit, as a player and a person.”
That’s an attribute any team would be lucky to have in its leader, especially a team awash in unknowns and hurtling head-first into the teeth of the Big Ten Conference.
MVP, MVP, MVP
Offensive MVP @ethan_garbers3 checking in after winning the Starco Brands #LABowl Hosted By Gronk @UCLAFootball | #GoBruins pic.twitter.com/ZhnBn7HggP
— LA Bowl Hosted By Gronk (@LABowlGame) December 17, 2023
