UCLA’s offense starts with center Jake Brendel

As if bumping and grinding with defensive linemen isn’t enough of a physical toll, and calling out the blocking schemes each play a mental workout, UCLA center Jake Brendel will also have to play a little game within the game this season.

“Find the zebra,” Brendel said.

The linchpin to the lickety-split offense the Bruins want to run is Brendel, a redshirt freshman who is charged with keeping the tempo up. After each play, he has to find the ball and get the offense in its “muddle,” a slacker-looking version of a huddle near the line of scrimmage.

“We’re trying to play fast,” Bruins Coach Jim Mora said. “So the center has to find the ball when the play is over.”

That duty has fallen on the shoulders of Brendel, who has never played in a college game.

“We kind of had the same offense in high school,” Brendel said. “It’s fun. It’s fast, and you have to really have to think fast.”

The Bruins will be almost exclusively a no-huddle team this season, racing to the line of scrimmage each play.

Mora joked the ““muddle” was a “a type of huddle, only it’s not a circle seven yards back and everyone takes 30 seconds to get set [on the line of scrimmage].”

Brendel has been the key man during UCLA’s training camp at Cal State San Bernardino, which ended with a morning practice Thursday.

“It takes a couple weeks to get the tempo down,” Brendel said. “After a while you’re just doing it without really thinking about it -- unconscious competence.”

ALSO:

UCLA football players go bowling [Video]

Bruins Coach Jim Mora gets angry when practice gets chippy

Brett Hundley looks to revive UCLA football’s quarterback tradition