Bonds’ Stock Finally Has Risen at UCLA : Bruins: Rather than transfer, he waited for his chance to start at quarterback.

The decade of the 1990s symbolize a fresh start for UCLA and quarterback Jim Bonds.

Not that the ‘80s were forgettable for the Bruins, just 1989, when the team with seven consecutive bowl victories spiraled downward to a 3-7-1 record.

Bonds, who was named UCLA’s starting quarterback two weeks ago, a decision that sent last year’s starter, Bret Johnson, packing to Michigan State, is an example that good things happen to people who are patient.

Bonds might have been UCLA’s No. 1 quarterback last year if he hadn’t performed poorly in a scrimmage before the season-opening game against Tennessee.

So he had to be content as a backup, only getting into games when Johnson floundered.

However, he never seriously considered leaving UCLA.

The thought popped into his mind, he said, but he quickly dismissed it.

Now, as a junior, he is looking forward to a new season with a restructured offense designed by Homer Smith, an offensive coordinator beginning his third tour of duty with the Bruins.

“Since the past winter, the attitude of the whole team is really up,” Bonds said. “We had a feeling of ‘Let’s get on with the 1990 season, so we can forget about 1989.’

“I think a lot of people feel they’ve got something to prove and that 1989 was a fluke. Everyone is really enthusiastic and pumped up to get the season going.”

No one is more pumped up than Bonds for Saturday’s game against Oklahoma at the Rose Bowl.

And now he says he has a grasp of Smith’s multifaceted offense.

“As complex as Coach Smith’s offense seems to be, I picked it up relatively fast last spring and during the summer, and now everything is starting to fit together,” Bonds said.

Several UCLA players have said that the offense was too predictable last year.

“We might have been limited to what we could do last year, but as the season got going there were only a couple of plays that we ran very well, and we tended to keep running those plays over and over,” Bonds said.

“We didn’t have anything to branch off to, so at the end of the season our offense was pretty predictable.”

Rather than meet inside before practice, the offensive unit has its classroom on the field an hour before the rest of the team.

“Coach Smith believes that walking through plays on the field is much better than drawing them on a chalk board,” Bonds said. “It has helped me a lot, seeing things on the field instead of X’s and O’s on a board.”

Smith’s attention to detail has been reported, such as center Lance Zeno snapping the ball to Bonds at a precise 85-degree angle. There’s more.

“Our (quarterbacks’) hands have to be together so there is no air showing between them,” Bonds said. “Then when the ball comes up at 85 degrees and splits your hands apart, Coach Smith says there’s no greater feeling in the world than taking a perfect snap.”

The quarterback also goes through what is called sequences in practice, imagining that the first receiver is covered and then the second and finally throwing to the third.

“It’s something that has helped my foot speed,” Bonds.

In selecting Bonds to replace Johnson as the starting quarterback, Smith talked of Bonds’ “ball speed.”

However, Bonds says that his arm isn’t any stronger than it was when he was a standout quarterback at Hart High in Valencia.

“Maybe my getting the ball off faster has improved through sequencing, but my arm was pretty much as strong as it would get coming out of high school,” Bonds said.

Bonds, six feet and 210 pounds, appeared in seven of UCLA’s 11 games last season and completed 60% of his passes for 300 yards and one touchdown. He had four passes intercepted.

He says UCLA is three deep at all positions in the backfield and singled out his replacements, redshirt freshmen Tommy Maddox and Bert Emanuel, for special recognition.

“Bert is really getting good at running the option,” Bonds said. “He broke three or four 70-yard runs in spring practice. Tommy has picked up the offense really well. He has never been exposed to our type of system. He has a live arm and, at 6-4, he has the ability to see over the offensive line. He’s going to be a good one before he leaves.”

As for the departed Johnson, Bonds said:

“I wish him all the success in the world and I hope he gets a chance to play next year. I was a little surprised when I heard he was going to Michigan State. It’s not the California beach weather he’s used to.”