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UCLA Football QB Ethan Garbers Feeling Confident Heading Into 2024 Season

Garbers has undoubtedly become the Bruins' leader throughout the offseason.

Eva Geitheim

Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports
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"The offense goes as I go," Ethan Garbers said Wednesday.

It's a statement UCLA football offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy always reminds his starting quarterback of leading up to the 2024 season, which begins Saturday at Hawaii.

If Garbers' confidence is any indication of how the Bruins offense will do in 2024, they will go far. When asked if leading the Bruins to a win in the L.A. Bowl last December added to his confidence, Garbers said he wasn't lacking any to begin with.

"I was already confident before that," Garbers said Wednesday. "I trusted in my abilities, and confidence was not lacking at all."

That win over Boise State showed the beginnings of what Garbers believes UCLA's offense will be in 2024 — explosive.

"We're gonna be an explosive offense this year that pushes the ball down the field, you can see it from every single one of the receivers," Garbers said Wednesday.

There is no hesitation. No 'hoping' or 'wanting.' Rather, Garbers makes these statements with certainty.

Coming off the bench for an injured Collin Schlee during the L.A. Bowl last December, Garbers connected with receiver J. Michael Sturdivant on two deep balls down the right sideline, including a 40- yard touchdown that sealed the comeback win.

After primarily playing the position with efficiency through the season — often excelling on short to intermediate throws in rhythm — Garbers took command of the game with both his arm and poise under pressure to earn the Bruins' first Bowl Game win since 2015. He finished 9-12 for 152 yards and two touchdowns and was named the Offensive MVP for the game.

Garbers is not a player who seems to be gloating, either. He has been honest about areas he's worked on or had to grow in throughout the summer. At Big Ten Media Day, he admitted that Bieniemy's offense was 'difficult' to learn early on.

During fall camp, he shared he has focused on improving the 'mental side' of his game. He has simply spoken with belief in himself, and his teammates around him.

Garbers' confidence has manifested through his emergence as the team's leader during the offseason. Seeing that there was no true leader on the offense in 2023, he took it upon himself to motivate his teammates and keep each other on the same page.

He knows that they have bought in.

"They've seen me work day in and day out and I think that speaks for itself," Garbers said.

He sees this confidence as an essential part of playing the position. "Confidence is almost 90 percent of the position ... I think it really helps when the other 10 guys are looking at you in the huddle and you're confident, and you're like, 'hey, let's go. We got this.'"

His coaches have caught on too, and praise Garbers' leadership through an offseason of change. "His leadership has really grown and he’s just taking on the role of being QB1," head coach DeShaun Foster said earlier this month.

"You can just tell the way that they follow Ethan, the way that they talk about him," Foster said Wednesday. "Everybody has seen what he's been through, what he's gone through here at UCLA. Just to continue to be resilient and come out on top is good."

Garbers is of course in a better position to be the confident leader this season than he was last year After the departure of former starting quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson for the NFL, then-head coach Chip Kelly opted to utilize three of his quarterbacks in 2023.

Garbers did win the starting job before the 2023 season and opened the year for the Bruins versus Coastal Carolina, but quickly lost the gig when he threw two interceptions in his season debut.

Freshman Dante Moore III came in and replaced Garbers, throwing two touchdowns and providing a spark UCLA's offense needed at the time. Moore maintained the starting job for five more games, but Garbers returned after Moore threw too many interceptions.

Garbers returned as the primary quarterback against Stanford and kept the job for the rest of the season when he was healthy. Garbers did miss time due to injury, missing the game against Arizona State, and exiting the Bruins' loss to Cal early.

With all the time off the field due to either injury or the quarterback battle, Garbers never got into a consistent groove over a significant stretch of the season. This season could not be more different.

With Garbers' performance during the L.A. Bowl, and Moore and Schlee transferring to Oregon and Virginia Tech respectively, Garbers has been the obvious choice at quarterback all offseason. This time has given him the opportunity to become the bonafide leader the Bruins desperately lacked on offense a season ago. The time to assert his command, and win the buy-in of his teammates.

The Bruins can capitalize on this, as well as the experience Garbers gained during a rocky 2023 campaign. With Garbers at the helm, UCLA was 4-2. They were 4-0 when he threw multiple touchdown passes.

"That's huge," Foster said. "Just having a veteran quarterback that's been here, has played in big games ... being able to have a familiar face and know somebody that you can trust and keep the offense on track, that's a positive."

His experience will be needed as the Bruins enter the Big Ten Conference, which is known for great defensive play. There will be no better way to test how truly explosive their offense is than playing in a conference that boasted four top-10 defenses a season ago.

Garbers proved he could lead an explosive offense on the big stage during that L.A. Bowl win, but will he will be able to do the same at rowdy Beaver Stadium when they take on Penn State? How about at Nebraska in November, or against the five-ranked teams the Bruins face this season?

Those questions will have to wait. For now, the Bruins are focused on the task at hand — getting a win in Honolulu.

More Bruins: DeShaun Foster Admits He Will Have Jitters Before First Game

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Eva Geitheim

EVA GEITHEIM

Eva graduated from UCLA in 2023 with a bachelor's degree in Communication. She has been covering college and professional sports since 2022.

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