UCLA’s four-way starting QB battle short on clarity and brimming with confidence

Most of UCLA football practice is hermetically sealed from the media, leaving reporters to search for the tiniest clues about what’s happening behind locked gates.

On Saturday afternoon, that meant watching for the order of interviews involving the top four candidates to become the team’s next starting quarterback.

Would the precocious Dante Moore, bidding to become the Bruins’ first true freshman to start a season at the position since Josh Rosen in 2015, lead off? Or would it be Ethan Garbers, the team’s primary backup the last two seasons?

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Then again, perhaps the first quarterback to speak would be Collin Schlee, the veteran transfer from Kent State. Or maybe a curveball would lead to redshirt freshman Justyn Martin going first.

The honors went to Schlee, followed by Garbers.

“There was a seniority,” explained Garbers, a redshirt junior. “So, Collin being the oldest, and then me, and I think Justyn might go next.”

Nope. Moore went next, followed by Martin. Make anything of it at your own peril.

There’s still nearly a month before the season opener against Coastal Carolina on Sept. 2 at the Rose Bowl. That’s plenty of time for fortunes to rise and fall, hopes to be ignited and extinguished in what’s widely expected to be a two-man race between Moore and Garbers.

There does appear to be one crucial aspect of the job in which the four candidates are on equal footing: They all possess supreme confidence in their own prospects.

Moore might be L.A.’s new Magic man, having thrown passes reminiscent of Lakers legend Magic Johnson. Sometimes he doesn’t even bother to watch the receiver catch the ball, knowing the play is destined for a touchdown.

“I do a lot of no-looks, a lot of crazy arm angles,” he said, “and truthfully, if I feel real confident in my throw, I for sure have just thrown it and walked to the sideline and clapped to everybody when they come off the field.”

Martin, a long shot to win the job despite tremendous potential, professed an ability to hurdle defenders in more impressive fashion than former UCLA star Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who was coming off an impressive preseason NFL debut with the Cleveland Browns.

“You can tell him this,” said Martin, the rare quarterback who appears taller than his listed height of 6 feet 4. “I can do it better than he can.”

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The sidearm-throwing Schlee touted his dual-threat abilities as perhaps the top running quarterback on the team, even with a protective sleeve on his left leg that he said was necessitated by soreness.

“Something that I think I did very well at Kent State was all the RPO stuff,” Schlee said, referring to the run-pass option that’s a longtime favorite of UCLA coach Chip Kelly. “So I think running is one of the really good things that I do — and being able to throw on the run.”

Garbers, who is entering his third season on the team after a season at Washington, acknowledged that his edge in experience could help him in a bid to be the smartest player on the field.

“I’ve been here with the guys around here for the longest, been here with the coaches the longest, so I mean, yeah, it’s somewhat of an advantage,” he said. “But just trying to help everybody that’s here and trying to just make the team better is my biggest goal.”

That was the other primary theme that emerged among the quarterbacks: Even though they all want the job, they also want what’s best for the Bruins.

UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers passes against Alabama State last season.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

“Really, if you really just want to worry about yourself, I kind of feel that we all think that’s selfish, really,” Moore said. “When it comes to a team, if you have selfish players on the team, that’s not going to be a great team at all, it’s not going to be a winning team.

“If we take [the competition] too seriously and take it to the point where we’re not talking to each other and probably arguing or whatever it is, being mad about our reps, it’s just not going be great. You know, as a team you don’t want to worry about your personal goal, things you’re doing. You want to be a great team, win football games.”

Moore and Schlee said they were grateful to have participated in spring practice because it accelerated their grasp of the offense and acclimation to campus. A devotee of “Grand Theft Auto,” Moore said he’s visited sites featured in the risque video game such as the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood sign. The Detroit native has been to a Lakers game — “I got to watch the GOAT, LeBron James,” he said — and wants to see the Dodgers as well as all the other professional teams in Southern California.

One place you won’t find Moore is on social media. He’s extended the ban he instituted late last fall, calling the platforms “time killers” that keep him from doing more productive things such as studying the playbook or writing a paper for class.

“I’ve got better things to do for sure,” he said.

Like continuing his bid to be the Bruins’ new leading man.