Image courtesy UCLABruins.com
Scott Robinson
Today’s feature will venture into last year’s movement of UCLA’s Football Program from the Winter and Spring back to the Fall. Part 2: The Present, 2012 Off-Season (later this week) will follow the developments for this upcoming season…
Suddenly, under the helm of Coach Mora, UCLA is beginning to form a clear path towards college football relevancy. Highlighted by keen observers of scholarship counts, clarifications of star athlete relationships with a certain QB guru (and his dating patterns) and other sketchy poaching, er, coaching media releases, UCLA now appears poised for a new beginning: to be loathed. And that's a good thing.
With an influx of talent welcomed in the 2012 recruiting class, UCLA’s lineup is now, undoubtedly, up in the air. An unthinkable feat, Mora has managed to sew up a stellar coaching staff, sign a group of top-25 athletes and appears to be developing a broad-sweeping change to UCLA’s culture of complacency.
Of course, the churning up of a hopeful Bruin fan-base does not come without a grain (or pounds) of salt.
Any skeptic will point towards where such achievements can be best measured: wins. You should stop now if you are the type of fan that likes to point at any particular win, as though it were some empirical sign of progress (like against ASU last year). To be clear: There is no win-percentage next season that will determine UCLA’s barometer of success. Sure, over .500 implies a better team than last year, but does it matter if they only win when the opposition gift-wraps the W? Rather, for a successful season, this team will need to be in every game they play.
Ahhh, “In every game…” What the hell does that mean? Neuheisel used to prime it as staying in the game until the 4th quarter. Too many of them were over by the 1st.
So here’s a start: How about actually being in it every 4th quarter.
I’d take that for Mora’s first season.
But before the Fall, and the potential wins that follow, the most important season must run it’s course: The off-season.
Work. Quickly.
There is a large contingent of buzz words utilized by coaches to impart their philosophies onto a team, especially one that is new to them. A perfect example would be Joe Tresey, UCLA’s Defensive Coordinator for 2011. Replacing Chuck Bullough, Tresey produced the 88th ranked team in Total Defense. And in the Spring before such a product, catchy phrases came alongside nearly every “coaching item:”
Gotta play fast. Gotta play with urgency and gotta play with a high-motor. Good stance, good start… It’s about playing fast every snap.
Unfortunately, Tresey, apparently now DC at Youngstown State, continued to preach missiles in an age of lasers.
