The WWL is reporting that Chargers DC Greg Manusky has been fired and is promoting Pagano to the position. With our apparent top choice at DC now off the table, who should Mora now consider? I would hope that he has a list of backup candidates given the situation in San Diego was a bit rocky, but who is (should) be included on that list? I am personally in the mindset that our new DC should have experience in the college ranks, both for experience and recruiting purposes. Having a HC with no college coaching experience is one thing. Having a DC also with no experience in the college game may not be reassuring to our current players, nor to recruits.

One candidate whom I think should get serious consideration is Chuck Heater. Heater is currently the DC at Temple, and arrived there this season after 5 years at Florida. His first year at Temple resulted in a defense ranked #13 nationally in Total Defense. He was Co-Defensive Coordinator and Assistant DC on 2 national championship teams with Urban Meyer in Florida, and served as a defensive coach there between 2005-2010. In the years he served as Assistant DC and Co-DC, Florida ranked #9, #4 and #9 nationally in Total Defense. Almost as importantly, he served as Recruiting Coordinator at Florida during a time when they brought in top rated classes (#1, #2, #13 by Rivals), and previously served as Recruiting Coordinator at Utah, Washington, and Colorado. His knowledge of the recruiting scenes in both SEC and Pac-12 countries is extensive and would be a huge boon for us. Plus, bringing him to Westwood would give him a chance to coach again in a BCS conference. On top of all that, he's the father of former UCLA TE Adam Heater. Hiring Heater makes perfect sense, which is probably why we won't even consider him. .

Again, I would rather see a proven DC from the college ranks versus an NFL position coach with little to no coordinating experience. Chime in with your thoughts or other suggestions for our next DC.

So, I just spent the last 20 mins reading through this NCAA publication that is available online here about player transfers, and Willis’ situation is complicated. However, there may be some silver linings for UCLA if he does indeed decide to “transfer” back here. Granted, I’m not a legal expert, so the following is based on my interpretation of the transfer rules as outlined by this NCAA document. Here are some tidbits I found that may illuminate his situation better:

1) Is Willis a transfer-athlete? If Willis is considered a transfer-athlete, he must fulfill the one-year academic residence prior to playing football. To be considered a transfer-athlete, one of the following three conditions must be met: a) enrolled as a full-time student during a regular academic term (summer does not count), b) reported for practice with the regular squad, or c) practiced or played while enrolled part-time. The questions I don’t have answers to are whether Willis enrolled full-time while at UNC after leaving UCLA, and whether he participated in any official practices with the team. Can anyone provide more info on this? If Willis can answer no to all of these questions, he may not be viewed as a “transfer-athlete” according to the NCAA definition. Therefore, the one-year academic residency requirement may be waived.

2) The basic transfer rule is “You must spend one academic year in residence before you are eligible to compete.” If Willis is classified as a transfer-athlete from UNC, his return to UCLA would trigger the one-year clock. However, his situation is a little unique in the sense that he already served his academic year in residence at UCLA prior to leaving for UNC. Would the NCAA waive this requirement if he returns to UCLA since he technically already served his academic year in residence? Willis can make a strong case to have this requirement waived.

3) Transferring from a 4-year to another 4-year school. For athletes transferring from one 4-year institution to another, the one-year academic in residence requirement can be waived “if you return to your first school without participating at the second school.” If Willis did not participate in an official UNC team practice, he can petition to waive the one-year requirement. If he did, then this point is moot.

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Good brainstorming thread. -BN

With the release of Bullough and Moore as Defensive Coordinator and WR coach respectably, the question now becomes who will replace them.  I originally intended to create a post asking BN to chime in on preferred and/or likely candidates to consider after our loss to $C.  However, given that the two hadn’t been released yet, I thought it would be a pit premature. 

Now that the news has made the front page of BN thanks to Bellerophon, and given some of the comments to his post, I thought a new post was in order for folks to provide thoughts on a future DC and WR coach.  Tonight, I’ll start with possibilities for the DC position, and tomorrow, I’ll do  [did a similar post for the WR coach slot here].  I’ll offer up some of my suggestions and reasons why I like each, and I invite others to do the same.  My only request is that you provide some rationale behind your pick.  Simply offering a name without any sort of reasoning really isn’t helpful.

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Coming up with a list of candidates for the WR coach position was tricky because it doesn’t have the exposure, or the pay, as say a coordinator or HC.  Given those limitations, I considered candidates mainly from non-BCS programs and even one from the FCS level.  Reviewing their credentials, many of these I feel are some gems that we should pounce on before other teams do.  I’m not sure how realistic it would be to get one of these guys, but the prospect of coaching at a BCS program could be a bonus.  When considering candidates, I took a long look at their team’s national ranking in Passing Offense over the past few years.  There are no team categories for receptions or total receiving yards on the NCAA football stats database.  Passing Offense can be a good proxy given that you need receivers to actually catch the balls in order to have an effective passing attack. 

Again, when chiming in, please give some rationale behind your suggestions.

Thanks.  Go Bruins!

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After this utter disappointment of a football season in CRN's third year at UCLA, I was curious to see the progression of other notable coaching hires from 2007.  Granted each program is different and each of these coaches entered with varying levels of talent on their teams, they each walked into similar situations and faced the same, if not higher expectations, as CRN when he returned to Westwood.  The list below shows Win/Loss records of  coaches in their first three years at their programs.  This is not a comprehensive list, just a small sample of the more high profile coaching hires from 2007 (apologies for the formatting, but I always struggle with columns here):

Coach                     School               07-08        08-09         09-10           3-year total

Rick Neuheisel     UCLA                    4-8            7-6 (B)        4-8                15-22 (40.5%)

Rich Rodriguez     Michigan               3-9           5-7               7-5                15-22 (40.5%)

June Jones            SMU                   1-11          8-5 (B)        7-6 (B)            16-22 (42.1%)

Mike Sherman       Texas A&M           4-8            6-7              9-3 (B)          19-18 (51.3%)

Houston Nutt         Ole Miss               9-4 (B)       9-4 (B)       4-8                 22-16 (57.9%)

Bobby Petrino        Arkansas              5-7            8-5 (B)        10-2 (B)         23-14 (62.2%)

Paul Johnson        Georgia Tech          9-4 (B)       11-3 (B)      6-6               26-13 (66.7%)

Bo Pelini                 Nebraska             9-4 (B)       10-4 (B)     10-3 (B)         29-11 (72.5%)

(B = Bowl Game Appearance)

You can all draw your own conclusions from this list.  Personally, I look at it and think that it's not unreasonable to expect more from CRN after 3 years.

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Calming down from my furor over Saturday’s debacle, I decided to take a more empirical look at the statistics and looked for anything stuck out.  Given that there are only two data points to consider, none of this should be considered conclusive evidence for anything.  However, they do provide a glimpse at the problems and deficiencies plaguing our team that many of you have already mentioned here.

Average Time of Possession.  It’s no surprise that given our offensive and defensive woes, that we are not holding on to the ball long enough.  If our opponent has a higher time of possession, their offense and our defense are on the field longer, and that usually means more points for them.  It also means our offense isn’t sustaining long drives and we’re not converting our 3rd downs (more on that latter).  I think even more revealing is our average time of possession by quarter:

                                                                        UCLA        OPPONENTS

Average Total Possession Time                           23:37               36:23

1st Quarter                                            5:11                 9:48

2nd Quarter                                           7:26                 7:33

3rd Quarter                                           6:20                 8:40

4th Quarter                                            4:38               10:21

When I look at this breakdown by quarter, a few things stick out for me. First of all, our time of possession in the 1st Quarter is terrible. It’s almost half that of our opponents. This suggests to me that our offense needs almost an entire quarter before getting into any sort of rhythm. It can also shows that our defense isn’t getting the other team off the field. By the time the 2nd Quarter comes around, both sides seem to find some rhythm. After halftime, we seem to struggle again. We come out flat and aren’t able to sustain long drives. The 1st and 3rd Quarter times of possession are truly telling because these are the times when our team should be rested and prepared. No surprise, our 4th Quarter numbers are pretty horrid. By that time, our defense is gassed, and teams lean on us by keeping the ball on the ground. Time of possession directly correlates to my next point.

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Bumped. Always love reading posts like this. GO BRUINS. -N

Since everyone has already chimed in about our performance against Stanford, I thought I'd give my two cents about the awesome Bruin Bash tailgate that took place right before the game.  I also brought my camera to take pictures of both the Bash and the game, but ended up taking more pics of the Bash.  You'll see those shots below.  Anyway, I started the day off by getting to the Stanford campus a little after 10:30am.  I've never been to Stanford before even though I was born and raised in the Bay, so it took me a minute to gather my bearings.  But, after spotting waves of powder blue heading into campus in front of me, I just followed the crowd.

For those who haven't been to Stanford before, it's a pretty sweet campus.  Awesome buildings, plenty of trees, and just a good overall vibe to the place.  I made my way to the Frost Amphitheater and immediately saw signs for the Bash.  Walked in and was immediately greeted by fellow Bruin fans and alums.  I was both amazed and proud by the sea of blue that filled the area. 

I snapped this shot from the stage area looking out into the crowd, but it doesn't capture the massive group behind me on stage getting food and drink:

More after the jump

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