I got to the scrimmage quite a bit later than I was hoping (looking for a new place to live with my wife). As my wife and I were walking through the front aisle of seats at the Rose Bowl – she saw two empty seats and remarked that we should sit there. I figured that they were spoken for – and just assumed that we would find some seats in the upper region of seats. However, my wife isn’t shy when it comes to getting her way – and she did not want to walk up the stairs and sit with a less advantageous view. So she asked a man sitting with his son if we could sit in the two seats next to them. The father seemed initially apprehensive – but then quickly relented and welcomed us to the seats.

I actually recognized who this spectator was right away – but didn’t say anything to him – or to my wife. However, after we sat down – I leaned over to my wife and told her that we were sitting next to Brian Bosworth – perhaps the greatest defensive player in college football history. After a few minutes, an opportunity presented itself to talk to him – and I asked him how he thought his nephews were going to do this year. He was very candid – and approachable – and he offered me his views on a variety of subjects regarding college football, his days at Oklahoma, and the NFL draft. Since I did not ask for his permission to report on what he was saying – I will respect his privacy and my wife and I will enjoy the conversation that we had with him. However, I did want to report that he asseverated that he offered to help out with the defense (not as a paid coach – he just thought that it might be helpful to provide the kids with some defensive guidance) when KD was coach – but was denied any opportunity. I guess I felt compelled to share that part of our conversation because I was bummed to hear it. I wasn’t necessarily surprised – just feel as though an opportunity was missed.

Overall. Bosworth seemed to believe that UCLA was heading in the right direction. From watching the scrimmage – I felt encouraged as well. There were flashes here and there from the offense that seemed to suggest progress. The defense looked dominating at times – and the speed and hitting was electric from the defense. As for me and my wife (okay – really just me) – I had an absolutely awesome time. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire scrimmage (this was due to the amalgamation of being at the Rose Bowl, having an ongoing dialogue with the Bos – I think I’m at the point where I can just call him the “Bos” now – haha, listening to our charismatic leader pump up the crowd, hearing Dick Vermeil and Terry Donahue speak with enthusiasm about the direction of this team, and seeing a panoply of high level recruits at the game and appearing to have a good time).

Hope everyone else had a good time tonight – seemed like a good crowd. Would love to hear other people’s experiences as well. There seems to be an overall paradigm shift in UCLA football – and I think the crowd tonight sensed that we are on the cusp of something special.

I wanted to succinctly touch upon the Sidney recruiting issue as it appears to be quite an incendiary topic here – and on other Bruin related websites. The part that has left me perplexed is how many UCLA fans are seemingly questioning CBH’s judgment. Of course, it also seems a little ridiculous to have a bunch of adults vilify an adolescent that they don’t have any first hand knowledge of (perhaps some of the posters do know RS personally – but I kind of doubt it). Additionally, some of the critiques being bandied around about RS are so incredibly ambiguous or subjective (like saying that he has poor body language on his film clips – or that his attitude seems poor – or indicating that he acts in a puerile nature – based off of a series of second hand reports). While many of these reports may have some element of validity to them – don’t we trust CBH’s judgment on this matter? If indeed he has decided not to offer RS – it does at least appear that he was recruiting him but has decided to stop due to some obstacle that may be insurmountable.

I guess what I want to address is the notion that fans think they know better than our esteemed head coach. I read article on leadership recently that conveyed how successful organizations have exemplary leadership. This article described common components of such leadership styles – and indicated that the strong leaders all had a philosophy of hegemony that they filtered all of their decisions through. For basketball teams that would suggest that a coach (or GM – or AD) would identify a system or philosophy of play that they wanted to utilize (like the triangle for PJax or CBH’s system). These leaders then identify players that fit the particular system that they plan to implement.

Now the best leaders stuck to their system and did not change when faced with adversity. Their perseverance was inspiring – and it helped their team develop confidence. Furthermore, because the system was so clearly established – the leader helped each team member delineate the particular roles that they could flourish in. This in turn, helped each respective member hone their skills in that area in a manner that empowered the overall team become better than the sum of its parts.

I think that this dynamic of organizational systems soundly describes what we are experiencing in the CBH (and CRN) era. CBH is a paragon of hegemonical virtue. I think that just about everyone here at BN would agree with that!? Therefore, (and perhaps this is directed more at some of the other sites that have questioned the moral fortitude of our coach for having interest in RS – and I will post this on those sites as well) we should have absolute trust in our leader – right? He has not let us down to this point – and there are literally streams of excellent young athletes that desire to play for UCLA so that they can flourish under CBH’s leadership. If CBH believes that he RS can thrive in his system – who am I to question that? I certainly don’t have the same leadership resume that he has.

And as far as the whole tainting our pristine institutional image argument – I just don’t buy it. If CBH is the great leader that we assume him to be – then I believe that his unique characterological talent would help guide RS toward individual and communal success. I would love to see CBH offer this terrific athlete an opportunity for redemption. It’s like RS has a chance to finally get some of the structure that he has desperately needed – and some Bruins fans want to deny him that – and excoriate him at the same time. I guess that’s just not how I roll (of course, being in the field of psychology – it could be that my personal paradigm influences the way that I experience this whole issue).

Finally, it’s not as if we haven’t taken on athletes with some questionable virtues before. Even during Wooden’s era – he helped coach some relative renegades toward tremendous success (certainly – Bill Walton comes to mind). In those cases, his outstanding leadership trumped Walton’s individual ego – and I believe that Walton is a better man for having experienced Wooden’s guidance.

I - personally - would love to see what CBH could do with RS. I imagine that under his leadership we could see him blossom into a unique and unstoppable talent/force. I got to give CBH a ton of credit for consistently recruiting top level athletes that also have great character (although - I think some of our recollections of his players may be revisionist in that he may have improved or enhanced their character). However, at a basketball institution that only hangs National Championship Banners - a talent like RS could help us/CBH hang that elusive 12th banner - at least, if given the right direction and leadership. We know that if he goes to SuC - he will be given no leadership - and his destiny almost assuredly will not be as bright. It would upset me to see such a talented player play for Timmeh - watching him try and beat UCLA - knowing that he could have helped us destroy the Pac-10 (I think a frontline with him and BoBo - and the other incoming freshman - would be awesome). 

Well, whatever direction CBH decides to take us in - I am willing to follow. It doesn't mean that we can't question some of the decisions that he makes along the way - but until proven otherwise - I am going to assume that he understands the landscape of success in college basketball a little bitter than I do.

I felt like there were some encouraging developments that transpired throughout this game. Our defense held up relatively well against a bunch of offensive 5 star recruits. Our offensive line provided good pass protection and seems to have gotten slightly better as the year progressed. I also felt as though the players played with great passion and determination (although sometimes their passion led to some unfortunate mistakes – like Ayers late hits and Carter’s penalty on roughing the punter). I was certainly pleased to hear Craig’s endorsement of UCLA at halftime – and I hope that the nation at large was listening (especially if you happen to be a young athlete that can bench press 400 plus pounds or can run a 40 yard dash in around 4 seconds).

Now, there were definitely some areas that need to be addressed in the future – and I was hoping that a few of you could comment on what areas you see as essential in improving our organizational depth and talent.

First, recruiting absolutely needs to reflect the level of success that we are hoping to achieve. We should consistently be pulling in 5 star recruits. In particular, we need better talent at the skill positions (haven’t had a break-out receiver in awhile – and our runners need to be more dynamic and shifty – perhaps last years recruits will help out here).

We also need to find some defensive ends that can hunt down a quarterback like their next meal depends on it (like Bruce Davis, the Ball brothers, etc). How many sacks did we have this year? As good as our Defensive tackles were – the ends were somewhat disappointing.

Clearly the offensive line needs some more talent – but I would expect for the returners to be better next year with more experience under Palcic’s tutelage. Currently we have two (or did we get a JUCO transfer?) offensive line recruits – one which looks like a stud – the other is a middle of the pack lineman.

We also need to address special teams – which I felt like was poorly coached all year long (which was surprisng to me – because Ganss – sp? – seemed promising). Our coverage seemed late and ill conceived – and some of the mistakes today really hurt us today.

Finally, I feel like we should never be out-schemed. While the level of talent on the field may not be able to effectively compete for national titles yet – the talent level on the sidelines and in the sky boxes should be able to compete with anyone in the country. There were times where I felt like this was the case this season – but overall – it was defintely debateable. Could you definitively state that we grew as a team this year? In what ares did we truly progress and what players development was blatantly obvious?

Furthermore, at the end of the game today – how many third downs did we give up for first downs? It seemed like we could not stop SuC from getting first downs when they wanted them. While I did feel as though the officiating was overly tendentious – the coaches should also have been in the players ears about late hits and holding (I swear SuC’s offensive line was consistently getting away with holding). I also think that offensively we were aware of our identity from an early point in the season. Therefore, shouldn’t we have identified a clear plan for getting most out of that talent and helping players progress for next year? I would have liked to see some more creativity with the offensive play calling – even though I will acknowledge that Chow, Neuheisal, etc, are much wiser than me when it comes to doing their jobs – but they should be – they are getting compensated fairly well to do this professionally. If I produced the same outcome as a psychologist that they have on the field – it would be fair to critique my performance.

Finally, watching Carroll shake hands and joke around with the refs all day today really pissed me off. I feel pretty certain that those refs go to bed in SuC pajama’s and have a autographed pictures from Petey on their business desks. However, I would like for CRN to utilize his considerable charisma to work the sidelines so that we can get favorable calls – and put UCLA charm in the minds of other schools and fans.

As a very last note – in order for this program to make a complete turn into national prominence – we need to help out on the grassroots level. There needs to be an investment on all UCLA supporters parts. Our enthusiasm and confidence should be infectious. So when our kids, neighbors, co-workers, strangers, etc – think about where they are going to attend college – they will ineluctably think about going to UCLA because of the profound impact that we imparted upon them. If we can offer that to CRN, his staff, and the players – we will have played an integral role in creating the cultural change and paradigm shift that we have been so desperately calling for.

Let’s quit talking about KD – his era is over and it was a depressing one at that. Now it’s time to be a part of the solution as we inculcate and propagate a collective environment of excellence. Thanks everyone here for sharing in my joy, pain, and renewed hope! Have a great Christmas season (or Hannukah, etc)!