Bumped. So much for fun than reading boilerplate game previews in preseason rags. GO BRUINS. -N

This is the second in a series of posts that will follow how I play through our upcoming season schedule in NCAA Football 10's Dynasty Mode, where one can recruit and play through numerous seasons and years in an effort to build a "dynasty", or at least a recognized program, at your selected school. I'll provide a recap of the game, what to expect from the video game version of our opponent (which may or may not serve as useful scouting tool), and a breakdown of a key play or two with pictures and video. The AI difficulty is set at a higher level than the game's default, which is more representative of real-life play.

Coming off a last-second win against SDSU via a Kai Forbath field goal, the Bruins now head into Neyland Stadium, one of the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play in this year's edition of the game. Mistakes late in the game and inconsistencies proved to be stumbling blocks in the season opener and these flaws could prove to be major problems on the road in SEC country.

The Bruins come into the game with straight B- ratings overall, and on offense and defense. Tennessee's overall rating is a B+, with it's offense at a B+ and its defense, led by Eric Berry, at an A-. Check out what happened after the jump.

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Bumped. GO BRUINS. - N

This will be the first in a series of posts that will follow how I play through our upcoming season schedule in NCAA Football 10's Dynasty Mode, where one can recruit and play through numerous seasons and years in an effort to build a "dynasty", or at least a recognized program, at your selected school. I'll provide a recap of the game, what to expect from the video game version of our opponent (which may or may not serve as useful scouting tool), and a breakdown of a key play or two with pictures and video. The AI difficulty is set at a higher level than the game's default, which is more representative of real-life play.

On paper and in the game, San Diego State would seem like a guaranteed win on the schedule, which was a thought held in the back of my mind as I approached this game. SDSU's ratings were worse with C's and our B-'s gave us the supposed ratings advantage headed into the game.  Find out what happened after the flip.

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Bumped. GO BRUINS. - N

For gamers and college football enthusiasts, early/mid-July means the release of EA Sports' annual NCAA Football title; it signals the start of many video game releases in the upcoming months but more importantly, it (at least for me) serves as a marker on the calendar that fall camp and the season kickoff is fast approaching. 

This year's edition offers essentially more of the same, albeit with a few new additions here and there: tackle breaking mechanics, playable tipped balls, and (perhaps my favorite) the inclusion of marching bands in the pre-game cinematics (and yes, the band does spell out the UCLA script for our home games...I'll get pics up in the future), which ties into the overall emphasis on the gameday atmosphere:

NCAA Football 10 - UCLA Marching Band (via ncaaStrategies) [HT jaffa]

But enough with the video game chitchat...let's get to the one team we all care about: the UCLA Bruins.

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Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

This year has obviously been different, with the media casting (and the president) casting us as the underdog in last night's game (interesting fact: 70% or so of participants in ESPN's bracket challenge selected us to win...so take whatever you want from that). I've thought about this different feel for this season/tournament, aside from the losses, the mesh of our team, etc. and a striking point came up in previous posts concerning our first weekend games.

The quality of our opponents from the last three years was not, to say the least, of major conference quality. Not to take anything from what Belmont, Weber State, and MVSU did during their respective seasons and conference tourneys, but I thought it was somewhat of a disadvantage for us as a 1 or 2 seed to take on what should be a win in the first round. Given that a team does the game planning, scouting, and preparation for the game, they should be fine, and I think Howland's teams do that (see our Thursday night record in Pac-10 play). It's the second round game these last three years that have been a bump in the tournament road, whether it be Alabama, Indiana, or Texas A&M.

Giving it more thought, our team gameplans for two opponents during the conference season; that day in between is just a walkthrough, a quick practice, a meeting, etc. There is simply no way that a team can prepare for an opponent in one day, that should be obvious. In the case of the NCAAs, we essentailly have to scout for three teams during the course of the week. Our current example would be VCU, Villanova, and American. In years past, it seemed to me that the first round game for our guys was simply a warm-up, and it essentially is. So to finally get to the main points of my thoughts: I think that the preparation is there for the second round game, but whether it was the lack of time with that one dead day or a rough transition from playing a okay opponent to a quality one, that second round game ends up being the wake-up call for our teams, reminding them that this is the NCAAs: a loss means the end of the road.

So what about this year? I think the lower seed (which I disagreed with back on Sunday) might have worked to our favor. Playing VCU, a quality opponent from a mid-major conference, in the first round might have served as that wake-up tournament call. I say might because, as we saw in the conference tournament, the team got the win over Wazzu, only to lost to $C. However, I believe that the team is well aware that they can't afford to slip up; the close wins of the the last three years in the second round became this year's first round close win. The results of the last three years ended in deep tournament runs, so there's a chance, a chance, that the team gets in that groove a game early this year. I'm fairly confident that Howland's preparation during this past week for our second round opponent, dependant on a first round win, would have leaned more towards Villanova. I think last night's game got us up-to-speed and reminded us that every team will be playing to win (just as VCU's coach said), a reminder that comes a game early for our team and I think that works in our favor.

That being said, we are playing Villanova in Philadelphia. Call in karma, call it a twist of fate; we've had the benefit of playing our first and second weekend games close to home. We've had the benefit of a pro-UCLA crowd because our all our games have been in California (with the exception of nearby Phoenix): San Diego, Sacramento, Anaheim, Oakland, San Jose. We are no longer in the friendly confines of California. Let's see how this team responds in what is basically a true road game in the tournament.

I have a new camera and here are a couple of photos taken in-game from the exhibition game this past Monday.

Drew Gordon attacking the basket - via i288.photobucket.com

Keefe on the defensive switch- -via i288.photobucket.com

From what I saw, the team looked fairly solid but I did notice some confusion on the floor from Jrue when Howland or DC would call a set play. He would either start his part late, set a screen in the wrong position, or just be out of position on a small amount of set plays. The same can be said for the other freshmen while they were on the floor, but that's why the exhibition games are there: to offer our players some game action and to work out the kinks going into the season opener against Prarie View A&M. Anyways, I'll put up more game photos after each game, starting with next Wednesday.

On another note, I've also updated my football photos, which includes my weekend trip back home to the Bay Area to catch the game against Cal.

Kevin Riley being sacked - via i288.photobucket.com

Forcier on the QB Draw - via i288.photobucket.com

Bumped. GO BRUINS. - N

I apologize for the long delay in putting up this post, but you just don't have to time to put in a couple of games on the video game console when six weeks of summer classes all come crashing down in three days of finals and papers...but I was able to get around to putting in another game against BYU, which just reinforced my gameplan for them.

First, some details on both team's ratings in game:

UCLA:
Overall- 81
Offense- 83
Defense- 82

BYU:
Overall- 79
Offense- 88
Defense- 73

I've gone over how I feel about UCLA's team ratings in the past, so let's focus on our opponent. The offense rating is pretty high, and that's supplemented by the fact that Max Hall and Harvey Unga are near the top of player ratings for the team. This is a seasoned offense, designed to operate out of the shotgun, and can be explosive on the aerial front just like in real-life. The defense, on the other hand, and it's low rating reflects the lack of returning starters.

Again, a lot of what I say here (and what I will be in other gameplans) will echo a lot of the sentiments heard on TV and radio and read on newspapers, websites, and blogs. Running a virtual offense and defense, IMO, is not that different to actual game planning for a real football game; this is why the stuff I'll be pointing out will be pretty obvious to all of us.  I also left out some obvious stuff, such as which Craft we will see on Saturday...because honestly, I make Craft look Brady-esque with how I run my offense. =)

1) Exploit BYU's 3-4 defensive scheme.

The 3-4, IMO, needs three things: familiarity, a strong nose tackle, and linebackers. Quality linebackers. The players should be familiar how their defense operates (obviously) but again, a majority of this group didn't start last year and this will be their third game in for them. The front seven can be exploited, because the starting NT in game did not command the attention of two offensive linemen that goes along with the 3-4, while the LBs were not as quick in rushing or stopping the run as, for example, Cal's LB operating in the 3-4. I think we can run up the middle and run outside better compared to Tennessee.

2) Keep our TEs in the game plan.

PA Rollout led Moya on the TD grab in the flats. Unnecessary ball protection, though.- via videocdn.easw.easports.com

I always do it when I run my video game offense, and we did on Monday night. With Paulsen out, Moya will be the go-to guy. He's more of a receiver, with better speed and hands in-game compared to Paulsen. Play action rollouts (again, another thing I like doing that was utilized during the actual game against Tennessee) can open up the passing game, especially for our TEs. Plus everyone loves athletic TEs that present another threat to worry about!

Check out rest of the gameplan after the jump.

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