SB Nation User Blog: ucla84

Dear Texas, Stop Whining: A Brief College Football Rant

ucla84 — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:57:51 -0000

Please allow me to rant for a moment. This might seem off-topic, but with the 2009 football season about to start, and with the special place the University of Texas football program should hold in all our hearts, I think it fits here.

That's especially true since I finally blew a gasket while driving home from the Fall Scrimmage, listening to some sports talk host or other do his Big 12 preview, with guest after guest yammering incessantly about how they thought Oklahoma has better talent than Texas, but that Texas will win the Red River Shootout this year because of its motivation to right the wrong that was done to it last year.

This is a love letter to a (sort of) friend.

Dear Texas,

Bruin Nation loves you. Seriously. You've been responsible for so many of our favorite football moments over the last dozen years.

That 2006 Rose Bowl? Our favorite football game of the last decade that didn't involve any Bruins.

Those games we played in 1997 and ‘98? You were so generous. We can't thank you enough for the 115 points and the jumpstart on a pretty nice, if ultimately unfulfilling, run. We can hardly wait to see you again next year, when everything should be right again in our world. It'll be fun.

Sometimes, however, you have to practice tough love. We like to think we're your friends here in Bruin Nation, so Longhorns, it hurts to have to say this to you, but...

Shut up. Stop whining. Accept reality. You didn't get jobbed last year. You got exactly - exactly - what you deserved. You did not deserve to play in the Big 12 championship game. Oklahoma did. You need to move on and accept that the system, lame as it usually as, actually worked.

You disagree? Okay, let's take a look at your argument, which - and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not - goes like this: We beat Oklahoma. We finished with the same record as Oklahoma, both in conference play and overall. Therefore, using head-to-head competition as a tiebreaker, we go to the big Big 12 dance.

That's it right? Okay, I'll accept that.

And I'm sure you'll accept that, by your own logic, Texas Tech was the rightful Big 12 South champ last year. After all, they beat you. They finished the regular season - when the tiebreaker was decided - with the same record as you, both in conference play and overall. Therefore, using head-to-head competition as a tiebreaker, they go to the big Big 12 dance.

But Tech's only loss was an unholy trashing, you say. They got roasted by six touchdowns and change. Therefore, they don't count for tiebreaking purposes, right?

You did notice, didn't you, that the team you lost to got ripped by 44 points in its only loss...by Oklahoma. How does that not factor into the tiebreaking equation?

The Big 12 South ended in a three-way tie last year. Among those three teams, the round robin ended up tied, with everybody going 1-1. That means that the only fair way to break the tie is by comparing those three games. Okay, let's compare point differentials over those three games:

#1 Oklahoma: +34 points
#2 Texas: +4 points
#3 Texas Tech: -38 points

You lose. Of course, that huge point spread in the OU-Tech game really distorts things. Just to be safe, let's compare yardage gained and given up in those three games, shall we?

#1 Oklahoma: +213 yards
#2 Texas Tech: -14 yards
#3 Texas: -202 yards

Ouch. Now you really lose. Oh, and I know what you're thinking: But you're not counting return yards, which would be huge for us, since Jordan Shipley ran off that 96-yard KO return against OU. Don't bother, Horns. You had 165 return yards against the Sooners. They had 210 against you. That kinda overcompensates for the 3 yards of total offense you rolled them by, don't it?

Take down that stupid asterisk you've posted in Austin. Acknowledge reality. If you'd have played the whole season the way you played most of it, you would have gotten what you wanted last year. Texas - you're starting to sound like a certain junior college Vince Young once facedanced all over. Do you really want to sink to that level?

Look, we like you, Texas. At least we do for another 376 days. But we're sick of hearing you complain about how you wuz wronged. You wuzn't. You got exactly what you deserved last year.

It's time to move on.

With (tough) love,

Scrimmage Thoughts: Lots Of Revelations & Questions

ucla84 — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:53:26 -0000

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Dang it was nice spending an afternoon/early evening staring out at Royce and Bunche Halls (sorry, poli sci major) in perfect weather while watching Bruins prepare for what should be a much better football season. The talent upgrade is obvious, but with so much youth, there are so many questions. Here are a few of my lame observations - I'm itching to hear yours.

Revelation: Richard Brehaut looks like the real deal, though I'd redshirt him unless Mr. Prince goes down early. It's nice to see the crowd support Kevin Craft after he toughed his way through last year. That having been said, am I the only one who was incredibly intrigued by Nick Crissman? Yes, his throwing motion needs a rebuild, but the guy has a gun, he's elusive, and he looked like he's got some serious football sense. In those few chances he got, he sure looked like a guy who makes plays. I hate to say this, but I can't think of a better way to express it: he looked a little Favrelike.

Problem: Kevin Prince has a gun too - or did you miss that ball he threw 65 yards on a line? He hasn't seen game action in two years. He's going to be inconsistent - we know that. However, just once, it would be nice to see more of his potential when he performs on the big stage. I guess we'll see that in two weeks...I hope.

Revelation: If I'm picking a starting tailback, I'm going Jetskiing. It's not just that 60-yarder he broke off - he hits holes fast and cuts on a dime. I'm also making sure Mr. Knox spends a lot of time on the field - does his motor ever stop when he's carrying the ball? Between those two, Derrick Coleman, and a few spot carries from Damien Thigpen, it seems to me the tailback rotation is quite full. (By the way, with regard to Thigpen, check out the way LSU uses Trindon Holliday.)

Setback: April 2008 is officially a long time ago. It's time for the kids to get their touches. With all due respect to Christian Ramirez, it's time to move on.

Revelation: Joseph Fauria is an extremely big man as tight ends go. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch him next year. Jerry Johnson is an extremely big man as wide receivers go. If the lights really have turned on for him - and it looked like the switch was on today - it's going to be a lot of fun to watch him this year.

Dilemma: How do we get Ricky Marvray on the field this year? He looks like he belongs on a football field just like Taylor Embree looks like he belongs on a football field. The coaching staff keeps picking up guys who just know how to play the game - how awesome is that?

Revelation: The o-line was decent. Not great, but decent. Good thing they don't have to block Brian Price during games. Speaking of lines, am I the only one who thought Iuta Tepa was a huge surprise? Once he hit the field, I kept seeing the number 96 wherever the football was.

Philosophical Question: If Brian Price knocks down an entire offensive backfield in the woods, does anyone make a sound? At some point this year, an undersized tailback is going to run up the middle, and Mr. Price is going to break him in two. Or three.

Revelation: Kyle Bosworth used to be a pretty good linebacker. Then he got hurt. Apparently, while recuperating, he crossed DNA with Jerry Robinson.

Impediment: The d-line backups looked better than we expected, no? Outside of Steve Sloan, who appears to have grown up a lot in the off season, I'm not so sure about the second string linebackers.

Revelation: Remember Courtney Viney? We used to marvel at his speed. Then we ended up with so much young talent in the secondary that he seemingly got lost in the shuffle. After all, he's so small. And when he wasn't breaking off that monster punt return (Was it 94 yards?), he hit a whole lot of receivers really hard. Here's hoping we see lots more of him this year.

Shadow Of Doubt: Repeat after me: no holding in the secondary. No holding in the secondary...

Revelation: In case we weren't sure, speed really does kill. Our best punt returner was off wearing a tux, and Randall Carroll never got turned loose, and we still had three monster kick returns, one 60-yard TD run, and one 60-yard catch-and-run. Nice.

Quandary: Or does our kick coverage just plain suck? I'm sure the guys were laying off a little bit. That, and I didn't see Sean Westgate, who was in the middle of everything in kick coverage last year, out there on returns. That having been said, on every one of those returns, somebody should have made a play.

Revelation: Aaron Perez was a great punter. Jeff Locke appears to be an upgrade, particularly since he appears much better at ball placement. I guess he can kick field goals too, should Mr. Forbath's injury prove more serious than expected. That 53-yard job he hit cleared by, what, seven yards?

Cry For Help: Can't somebody around here put a kickoff into the end zone? We have two All-America caliber legs. It would be nice to not see Jahvid Best catch a ball on the 10 yard-line this year.

It's going to be an up-and-down year, but things are headed in the right direction, aren't they? I can't wait for September 5th.

Go Bruins!

What I Thought I Saw At The Rose Bowl on Sat Night

ucla84 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:26:43 -0000

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Why couldn't we have had last weekend's weather this weekend? Here's what I thought of last night's Spring Scrimmage.

A few general observations:

Hearing from Jerry Robinson, Bruce Davis, Terry Donahue and Dick Vermeil during the evening was tremendous. It feels like the entire Bruin family has returned to the fold under Skippy.
We have a defense. A really, really good defense. Yes, the first team was playing against what's left of our already questionable offensive line and a bunch of very young skill guys. However, the talent level, particularly in the back seven, is undeniable. Each defensive unit has a major stud leading it, and Price, Carter and Verner seem to have gotten a whole lot better since December.
Dang, we're young. It won't be unusual this year to see over half of the players on the field be underclassmen. It's not hard to picture ATV taking a play off, leaving us with a secondary made entirely of last year's recruits.
The offense looked okay...just as soon as the 1st string defense hit the bench. I think it was less a matter of incorporating elements of the spread than taking Price, Siewierski, Carter, Ayers, and Verner out of the equation.

Quarterbacks - All we keep hearing is how they'll developing timing and a relationship with the receivers during 7-on-7's. They'd better. Interesting reminder of where we've been: of the three QB's who played at the last spring scrimmage, one is relegated to the Bruin equivalent of Siberia, and the other two are now receivers.

Kevin Prince - He made a few good throws, but most of the time, he reminded me of Drew Olson's early years. He definitely knows how to move, which is always a plus with our o-line, and he seems to throw much better on the run.
Richard Brehaut - For a kid who can't possibly know what he's doing back there, he sure looks comfortable. I wonder if he might be ready sooner rather than later.
Kevin Craft - There's a comic strip character I vaguely recall who has this black cloud over his head that follows him everywhere. Apparently, he now wears #3 and plays quarterback in Westwood. The whole crowd was pulling hard for him, but it seems like, even when he does something good - scrambling 50 yards into the end zone, making a nice pass - something bad - happens. Even his clean handoffs led to subsequent fumbles.

Running Backs - No Christian Ramirez, so there's no way to compare the putative #1 to everyone else, but there were some interesting things.

Milton Knox - Two words: Maurice Drew. Every time he touched the ball, something electric happened.
Derrick Coleman - He looks like Derrick Coleman. If it's possible for a guy to be called "Old Reliable" after one year, he should be the guy.
Aundre Dean - We saw some flashes of the potential we keep hearing about, but he doesn't look like he's put it all together yet.
Johnathan Franklin - We saw plenty of the speed and potential we keep hearing about. I wouldn't play him ahead of Knox, but I'd play him a whole lot.
Raymond Carter - He had one nice run against the third-string D, but whether it's the knee injury or whatever, he's clearly behind the pack.
Tobi Umodu - Yes, Tobi Umodu. He looked pretty good coming out of the backfield - and not just on his one (touchdown) catch.

Receivers - The established players - and that includes Cory Harkey - didn't play much. I'd love to know exactly how many balls got dropped. At least half a dozen times, I found myself thinking, "Taylor Embree would've held on to that." Get well soon, Taylor.

Terrence Austin - We didn't get to see much of him, but he looked great when he was on the field.
Morrell Presley - They were using him as an H-Back. While he's no doubt going to be special one day, right now he's a kid who drops too many balls.
Jerry Johnson - After reading about his being in the doghouse again and again, I was surprised to see him make a number of remarkable plays. For one night at least, he was the best receiver on the field.
Antwon Moutra/Nelson Rosario - We didn't get to see too much of them, but both look really really impressive.
Nate Chandler - Mr. Chandler is bigger than some small condominiums. On a team that needs all the blocking it can get, I'm looking forward to seeing him in the Fall.

Offensive Line - Apparently, we now have one. It's just injured or playing out of position. Here's hoping everyone's healthy by August.

Defensive Line - I barely noticed the ends, which isn't healthy, but that may be more of a reflection of what was going on in the middle of the line. Jerzy Siewierski looks much improved, and frankly, so does Jess Ward. Oh, and so does Brian Price. At some point this year, someone is going to shut Mr. Price down. That will be a very remarkable play when it finally happens. In fact, it will probably be a one-of-a-kind play.

Linebackers - Reggie Carter also looks much better, and again, that's said with full knowledge of how good he's looked when playing in the middle in the past. He should have a huge senior year. Speaking of huge, from the stands Akeem Ayers didn't look as massive as we've read he is. That having been said, he looked like a guy who creates a lot of chaos. He and Carter are going to be a phenomenal tag team. Another guy who made a lot of plays - after doing that on special teams last year - was Sean Westgate.

D-Backs - ATV didn't see the field too much, but on his one interception, he had the play read the whole way, and his runback was vintage ATV. Hester, Dye and Woods all made a few very nice plays and looked exceedingly promising. Combine them with Rahim Moore, and however inexperienced the secondary is, the talent level is just through the roof. Speaking of which, Courtney Viney may be small, but he's hellaquick and he's got a tremendous feel for things.

Special Teams - No Coach Gansz meant no real special teams work, though on one field goal attempt and three extra points, it was nice to see there were no issues with Jeff Locke holding.

Labor Day Weekend: The Texas Transplantation Cultural Experiment

ucla84 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:30:54 -0000

The first in a series of however many reports bad hotel internet service allows me to post from deep in the heart of Tejas.

Some of us just can't handle the thought of no Bruin Football on a Saturday during this most sacred time of the year. Make it opening weekend, and Monday is just too long to wait for college football. It's enough to make a jonesing Bruin seriously consider driving down I-5 for that fascinating San Diego State-Cal Poly tilt...or not. I figured I'd pass on a few notes about how they ball Texas-style over the next few days. I'll look for the Bruin angle where I can.

The itinerary:

Wednesday: American Airlines to Dallas. Greetings from a dumpy airport hotel!

Thursday: Wake Forest @ Baylor

Friday: SMU @ Rice

Saturday: Arkansas State @ Texas A&M

Sunday: Home Sweet Home - passing on Colorado-Colorado State, which woulda been fun, but I didn't want to find myself sitting in a daze on Brookside come noon Monday after a late morning flight from Denver.

Monday: Duh.

About the schedule: Sometimes you eat gourmet; sometimes you eat Hometown Buffet. Consider this schedule a matter of going for quantity over quality, while trying to preserve as much quality as possible. That having been said, there were only two Friday games of note, and the other one was in West Point. While it would have been awesome to see a game there, a two-hour direct flight to Dallas and a chance to visit College Station was too good to pass up.

There's some interesting stuff here, mostly three head coaching debuts and since everything is allegedly bigger in Texas, hopefully some very interesting tailgating. Rest assured, Bruin Blue will be worn in all three stadiums. Rest equally assured that some yokel will ask why I'm wearing a blue Bosox cap at least ten times a day.

Four games in five days, culminating in a trip to the cathedral of college football in Pasadena. ...

ucla84 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:20:37 -0000

Four games in five days, culminating in a trip to the cathedral of college football in Pasadena. Life is good!

One Bruin's Look At The Fall Scrimmage

ucla84 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:20:54 -0000

Dunno why, but I figured I'd post my thoughts on a summer's eve at Drake. Oh, and by the way, how sweet was it sitting there watching Bruins play football while looking out at America's most beautiful college campus?

Keeping in mind that, with our offense going against our defense, everything is relative. (In other words, maybe our D isn't as good as it appeared today.) Also, the scrimmage was a typically-vanilla affair - one assumes Skippy was more concerned about whoever Phil Fulmer had sent to Westwood than anything else. That having been said, when the offense outscores the defense 14-9, there's trouble in River City.

Quarterbacks. Yikes! If I knew nothing about this team, I would have concluded that, beyond any doubt whatsoever, our starting quarterback absolutely must be...Chris Forcier. Granted he was going against the 2's, and Craft was going against the 1's, but Craft was brutal for the first hour of a 90-minute scrimmage. On his last couple drives, he sort of got it together, but we can't spend every game waiting around for him to find his rhythm. C-Force, in spite of the fumbled snap, was actually pretty good. He moved the offense somewhat well, and his passes and decisions were generally on the money. Were it not for several drops, one of which caused the INT, his numbers would be excellent.

The last 15 minutes or so went to Prince and Crissman. Prince's vaunted accuracy was nowhere to be found. Crissman looked pretty good, though he was forced to scramble so much, it was hard to tell when he was trying to force a pass and when he was just throwing the ball away.

Running Backs. From the vanilla files: every run looked like it came out of the Dorrell no-deception playbook. Kahlil touched the ball once - otherwise, he was being kept under the radar. Milton Knox doesn't look ready yet, and I'm not so sure about Raymond Carter. Johnathan Franklin, however, is quite ready. Aundre Dean was a revelation - as a freshman, he already reminds me of Kahlil in terms of strength and ability to shake off hits, but here was the best thing I saw: on a blitz, he picked up a linebacker who had a clear shot at the QB and took care of him. He looked like a real pro.

The fullbacks look good. Theriot can do the things that we got used to seeing Pitre do. I was shocked to see Tobi Umodu look good. Coleman is dinged up and didn't see much action.

I'm more worried about our ability to run than our ability to pass. The pass blocking was below average, which made it much better than the run blocking. The o-line was just so horrible that there were no holes opened. Ever.

Receivers. Good news: Marcus Everett looks like himself. Ditto Ryan Moya. Terrence Austin appears to be getting it together - and he's clearly our best return man. Johnson didn't participate. We saw a ton of the freshmen, and they all have something going for them. Moutra appears to be the real deal. I think he's going to have a bigger year than anyone knows. Rosario and Johnson both got open more than I expected - though with more contact at the line, I don't think they would have - but they both missed out on a lot of balls they could have caught. What the attraction to Ryan Graves is, I have no idea.

Offensive Line. I just checked: Chris Forcier is still scrambling. Perhaps we can convince opponents to count to 3 Mississippi before rushing.

Defensive Line. I would stack Harwell and Price against any other tandem in the country. The ends were better than expected, though they were going against our o-line. Havoc was the order of the day, and the d-line was causing it.

Linebackers. Reggie didn't practice, but John Hale filled in quite well for him. When he was a freshman, I thought Hale was clearly set to be the next in the line of Thomas/Chillar/Havner always-making-plays Bruin LBs. I don't know why he melted down the way he did the last two years, but I think he's headed for a huge senior year. The rest look like you'd expect - pretty good, not dazzling, though Sloan and Ayers look promising. With Reggie back, we'll be really good.

D-Backs. The kids are excellent - that includes Viney and Hester, not just Moore. ATV has jumped to yet another level. He made a pick where he simply muscled the ball away from a much bigger receiver. He seems like he now has a physical presence to go with his speed and instincts. Next year, he's an All-American. Given that there was no running game to speak of, the safeties didn't have a lot to do.

Kicking Game. Forbath didn't look very good, but why worry. Perez looks like he's taken another step up - he was phenomenal. (Hate to say it, but we'll need him to be great this year.) I don't know that it's worth wasting a year of his eligibility - especially because he did not look at all good punting - but Locke clearly has a bigger kickoff leg than either Rotstein or Forbath. Given that he takes over for Perez next year, Locke has a lot of work to do. Having not seen Forbath kick off before, I was surprised to discover that Rotstein has the longer leg, if slightly, off the tee. Austin deserves to be our #1 returner on both KOs and punts, but Viney looked good on punts too.

Final note: I stuck my head into Spaulding on the way out. It's been painted in a way that exudes Bruin Pride. Tthe atmosphere around the program has clearly changed. We'll have to see how things go in 16 days, but DeWayne Walker sure looks like the Pac-10's answer to Will Muschamp. He needs to be. Things are headed in the right direction, but either we win a bunch of games 16-14, or this is going to be a very long year.