I sincerely hope there is a better future. My mind says yes. There is a terrific coaching staff (at least on paper). There are better underclassmen in the program. Incoming recruits seem to be a higher quality that outgoing seniors. However, there is this gnawing doubt that exists everytime I see Craft in the game. I understand that there is NO offensive line. I understand there is NO speed and little talent at all the skill positions. Nevertheless, seeing Craft play 36 quarters and knowing he is just as bad now as he was in the first gives me pause. Similarly, seeing Norris play and realizing as a senior he is just as bad as he was as a seldom used underclassmen gives me pause. I pray we are not seeing coaches who fall in love with a player and plays him regardless of talent, mistakes…Playing Craft every quarter does allow doubt to creep into my overall positive view for the future. Playing Norris every down similarly gives me pause. I know one thing, as much as I hope for better days, if I see Craft starting in 09 or an untalented upper classmen starting on defense in 09, all bets are off….

The hands down biggest problem for this team is the offensive line. the O-line can make a terrible QB look good or a Heisman winner look like a high-schooler. Craft is not the problem. Period. He is the best we have, accept that. He is better than Forcier or he wouldn’t be in the game. Our receivers are good, we actually have some good players at skill positions on offense, but there is no way Sam Bradford or Chase Daniel could play QB back there with the little time our O-line would give them.
On Defense, Norris was a dud today. But I would not lay this on coaches failing to develop him during this season or sticking with him out of favoritism. He is just, sadly, the best option at that position at this time. Our coaching staff has made strides this season with what personnel we have, and they have shown a determination to play the best players on the roster regardless of tenure. I think that Coleman has been doing well, but his season average for yards per carry is skewed a bit due to a few long runs in the WSU game I believe. I think it is a bit of a toss up back there right now, and when it is a toss up you go with experience.
Craft has improved, but the O-line is just woefully undersized and there is nothing he can do about that. He wasn’t even able to make it back for a 3 step drop today, more like 1.5 and lob it up. I know the commentators harped on his decision making on third down, but did they ever once point out an open man past the sticks that he could have thrown to? If he had done that everyone would have given him a hard time about throwing dangerous passes. I honestly thought today was a halfway decent day for him at QB, just an even worse than usual day for the O-line.
I know I have rambled a bit, but trust the coaches. They have been doing a good job with the hand they have been dealt. Craft isn’t the key problem, he is just the face of the offense (which just goes with being the QB). Norris cost us a LOT today, but who would you put in instead? Coleman is neck and neck with Bell, maybe we will see him get more reps as the season winds down. We are pretty much assuredly out of bowl contention now so maybe we see some more risky play in the next few games, I dunno. But trust the coaches.

Alright, I need a forum to vent my frustrations. I live in Newport Beach, which is unfortunately a dirty cesspool of Trojan pseudofandom. My cardinal and gold "friends" love to give me a hard time this time of year as I am often subjected to constant text messages reminding me of how bad our Bruins are losing on the gridiron. Of course, once basketball season comes along their collective ego’s tend to become a little less inflated as my pride begins to swell up with a healthy sense of vicarious achievement. However, I’m sick of WAITING for basketball season to come along to feel the blue and gold goodness that should be persistently propagating bruin infused dopamine surges.

I should note before I really begin to vent my frustrations that I am a big fan and believer in CRN and his "dream team" football staff. I have also been impressed with the positive momentum that we have been building on the recruiting trail (although I would love to see us as players in the national recruiting scene – attracting 5 star recruits with regularity). Nonetheless, I tend to find myself questioning (my wife might say screaming) several decisions that this coaching staff makes each week. For starters (pun intended), why on earth is Kevin Craft still starting for this team. He has no future as a quarterback at a D-1 college – so it’s not like we should be grooming him for next year. I also can’t believe that we would be much worse off having Forcier behind center (who may have a future – and is definitely blessed with more God given talent). At least Forcier might infuse some life into this sagging offense (he has the legs and elusiveness to make something out of nothing – whereas Craft generally achieves nothing out of nothing). If we are going to be a below average team – shouldn’t we start thinking about next year and develop our young talent? I like that we have been using some of our athletic young athletes (Ayers, Jones, Moutra, Coleman, Embree, etc) – but I’m not sure why Craft continues to be an anathema to this team. I also wish that Dean would get some time on the offense as it would be a deleterious blow to lose him and any recruiting status that we may have established in the fecund football talent bed that is Texas.

I also have issues with Walker – whose defense seems to play really well for about 75% of games. Perhaps any defense would become increasingly less crisp if it had to be on the field as much as our defense is. Just the same, there seems to be at least a couple defensive series each week where tackling, discipline, positioning, or effort seems to be poor – and it leads to a relatively easy score for the opposition. The great teams do not execute 75% of the time. Could you imagine Howland’s defense being sound for 75% of the game? I think whatever hair he has remaining on his scalp would fall right off.

Additionally, the special teams has not been what I had expected. It seems that the opposing team consistently starts off with better than average field position off of kickoffs. Our punt defense seems slow to get down the field – and our return game is unspectacular to say the least. We knew our offense was going to struggle – but the uninspired efforts we didn’t. I can’t stand watching Kevin Craft (the human momentum killer as he is known in my household) continue to make bad decisions. Could we honestly say that he has shown any improvements over the course of the year?

Alright – I need to run because I have plans to go out. It would be nice to leave with the glow that accompanies a UCLA victory – but I’ll manage nonetheless. Last comment – I am passionate about UCLA sports and I believe that our football team should be in the upper echelon of teams (top 10 – 15) teams annually. I don’t want Jim Harrick level success in football (which was a threat to be a top 25 team each year). I want Howland level success (which is a threat to go to the Final Four each year). I believe that CRN has the passion, talent, ambition, and resources to get us there – but days like today sure are tough to swallow. I am definitely more confident with CRN at the helm than KD – and it will be nice to see some of the aggressive coaching decisions that he makes pay off as the coaching triumvirate brings us some meaningful victories. Unfortunately, the talent level of our coaches far exceeds the talent level of our players – and that is not a good portent to success (nothing against the UCLA football players – it’s not their fault – but some of them are not fit to be on a division 1 football team that is hoping to compete at the highest level).

Eventually, we will see the talent level of the players blend together perfectly with the schemes and ideologies of our respective coaches. When that day comes – you better believe that my “friends” in Cardinal and Gold will feel the wrath and fury of a Bruin gone wild with text messaging fever. Until that day – I want to thank Bruins Nation for being there for me – as a place to expurgate myself of the catastrophic lowliness that accompanies a Kevin Craftian (again, nothing personal) defeat.

That may have been the worst performance by a UCLA offense that we have ever witnessed. After a bye week , at home, we do not get in the end zone once. Is there a trick play in the playbook? If conventional plays don’t work wouldn’t you try something unconventional? Obviously we are not going to win any games, except next week hopefully, play some youngsters and let’s get a jump on next season. There won’t be any bowl game practices to develop them. We all have accepted that we will be bad this year but Bruin fans will want to be entertained next year. This honeymoon is over by the end of next September if the team performs in any way, shape or form like this next season.

While I’m venting, the people getting off on the defense are just off base. When you are always playing from behind you are not as good, period. I felt real bad for Brigham Harwell yesterday. He could see his senior season going up in smoke. He played his butt off. Lastly, it was good to see how patient the crowd was being and not piling on the team.

I won’t focus on what everyone else has said. We all know how bad the line is, the talent gap, etc.

1) Oregon State is a really good team. They are not a fluke. They should have beat us and did.

2) The good news is the win keeps SUC from being in first place in the conference. At this point it is Oregon State, so lets all root for them the rest of the way.

3) RECRUITING IS KEY- CRN inherited a team with some pretty big holes. I do not expect this team to be good until 2010, but I do expect it to be better next year.

4) I still don’t believe you can expect a defense to keep people out of the end zone for 60 minutes when you turn the ball over all the time and have zero offensive production. You need balance to be successful in football, and one side of the ball will always falter at some point if you don’t have production from the other side