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)!