I was hoping against hope that Neuheisel saw something in DW that I did not in January. It appears we would have been better off to let DW leave with whatever recruits were going to leave with him and get an honest to goodness DC who could coach up our defense.

Look at what Bob Palcic is doing with nothing! Sure it took him 4 weeks, but there was steady improvement from the BYU game to the Arizona game to today. What do we see with DW? A whole lot of the same, no pass rush and no “fire in the belly” and a very sickening “surrender” mentality at the end of halves. I want to call this the la défense de Bruin it’s been so bad this year!!

Don’t forget how close the Bruins were to winning the Tennessee game IN REGULATION and how close they were to blowing it by almost surrendering a TD to Tennessee. Had Fulmer & Clawson grown a brain in the 4th quarter and run right at the Bruins we’d be looking at 0-4 right now. I sincerely hope Neuheisel is putting aside some time every week to review some solid DC candidates for ’09.

was at today’s game

I detest losses, but I thought we played our guts out. If we had punched in that last TD (instead of the fumble), I think we would have won.

I saw a ton of progress and I think this team is going to just get better and better.

as some of you, but what worries me about our defense isn’t really the lack of size, talent, experience—we all know what they have and don’t have, and so do they. I sincerely don’t see them quitting or surrendering, I certainly don’t feel they aren’t trying. I’m not worried about the decision Coach Neu made on the penalty because that is his job—to make the difficult strategic decisions, and to do so quickly and efficiently. Thank God we have a coach who knows how to do that.

What worries me is the apparent lack of a plan for defending against the pass, and the absence of adjustments in our defense during this game. In short, it seems to me that the preparation and coaching isn’t progressing for these kids over time the way it has been in our offense. If something doesn’t work for three quarters, try something else—have something else to try. If it doesn’t work out—a la the penalty decision—so what?

My impression is that these kids really want to win, and they will try anything asked of them in order to do so. We’re watching what can happen when Coaches Neu and Chow continue to trust Craft even though he admittedly makes mistakes—we are watching the ground-floor creation of a confident, play-making quarterback. He has shown us moments of absolute fearless brilliance. I doubt he would have any of those moments if our coaches weren’t trusting him in spite of the mistakes and the losses.

It was encouraging to see the offense move the ball and score. I was frustrated our defense couldn’t stop them on 3rd and 22, but it also came up some pretty big stops. We just didn’t come up with enough of them to win the game.

Hats off to Fresno State. They played an inspired game, and as much as I hate losing to FSU, they are a ranked team. And, ranked for a reason. We need to keep objective about this loss. Sure it hurts, but we played well. We are going to get better.

And I take it as a compliment that the FSU fans felt the need to chant “We beat the Mighty Bruins” we are not ranked but their desire to knock of the “big guys” tells you something about how much they wanted to beat us. I would like to create a second rivalry by playing Fresno State every year. it would do our program some good to have a “big brother” relationship which we are honor bound to defend against a younger, hungrier program. I applaud their “anytime, anywhere, anyone” attitude. That is the kind of desire it takes to elevate a program as Pat Hill has done in a short time. It will also do our strength of schedule some good in years that we beat them, and they in turn knock off some other BCS giant which they will do regularly.

A look at the history of teams with more than one rival will show year in which they get upset and lose a shot at the National Championship. But, it will also reveal some great games in the history of the game in which they win both rivalry games and get vaulted into the NC game because of it. Bring on Fresno State.

i’m like MexiBruin, in that I’m not all that upset over this loss. it’s not to say i expect mediocrity or that i want to lose or anything, but I’m accepting the fact that this is a rebuilding year that we should use to give everyone who needs experience, experience.

that being said, just seeing us score touchdowns, move the ball, make runs—it all made me happy. we kept it close, and though we didn’t win, we had a respectable loss. if we’re gonna lose, i want to lose like this.

and to what you folks were saying earlier in this thread, you’re absolutely correct. i found myself feeling exactly opposite than what i thought i’d be feeling all season this past summer—i was waiting for the offense to get on the field to take care of business because the defense was nonexistent for most of the game. for a guy who got a raise, was supposedly getting looks from other schools to be a head coach but honored us with being our DC, he needs to really pull it together (it’s hard for me to really take DW to task because of the soft spot in my heart for my hometown of Arcadia, Ca, as he lives there and his son goes to my alma mater of Arcadia High).

At any right, I think we’ll be alright. For some reason, i just see CRN as the guy who’s going to be patrolling the sidelines in a year or two of a team that is feared and taking care of business on a weekly basis. it’s there, it really is.

i love pat hill and what he’s done at fresno state. that aforementioned attitude of “any place, anywhere, any time,” endlessly playing on the road and putting up a fight every time, never complaining about anything about being in the WAC, it’s really admirable. i especially loved Wisconsin coming to play at Fresno this year as well. it’s a nice gesture of respect to a much smaller school for busting their ass year in and out taking a fight anywhere they can.

We gotta look at this program as a work in progress for the next 2 or 3 years, and not just at the W-L record from week to week.

There are many issues right now – 3rd down defense, pass rush, QB play, punt coverage, kick off distance and field position, to name just a few – that need addressing. And it will take some time to get these fixed.

The best thing now is that the OL is improving. This is the single most important factor for our (or any) team. The improving OL will begin to establish a running game. This will allow us to control the pace of the game, and wear down the other team’s defense. It will set up the passing game so we can throw when we want to (esp important given that we are starting a 3rd string, JUCO transfer QB) and not because we have to. It will give our QB time and lanes to throw, and a good QB becomes a deadly QB when he has time to throw. It will lessen the time our defense is on the field, and if we can get a lead and force the other team to play catch-up, will make our defense more effective by making the opposing offense one-dimensional.

I give huge credit to Coach Palcic for his efforts so far, and to a young but gutty O-Line that is getting better each week. I see this as a sign that things are going the right way.

If we only watch the scoreboard, this will be a long year. But if we are patient and keep an eye on the long term picture, and watch the improvements that we are beginning to see already, it will be much more encouraging. And in a couple years…

At the Stanford Invite Saturday, the UCLA girls cross-country team placed 5th and the Fresno girls placed about 30th. I know those red-clad farmers must be devastated. Even a win by the FB team at the Rose Bowl over the mighty Bruins won’t be able to console them now.

What I didn’t understand about that play was we had 25 seconds on the play clock and 2 timeouts with only about 4 minutes left to go in the half. I thought for sure Chow would call for a hard count and if they don’t bite call a time out and either kick a field goal or setup another play. Then I was shocked when A) they snapped the ball and B) they handed the ball off about 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage!
Am I wrong here?
Fresno then went back and scored another touchdown.
But hey, I trust Chow’s judgment. He’s been the best at what he does for a number of years now, and he probably saw some things that the casual observer (myself) might have missed.