The Future Is Bright

by Tydides on Sep 5, 2008 1:37 PM PDT in Football

Quick analysis of the Tennessee win from Stewart Mandel (who has been on point before regarding our team despite being a national writer). Given how quickly he recognized the looming disaster that was last season before it unfolded, he has earned quite a bit of trust in football related matters in my book. A reader asks whether Clemson losing or UCLA winning shocked him more, to which he replies that the Bruin victory was more shocking. In addition:

While I'm sure they're still partying in Westwood, I wouldn't get too ahead of myself if I'm a UCLA fan. Monday night's win seemed like one of those perfect storms, with the Bruins feeding off the energy and excitement surrounding Neuheisel's debut and where every conceivable break (except maybe Tennessee's field goal to force overtime) went in UCLA's favor. The Bruins are still going to take their share of licks this season, but their future hasn't looked this bright in a long, long time.

I'd argue that the 4 picks in the first half are not breaks in our favor, but those aren't really breaks at all, but rather simply a result of decisions we made. Besides, CRN says that we were lucky as well, and the man was much closer to the situation than I was. The rest of the paragraph sounds quite familiar. Perhaps like things we have been reading here on BN for a while. Mandel was right about the Dorrell disaster when many of our local writers just didn't get it. If he says the future is bright, well, let's hope that he goes 2 for 2 in his predictions for UCLA coaches.

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I think you (and Mandel) are on target

We had a win or two last year. Did you have or did anyone have the same feeling of optimism last year that we have now? Remember how many times we would have a 3rd and 6, call a time out to get the perfect play, and then screw it up with a false start or delay of game? We finally have coaches, not pretenders. I was a bit down after the first half, but was heartened by Coach Walker’s defense. But based on the entire game my optimism bucket was as full as my passion bucket, and that has very little to do with the final score. Somebody mentioned that it was nice to be able to welcome back hope, and that’s sure true from my perspective.

by Fox 71 on Sep 5, 2008 1:52 PM PDT 0 recs

hope and confidence

This new coaching staff inspires both hope and confidence. And I know I can become overly optimistic and start predicting a winning season, but that’s just the sense I get. I get the sense that we will make the adjustments needed, we will keep the other team guessing on every play, and we will make the big plays when it matters. This is something I couldn’t say the past 5 years.

And again, I don’t expect a winning season, but I do see it as a very real possibility. We beat UT despite 4 picks! That’s pretty impressive if you ask me. Of course, there are a lot of factors that will temper our success, including injuries and the fact that people are recognizing that we are a very different team. Anyway, we will take some licks this season and it’s going to be tough… there’s no doubt about that. But I must say that our future is bright and my personal opinion is that it will be bright sooner than later.

by UCLAbruin920 on Sep 5, 2008 3:51 PM PDT up 0 recs

Whaddya expect from SI?

Its worse than their reviled cover jinx. SI writers – to a one – have n-e-v-e-r been able to say unqualified nice things about our alma mater’s sports programs. Never. Any complimentary note always comes batter-dipped in spew, and deep fried in their own HDL Big-10 tard-lard.
Ignore ’em, and let ’em get dragged to the party as an after thought.

As one who has been going to these games since the end of the Prothro era (Dennis Dummit, anybody?), the RB was full of Blue energy not seen for an entire game since McNown’s senior season ten years ago. People didn’t wanna leave. People didn’t give up, when things looked bad (and jeez, we all had to go to work in the morning, too, as if we needed a reason to blow out early!), and every defensive play the fans rose up and “noised up,” too. It’s just one game, sure. But that was a physical, fast team wearing orange – one of the toughest on the schedule. Be cautious? Sure, cautiously optimistic.

The Mad Bruin

by lostnacfgop on Sep 6, 2008 8:25 AM PDT 0 recs

You're taking this the wrong way

This is a good article about UCLA. Sorry but you can’t say unqualified nice things about the game against Tennessee. Mandel was on our bandwagon last year until CTS completely sucked all hope from everyone. He then named him one of the worst coaches in college football. There really hasn’t been anything nice to say about our team since the fifth game of 2001.

Furthermore, SI has many nice things to say about our alma mater in basketball…

by tasser10 on Sep 6, 2008 9:29 AM PDT up 0 recs

Agreed

Anyone who read Mandel during last season knows that he’s anything but a Bruin-hater. I’m not saying he favors us, but this is the same assessment we’ve been saying here, and it’s the same assessment that CRN has come out with, so I don’t see how this is suddenly an unfairly negative article just because it came from SI. Seems like a case of shooting the messenger, and it takes away from the main point, which is that by most objective measures, we were the clear underdog, and yet we pulled it out in Game 1 of the Neu Era and this fact has impressed many impartial observers across the country. None of this changes the fact that we will continue to be the underdog many times this season, so we might as well get used to it for now.

by Tydides on Sep 6, 2008 11:25 AM PDT up 0 recs