20 Years Ago ...Plus Ca Change...
by bruin4life1993 on Oct 18, 2009 9:22 PM PDT
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Friday, October 13th, 1989.
As a UCLA sophomore with high hopes and strong school spirit a couple of dormmates and I headed out the 10 late on a whim Friday night in order support a team coming off a strong 1988 campaign but without many of those stars (Aikman, Gaston Green, many others).
First bad sign - we had a flat out in the middle of the desert at about 1am. Have any of you tried to change a tire by moonlight in the middle of the desert? Challenging to say the least.
After a few hours sleep at a friend's house in Phoenix, we headed down the road to Tucson, where a sea of red awaited us.
No need to recount the game, UA played a great game and honestly I don't think the Bruins ever got off the bus. Sort of like BYU last year.
My lasting memory is of Jimmy Bonds (now there is an answer to UCLA Football Trivia) windmilling his arms on the sideline to come in for the final drive. Utter futility.
Bottom line is that the team that year finished 3-7-1, and this year will likely be about the same, as painful as that realization is.
We almost never play well in Tucson, remember the debacle in 2005?
This year, Arizona has played quite well: lost at UW on a freak play that perhaps was the wrong call despite outplaying and greatly outgaining them. UA also played a good Iowa team tough on the road (17-27).
As much as I would like to hold out against all the facts that the Bruins will play the 'Cats and their outstanding young QB Foles tough, a more likely scenario is a blowout where the team will pack it in on the road. It's pretty clear right now that the TN game was a HUGE outlier.
One of the Bosworth brothers was quoted as saying he was "glad to be going to Tucson" because fans were going to be jumping ship and he preferred to play away this week. Really? Sort of like when they said it was "good that they lost to Stanford"? I think Toby Gerhart, LaMichael James, and the Cal RBs are still waiting for someone on the other side of the LOS.
Sad to think that, for such a proud overall athetic tradition, we only had two solid years in the late 90's with Cade and The Cardiac Kids. When you think about the program, pretty much little has changed over 20 years. Either we have had a potent offense or above-average defense but never both at the same time. Even in the 1997 and 1998 roller coaster rides it never felt like we had control in many of the games. Either a last minute defensive play or more often than not last minute Cade magic saved our bacon in several of the games.
This year I'm not sure what we have, and by the latest comments of CRN cited here on BN, I'm not entirely sure the coaches do either.
GO BRUINS...and please prove me wrong this year!
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Jimmy Bonds
played QB for Hart HS, and Troy Aikman said he had the strongest arm he had ever seen. It was true…
My HS played Hart in a passing league tourney one summer. This was 7 on 7, passes only, and the QB has 3 seconds to throw the ball, which was spotted at midfield. I was playing right corner and my guy goes on a fly, and kept going and going. Knowing the ball had to be thrown pretty quickly, I look back to see where the play went, and I notice this dot dropping down out of the sky. I realize that we’re running out of field, and I can see the pass is going to be out of the back of the endzone. So I start to slow down while my WR keeps going, gets 2 or 3 steps on me, and makes the catch in stride 4 or 5 yards out of the back of the endzone. The officials fessed up that they had never had to deal with a play longer than 50 yards before, which is why they spotted the ball at midfield in the first place, but that they didn’t intend for the field to be “too short for the QB”, and awarded them the completion and TD, meaning I was burned by J Bonds for the longest passing league completion ever. Humbling. I did get a measure of revenge when I was our defensive player of the week against Hart later that season, though they did hang 35 on us and beat us by 4 TD’s. Ah, good memories.
greg in denver - UCLA guy for life
Correction
We went to the Rose Bowl in 1993, with Wayne Cook. That team was pretty well balanced on both sides of the ball. Except the team decided no to show up to the Rose Bowl…
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Good Point
They were pretty good with Cook and JJ in 1993, how could I forget not selling my Rose Bowl tickets for nearly a grand EACH outside the stadium.
Instead, I was treated to a failed comeback and ensuring the long-term success of the Wisconsin football program, really depressing.
Of course, we came back to the buffet for another plate of gutless play when we made millions for Ron Dayne and again sent the Cheeseheads home happy.
Also don’t forget that we had Wisc shutout at the half in the Sun Bowl several years ago only to p**s it away and lose 21-20 in yet another humiliating loss.
In fact, UCLA has pretty much made the Wisconsin program in the last 15 years, we deserve a big thank you card!
by bruin4life1993 on Oct 19, 2009 6:14 PM PDT up reply actions
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