FLASHBACK To 1992: A Familiar November 7th For Rick Neuheisel?

by Nestor on Nov 1, 2009 7:24 PM PST in Football Comment 3 comments

Season is not over yet.

Let me share a little bit of history.

Understandably lot of people are down about an 0-5 record in the Pac-10 conference. We have already heard the stat about how the last time UCLA lost 5 conference games in a row was in 2003.

However, did you know that this is not the first time Rick Neuheisel has found himself in this kind of situation as member of the UCLA coaching staff?

tasser10, insomniaclounge, and other BNers who were students in Westwood in the early 90s ... guys ... think back to our sophomore year (1992-93) in Westwood. Rick Neuheisel at the time was an offensive assistant under Terry Donahue. That year the Bruins started out with a record of 3-0. Unfortunately for us we lost Wayne Cook in the season opener against Cal State Fullerton. With a platoon of Ryan Fien/Rob Walker/John Barnes the Bruins then went on to lose 5 straight Pac-10 games which ended with a 12-48 destruction up in Strawberry Canyon.

So 17 years ago today, on November 1, 1992 Bruins were 3-5 and at last place in the Pac-10 (0-5). It was the lowest of lows for our guys. it was actually worse given the humiliating road trip the guys were coming back from Berkeley. Season was pretty much over and there was nothing left to play for. IIRC things were so desperate against Cal that Donahue put in the 4th stringer - John Barnes - the walkon/transfer from Santa Barbara. It was ugly. At that time there was nothing positive about the season. Well Oregon State came into town and the Bruins turned things around with a 26-14 win. Guess what the date of Oregon State's visit to Westwood was when UCLA ended its 5 game Pac-10 losing streak? You guessed it. It was on November 7th. Bruins used that victory to run off of three straight wins, ending the season on such a positive note that set up a Rose Bowl season the following year.

Now I am not saying we are going to get to the Rose Bowl next year. However, what I am saying is Rick Neuheisel does have the experience of being part of a UCLA coaching staff that was able to pull its team together after a brutal Pac-10 start to finish the season strong. We saw signs of life yesterday afternoon in Corvallis.

Let's hope CRN can now bottle that up and use to put together our first complete game and first Pac-10 victory of the season. He has been here before and has been part of a UCLA team that has gotten it done. Number of us have experienced it and we would love nothing more to have a repeat of that end of the season magic from 1992.

Let's get it started once again this November 7th.

GO BRUINS.

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Thanks for the historical reminder and long view on this season.

Contrary to what the student writers at the Daily Bruin think, this won’t be Coach Rick’s team until a majority of the team was recruited by him.

To the extent that things are not going well, it’s really still the performance of the remnants of Karl Dorrell’s team culture and recruiting.

by PeterUCLA on Nov 1, 2009 10:01 PM PST via mobile reply actions 0 recs

Hard to believe it's been 17 years

My last year at UCLA and I was at that Cal game. Remember it all too well as I was surrounded by Cal fans talking about winning 3 straight over the bruins. Believe you are correct about Barnes playing. UCLA was coming off a 20-0 loss at home to ASU. Bruins had only scored 27 points in their previous 4 games. The offense was absolutely horrible. Things looked bleak indeed, and I figured they would lose out. Bruins suddenly found some offense the following week against OSU. They hung on at Eugene the following week to set up the epic big game we will never forget.

Hoping offense can build on some positives witnessed from the end of yesterday’s game. Time to take care of the Washington schools and repeat history.

by Bruins095 on Nov 1, 2009 11:14 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Oh I remember all too well

Poor Wayne Cook. He went down on a dirty, dirty tackle by some Fullerton loser. I was at that game and I was so pissed.

But here’s the thing…I can easily, EASILY see UCLA winning the next 4 games. I have a feeling that the ASU game will be tough, because they do have a good defense that causes turnovers. However, they are very beatable as well. As for U$C…the trojies have nothing left to play for, per their fans’ ridiculous expectations. And they still have to play Stanford, a game I think they could easily lose. So, they could easily implode. Those players didn’t go to U$C to go to the Holiday Bowl, and we’ll have to see if Cheatey Petey can motivate them at all.

The switch just might have gotten turned on…ET FIAT LUX!

But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.

by tasser10 on Nov 2, 2009 11:01 AM PST reply actions 0 recs