With Stephens and Perk missing half of the year while playing for the national team in the U-20 World Cup, it was imperative that we rack up wins while they’re here. We did well against Maryland, but then did this? This program has lacked consistency for years now. Salcedo needs to get it together.

but that is what Salcedo’s program has become. He had one good run when he first took over the program and since then what I have come to expect is a slow start, we pick it up as the season goes on then get bounced in the first or second round of the tournament. I have been saying that Salcedo needs to perform in a big way for a few season now.

Indeed, Coach Salcedo has done a great job recruiting talent, but the Bruins’ game performance the last few years is clearly worse than before. How about hiring Jillian Ellis, our women’s coach, to moonlight as coach of the men’s team?

I was just kidding about Jillian Ellis. She’s doing a fantastic job, but even she must have her limits!

Seriously, though, I wonder how Cobi Jones would do as head coach. He grew up in the area (Westlake Village), graduated from UCLA, had a successful run with the Bruins (including a role in the 1990 championship), evolved into a stallwart for the National team, was a fixture with the LA Galaxy from Day One of MLS, and has now gained assistant coaching experience at the pro level. Virtually any soccer fan knows who he is (and respects him), and he’d set a positive and competitive tone for the Bruins. Even though he’s not an established head coach, that experience isn’t always necessary. Look at how our women’s basketball team has progressed in one year with new coach Nikki Calloway — another young coach with a great pedigree who clearly knows what she’s doing. I haven’t seen Cobi coach in person, but my sense is he’d be great.

Sure we scored four, but it wasn’t a very impressive four. It’s a small sample size, but we seem to have a similar problem to last year – holding the ball a ton, but not really doing much with it. I was, though, impressed with some of the freshmen, who actually seemed to have some reasonable ideas going forward (they even scored three of the four goals). Last year, the same thing seemed to happen. Generally speaking, the freshmen seemed to be the best group. That leads me to my main question: for anybody who follows the recruiting, how have our classes been ranked over the last few years? Are the players we’re bringing in improving, or is there something going on with the players who’ve been in the system?