What Rick Neuheisel Must Do ...

I didn’t see much of last night’s game, but how many times in the last 3 year’s have I yelled at the TV to “GO FOR IT!!” ?

I can’t begin to suggest how we can make CRN grow a pair. Firing CB and RM are givens; but will that inspire CRN to show a little backbone? I don’t know. But, like you I would like to hand out some ulitmatums of my own.

Play to win or coach somewhere else.

I watched the DVR of the game after getting home from work. To me, that 4th and goal, and the next play on defense, sum up where we are as a program right now.

On 4th down, I said the same thing there as Mexi…“Go for it!!” I am glad we went for it and failed instead of kicking the field goal. I’m glad that the staff at least got that part right. Play to win.

While I agree that 1 foot is a matter of who wants it more, there is still something to be said for having your starting OL vs the patchwork group we have. I don’t know that was the best play call for that situation, but with the QB sneak from of the pistol out of the question, I’m glad they ran instead of some gimmick quick pass. Let’s teach these players what is required to win, gaining that foot when it absolutely matters. And you don’t need a timeout to figure that out. It’s football – just go get it. So there is hope for improvement with more of our OL back in the future.

The whiff on the tackle in the backfield on the ensuing ASU run was sadly predictable. A well coached player shoots that gap with his head up and in control and with good tackling technique. What should have been a safety and big change of momentum back to us became the demoralizing 10yd run for the first, compounded by the personal foul to put them on the 26, one play after we could have taken the lead, and was the start of the end of the game.

Was there a single Bruin amongst us who didn’t know where that drive was going and the game was lost on those two plays?

Looking at those 2 plays, the offensive side did some things right and has promise for better, and those responsible deserve another chance. The defensive side was, once again, an utter failure, and those responsible need to be gone.

is way past “re-evaluating.” If the receivers had caught their passes at Kansas State, then maybe KP gains some confidence in throwing, and we win the game. Then the season may have gone in a totally different direction.

That being said, beyond hypotheticals, it was shameful how often our receivers were dropping passes. It was obviously a problem with many of our receivers (Harkey?) but from practice reports and from actual gamedays, there wasn’t a lot of evidence to prove that they were actually practicing to make sure dropped passes didn’t happen. Maybe that’s on CRN too.

Either way, in my mind, RM needs to be fired. The receivers weren’t held accountable to their dropped passes, and RM needs to be held accountable in their steed.

And CRN should be on the hot seat regardless of what happens next week.

The youth excuse will no longer fly, as the core of this team will be 2 and 3 year experienced players at nearly every position, all CRN recruits.

The schedule will be manageable. San Jose St. at home. A rebuilding Texas at home. Houston with a new QB on the road. Eliminate Oregon and a trip to Corvallis and add a trip to Utah and Colorado at home.

If it doesn’t happen next year, I am convinced it will never happen under this regime.

Great post. I went through, did some HTML editing to make it a bit easier to read. Hope you don’t mind. I also threw some tags in there, so that folks can find your work when looking back at this season for a reference point.

Please keep up the excellent work!

Sadly, despite all of the euphoria over the recruiting and the “passion bucket” and the slick contract arrangements with Norm Chow, I had this niggling fear we would be facing the day when all of our lustrous hopes would be tarnished in disappointment.

..this is NOT an “I told you so” post. I was just as eager to dump Dorrell (who was in wa-a-a-a-a-y over his head). But the thing that did it for me was the trait that Dorrell and CRN teams had in common: injuries.

Someone way back told me that repeated injuries to key players were a sign that a team was not prepared. Conditioning was a variable that could be controlled; an aspect of preparation unaddressed. I am probably blowing a lot of hot air here — after all, with many years of coaching football at a major college, I should know. (/sarc) But it’s just something that keeps nagging me over the last three years.

That said, one wonders — even looks forward to, perhaps — the prospect of a coaching search for that elusive of all entities: the marquee coach who will return us to the glory years of Prothro and Donahue and Vermeil (well, year, anyway) or Toledo..

..did I just write that?

I think I need to go back on my meds or have a nice lie-down.

Chow seems unable to take what the defenses give him, which is one of his main philosophies of running his offense. For the last half of the season, opposing defenses have been biting on the run as soon as it looks like a run, and we’ve done almost nothing to try things like a play action pass over the top in the huge empty spaces. Also, I’m not conviced that we don’t have the personnel to run some of those basic concepts.

Perhaps the most troubling to me is that, for the second week in a row, it looked like the O-line wasn’t on the same page as the rest of the offense. Check out our 2nd down play on the series where we were stopped on 4th and goal versus ASU. On that 2nd down and goal at the 6, we ran up the middle with Jetski, but he was blown up by Burfict at about the line of scrimmage. I was wondering how Burfict was untouched, and replay showed that the right guard PULLED to the right, away from where Jetski was running, effectively taking himself out of the play. WTF? Who pulls their guard on a run up the middle near the goal line? Also, near mid-field against UW, Jones ran the ball up the middle on a play in which the o-line pulled to the left. Needless to say, he was blown up for a two yard loss.

We just don’t seem to have the fire needed at this level to compete.. I am a lifelong Bruin (with degree on the wall and a set of season seats with a Wooden Club donation to boot. I have sat through some tough games through the years, I remember the blow-outs to Oklahoma and Nebraska back when I was in school.. but I don’t remember getting blown out as often as we have this year. If we are getting better at the Pistol (and I think we are) if we are getting better at recruiting (and I think we are) and if we have higher expectations ,, then why the heck are we getting hammered by Arizona, Washington, Cal ??? I am not one of those who look for us to get into a BSC bowl every year, I just want us to be in the game every week. We should not have even taken the field against Oregon and Stanford, those games were lost before the opening kick-off due to poor planning, attitude and execution. We are a National Program with an incredible fan base, world class education, historic stadium , yet we go into too many games hoping to win… scratch that hoping to not get blown out and that is unacceptable.. to quote my mom from Heaven,, "you will not always win in life but to beat you someone else has to be pretty good because you are pretty good and no one will beat you without you giving them a fight that they will remember.. When someone beats you they will feel like they have won something .. In 2010 our Bruins can’t say that …. and as a fan and alum that is all I ask.. if we get beat … we leave something for the other team to remember and it means something …

Chow: I will wait for your updated analysis but I respectfully disagree. I dont’ doubt that there is a learning curve which Chow is currently immersed in. However, that does not excuse his impotent playcalling. Also, his mismanagement of the QB position was one of the main reasons this season blew up in our faces. Chow gets 1 more year to fix things. Either put up or shut up.

CRN: I agree he needs to grow some but he also needs to bust out the whip. Unfortunately, I don’t believe this is a quality that is within Neu nor is Neu comfortable coaching this way. There are many ways (style wise) to be successful (Joe Pa v Saban) program. As long as I can remember, we’ve been the sterotypical Cali laid back surfer boys on the gridiron. Whether that is fair or not is irrelevant to me. You don’t see Miami being stereotyped as being primadonnas from South Beach. UCLA FB lacks toughness, resolve, discipline, killer attitude, etc. that is reflective of the Bama’s, Va Tech’s, Ohio State’s of the college football world. Simply put, CRN needs to build the identity of the FB program that falls in line with the other successful programs around the country.

Moore: Show him the door. Star rankings aside, he has done the least with the most IMO. Our pathetic statistics from this position has to do with Chow and the offense but it does not excuse the poor route running, dropped passes, etc. For all the talent that our WR’s came into the program with, they have failed to develop. Meet Mr. Justin Blackmon who happened to be ranked the #58 WR out of HS. He was ranked lower than most, if not all of our WR recruits. Yes, there are tons of highly touted recruits that bomb at the college level but for us to witness the inept play from our WR’s that we’ve seen the past few years is simply unacceptable.

Hundley: You’re next. There is no excuse why our CB’s cannot be taught to track the damn football. Turn your freakin’ head around. This is basic coaching 101. I’m sure Hundley is coaching this (I hope) but if the players are not responding, it falls on you. You as the coach need to get it through their heads. Our technique is porous at best in coverage and run support. I don’t want him to mess up the Hilliard’s and Riley’s of the world because they have talent and potential.

Ganz: You get another year. If Josh is fumbling punt returns, you need to figure out a way for him to fix this problem. You need to figure out how to get our best weapons on the field.

Coaching: I’m encouraged by the development of some of our cubs. However, I’m seeing too many highly touted guys turn into pumpkins once they get to Westwood. Whether this is a coaching issue or scouting issue, it still falls on the coaches since it’s their job and they’re the ones identifying the kids to recruitl. Also, we still lack discipline, resolve, etc. that I stated earlier. To me, this falls directly on the coaches. Get it fixed. No excuses.

There should be no excuses next year (as long as we don’t get devastated by injuries). Personally, this team should win 8-9 games including a W against suc. If not, I’m looking for a new coach.