UCLA Shows Flashes for the Future, but Folds in the End

hearing all camp about all the great catches receivers were making. Then in the game they couldn’t catch a cold.

The passing game just looked lost out there today, and our run defense did not look good. We did not get good penetration on the d-line on running plays. About the only good defensive formation was on passing downs out of the joker formation.

Prince looked anemic. He was throwing all over the place – I guess some of that was rust, but this is starting to become a pattern with him. He needs to step it up.

I’m not going to be a happy camper this year if this is what I have to watch from UCLA games – again. This is getting beyond the point of frustrating.

For those of us from afar, it seems as if the team being touted in camp was playing somewhere else.

Some of the games this season are going to be really chilling - Texas, Oregon, Oregon St.

I actually have confidence for the Houston game…that is a pure passing only team and our DBs are capable.

This loss doesn’t sit well – especially after we had a chance to tie- but Stanford is a bigger game next week.

Prince looked sheepish when going to long throws. If anything after that quick long drive he gained confidence from that and hopefully will carry that momentum into future games. Hopefully he’ll be more confident throwing the longer balls.

It’s going to be really tough for this team just to make a bowl game, unless they massively improve from this performance.

When we ran all of the option plays, he held the ball out for what seemed like an eternity before making a decision. When he kept it himself, he was slow and didn’t get any yards. If we want the Pistol to work, we need a real dual threat QB (let’s get some good news on Monday eh?).

Prince didn’t practice for a month! Guys there’s plenty of football left. I’m frustrated too and have some questions, such as why start prince when he hasn’t practiced in a month and it showed (dropped passes or not, there’s something to be said about chemistry). Why not start brehaut who had a great month and slowly bring back prince? That’s what I do not understand.

They drops and bad throws for now I will put on the lack of timing KP had. He still needs to mature more and make the right decisions.

I’d like to see more Malcolm Jones instead of Coleman and Franklin looked good.

More short passes to TEs, Harkey was the only time a TE was targeted IIRC.

Tackling- WRAP THE SOB UP and DONT DIVE AT HIS FEET!!! Goes out to Rahim, Sheldon, and most of our safeties and corners except Dye.

After the way that second half went for our run D, I’m VERY thankful that Toby Gerhart is gone.

173 yds rushing…this year 193. Not sure why everyone is saying that we turned the corner on offense? We need a few more games to see if we have improved but given our tough opening schedule this could look pretty damn similar to last year.

schemes does chuck think he is drawing up?! He is not fooling anyone. I did not like him last year and so far it looks more of the same.

It does not matter who threw it, the receivers have to be able to catch the ball. Timing has nothing to do with it. You can either hang on to the ball, or you cannot. Today, the Bruins did not.

I’m getting a list of coaching candidates together. This is pathetic.

We got NO production out of Westgate today. Larimore and Ayers were fine. We should think about going into a 4-2-5. Get Dietrich Riley on the field so we Ayers can get some help

…say that Prince showed leadership today? What qualifies that? Truly I am not bashing Prince, who had an uneven day at best, but I can’t see anything that would qualify as showing leadership other than he was QB.

That was a truly appalling performance by our receivers. They lost us the game today. I’m hardly Bullough’s biggest fan and think he can’t scheme a defense for his life. But with our WR’s making plays, we’re playing from ahead and making K-State throw.

we have had three amazing recruiting classes in a row. It is about time we turn the corner and play like the better teams in the nation. No more of this mediocre crap.

OLINE was solid today, I don’t remember if there was too much penatlies called against them like there was last season but Prince usually had more time to make a decision. And it will get better with Harris coming back.

D-line. It was okay, most of the pressure was caused by Ayers but Tepa, Holmes, and Chandler each made some plays. And the thing with those 3 guys is that they haven’t played a significant role in past years and this was their first game and they will get better.

Thomas is a great player. Without his greatness, things could have turned differently. He was the Big 12’s leading rusher last year and if this keeps it up, he will rush for a jillion yards this year. Snyder is a fine, fine coach.

I ain’t happy. But then neither is CRN or any of his coaches or players. But this unhappiness has to viewed through the prism of reality. One reason football is such a great game is that we get to see fine performances (like Thomas’s) or great leadership (like Snyder’s).

With these fine sentiments well in hand, I am still going to go barf.

KSU’s part. One man……one ball and 11 guys couldnt tackle. Put a helmet on Peggysue! You may run for record yardage.

It looks like more of the same to me. No fire. No ability to execute for a whole game. Does anyone really believe KSU has better players and out recruits UCLA? It’s always about the coaching? We have the players and have had them for a long time.

We’re stuck with Prince for two more years probably. Holy crap.

Vanilla scheme, bailed out by Ayers being a complete monster. Lets see how far he gets rushing 3 and getting pressure against a team with real LTs and RTs.

Depressing, because if we sold out for the run more I think we could have pulled this out

where do we need to improve? what went wrong?

Answer: same problems, weaknesses and lack of consistency as the previous years…

I know I’m being sarcastic…sorry. But okay, any real answers that are not sarcastic, let’s compare to previous teams…

We Want Brehaut We want Breahaut We want Breahut. I know its to soon to pull him however if he is that rusty coaches should have sen that going into the game and gave breahut the start

I hope to see more improvements…but this is clearly a team that does not remember the SUC humiliation we took last season.

I am just disappointed with today’s result! I really don’t want to put any blame on anybody, but if I had to it would be on Prince & the receivers. As far as the defense goes, they did their job but no matter how good the defensive unit is, sooner or later it is going to get tired from being on the field all day long. I am tired of seeing 3 & out from the offense! Sooner or later Prince is going to have to step up his game or he should be replaced by someone that can move the chains & put points on the board.

about today are – 1. hearing all week that both prince and brehaut will play, not sure how much each will get, why didn’t they put in brehaut ? For a couple of series at leasrt. At best, prince was off and clearly showed a lack of practice time. After his first quarter, he made a case for brehaut IMO.. 2. That was a pretty weak call on the 2 pt try. An empty bacfield from the 3 yard line ? They just stuffed the end zone with defenders. And again, prince showed poor decision making trying to make a miracle pass

that it was the first game of the year, which sometimes can indicate problems for the rest of the year, or sometimes can be an anomly with problems that can be fixed. Right now im leaning on this game being an example of the latter, we probably would have won if our receivers had made catches and if they had been in sync with Prince.

One loss does not break our season, just like if we had won this game it would not have made our season. We need to give our team some more games before making the broad generalizations that are being made currently. Lets give Prince a chance to get in sync with our receivers, and our many new players on defense another chance before writing everyone off

It’s just the mental errors (read dropped passes) that, at the end of the day, played a big part of us going down. And I think, like last year, we’ll get better as the season progresses. We’re in good hands with CRN and CNC and we’re going to be all right.

Our BRUINS have 90 days to get things together…possible?! I hope so…

I know one game does not a season make, but if we can’t beat Kstate, who can we beat? The only team on our schedule worse than them is WSU. You could make a case that ASU and Houston are in that category as well, but that leaves with what, 3 potential wins? Ugh.

and 12 men on the field. those are just painful to watch. time to clean it up.

I am bummed too and not happy but also not suicidal. A few points:

1. Kevin Prince is not the Drago of UCLA football. I think it is legitimate to ask if the coach should have started him today. A less than a 100% Prince who does not practice enough, should not start. Good point. But this does not mean Prince is terrible or today’s performance was indicative of his ability.
2. The Coach’s made some errors. The above decision and the 12 man penalty for example. But they also developed a way to run the ball behind an O-Line that last 60% of its starters. Also, the Pistol looked good.
3. We lost a game we could\should have won. But it was the first game of the season on the road in a tough place to play against a good coach with a great RB. It is not like we lost to WSU at home.

So yes there are concerns. I share them. But it is not hopeless.

does not mean i won’t support or defend my BRUINS.

Forbath looked great and Prince while not terrible needs reps with receivers who also could learn how to catch, get separation, and reachy for the ball. we will be better and I feel better than with some of our past losses. KSU doesn’t lose opening home games for the last 12 years plus. Bruins need practice as a unit and lets see more of Josh Smith

I don’t know about you guys, but I haven’t seen a UCLA game with so many plays that have so much going on at once since the days of Cade McNown. This from both UCLA and KSU. It seemed like both teams exposed their entire playbook! And what’s up with so many players losing their shoes and helmets?

Probably 8 drops. And yet fairly close, by the score. Poor tackling comes from 12 minute time of possession differential.

I am not worried about this team. Jones looked great, Prince adequate, the defense good most of the game, the O-line good most of the game. Special teams good. Ayers great (minus the late hit).

I feel fortunate that I got this game on TV, as I just moved. Would have felt more fortunate if the offense clicked more, but Prince looks rusty when he has time off for injury. Let’s assess the team after Stanford (which I also get on TV here next week).

Side note question. Is it possible to change my screen name? I don’t live in HB any more.

Granted today was a winnable game, there were no moral victories, and everyone is pretty frustrated and dejected because we all realized that we really needed this game to go our way. With that said, our season is not in the shitter and it’s way too early to start trashing KP, the coaches, etc.

Everyone agrees there were flashes of good football for down the line. The pistol worked well and our run game was vastly improved from last year. Defense suffered from attrition and then some. Considering all the concern regarding the depletion of our OL, they held their own to the surprise of many. All in all, we have all the right players, talent, coaching to have a really good team and a great season, reasonably of course.

IMHO, I saw lots of mental mistakes that had nothing to do with play calling or talent. It was strictly execution. UCLA has just got to get confidence and play with swagger. Seriously, penalties, dropped passes, and poor tackling is all mental mistakes. If we can get past this, seriously we are going to have one badass season. We just need to be in the right frame of mind. Stop playing desperate, stop playing to prove something, stop playing to make up for past seasons… just play. Play like you own the field, execute as though you did 10,000 times before, and stay hungry for perfection. That’s all we need.

Simply put, we beat KSU last year, we lost to them this year. Therefore Snyder has done a better job improving KSU in his second year than CRN has done improving his team in his third year.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe our coaching staff can do it (CRN and CNC), but they didn’t today and I’m disappointed. We’ve got 11 games to go, I hope I’m not disappointed often.

Gotta give KSU credit. They played a great game. It seems like they pulled out everything they’ve got to win the game. Their QB expected to suck but he pulled a Trent Difler on us and played solidly with no costly mistakes. UCLA always seems to have trouble with containing the option, wildcat, etc. We had numerous opportunities to score TDs but settled for FGs. This can be attributed to the WR and Prince having a bad game. Uncharacteristic for the WR. So if UCLA just minimize the drops and Prince being slightly better, I think we’d be alright. Hopefully the team progresses dramatically though.

It feels like we beat ourselves more than we were beaten by a better team. I liked that we threw 30+ times and had no holding penalties. I thought the zone blocking opened up lanes that weren’t there last year. I liked the hurry up early in the game and the quick decision to go on 4th and short in the first half. While there is definitely room for improvement. From what I saw, there are a lot of positives to build on as we get ready for the Cardinal next week.

We’ll bounce back.

What’s more concerning is the DL.
If the DL doesn’t improve this year, I can picture a shoot out with SC, and if we rely on a shoot out, Barkley has the better arm and aim than Prince.

From what I saw on Thursday, the secondary line for SC is weak, but if Prince doesn’t improve the throwing game this season, and we’re rely on a running game, we could face a lost.