UCLA’s 2012 Football Schedule is Out: No Thu/Fri Night Games
by Achilles on Jan 5, 2012 5:00 AM PST
Email
PrintPac-12 just released its official schedule for 2012 football season. Here is how our schedule shapes up:
Sat., Sept. 1 UCLA at Rice
Sat. Sept. 8 Nebraska at UCLA
Sat., Sept. 15 Houston at UCLA
Sat., Sept. 22 Oregon State at UCLA
Sat., Sept. 29 UCLA at Colorado
Sat., Oct. 6 UCLA at California
Sat., Oct. 13 Utah at UCLA
Sat., Oct. 20 BYE
Sat., Oct. 27 UCLA at Arizona State
Sat., Nov. 3 Arizona at UCLA
Sat., Nov. 10 UCLA at Washington State
Sat., Nov. 17 Southern Cal at UCLA
Sat., Nov. 24 Stanford at UCLA
The full Pac-12 schedule can be viewed here.
Coach Jim Mora will officially kick off his Pac-12 season with a must win game against Oregon State at the Rose Bowl. Other items that stand out to us:
- We play Southern Cal the weekend before thanksgiving. That is how it used to be during the 90s when Bruins routinely beat the Trojans
- Our last game of the season is against Stanford
- No games against Oregon or
StanfordWashington - No Thursday/Friday night games. We don't have to worry about getting embarrassed on national TV.
- We do not get a bye until our 8th week
The schedule is more than manageable. The road trip to Pullman against Mike Leach's Cougars will be tough. Other road games look very winnable. Bruin fans should expect Mora to put together a big first season that should feature about 9 wins and ending the streak against SC.
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.
53 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Needs a correction
2nd bullet says Our last game of the season is against Stanford
3rd bullet says No games against Oregon or Stanford.
I think you mean we don’t play Washington.
9 wins if everything goes right...
but I still think realistically 8 wins is more doable (still including a win against $C).
Go Bruins
I am going to look for 9 wins as well
However, if we get 8 regular season wins with a victory against the Trojans (and tough, gritty games in every contest) and then close out the season with a bowl win – I will be all right with that.
Margin of victory/defeat...
…plus the “eye test” is what I will be looking at more than anything. Are we playing disciplined? Are we executing? Are we WRAPPING UP THE BALL CARRIER (Gah!)? I will also be looking to see how we play on the road and if we improve as the season goes on. I’m sure there will be a transition and perhaps a surprising loss or two sprinkled in the early part of the season. With that being said, this team (with this schedule) should be able to get 8 or 9 wins…no question.
It's not a prediction
It’s an expectation. There’s a difference.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Who wants to see us play a national weeknight game anyway?
We have stunk these up for years. Let’s earn our respect first by just winning for a change.
7 home games. Nebraska, Houston OOC. OSU, Utah, Arizona, SUC and Stanford. Only Nebraska, Houston and SUC are likely to be ranked. Of course, we lost to five of these this past year. New QBs at Houston and Stanford. 4-5 wins should be expected.
5 roadies. Rice, Colorado, Cal, ASU and WSU on the road. Mediocre teams at best. We beat four this past year and Rice is Rice. At least 4 wins should be expected.
If we win the South we most likely play Oregon, maybe UW or Stanford again.
7 overall would be underachieving, a D.
8 should be mimimum expected, a C.
9 would be meets expectations, a B.
10 possible if Hundley clicks, an A.
11 unlikely but a Rose Bowl would be an A+.
12 + a dream season.
All outcomes assume a victory over SUC. No Mora excuses.
Overall, I like this schedule
I used to think playing somebody other than your rival school to end the season was kind of odd, but now that I actually see it (and see how it avoids putting it on Thanksgiving weekend), I like it.
One BIG qualm though, which goes back to a point I’ve made in the past:
School starts on Thu, Sept 27. Move-in weekend for the dorms is the one before: Fri, Sept 21 – Sun, Sept 23.
This means 2 home games before move-in, and a third happening ON that weekend (hard to get dorm students out there, especially first years). Then we have 2 away games. Would love to see that balance played with in the future to “backload” our home games a bit more.
But on the other hand
Do you want to send the team out on road games so early in the season? I wouldn’t, especially with a new coach. It’s up to the idiots at the Moron Center to figure out how to get asses into the stadium.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
I would only want to swap one home & road I think
Say, swap @Colorado with vs.Oregon St. (as an idea). I share your concern about too many early road games and in general, I’d prefer to start the season with an easier home game, to get the jitters out. But when I look at this schedule through the eyes of a student, especially an incoming first year, I see:
7 home games
2 before I move to UCLA
1 the weekend that I move in
3 on Saturdays throughout the quarter
1 on the Saturday of Thanksgiving
That’s 3 that are “easy” to get to as a student, and 4 that are harder/impossible (depending on where I live) to attend. Not a great value.
We’ve discussed how it feels like students get the shaft at times in athletics (see: Pauley), and this feels like it again a bit.
I know there’s only so much that can be done, but it’s just something I noticed.
I agree but....
….I want a team so hungry and good that they would play anyone, anywhere, anytime and not give a crap about the venue or attendance.
Win and they will come…..
Expectation: 8 wins minimum
Prediction: 7-5, 5-4 in the Pac-12, 3rd in the South.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
More like what I see as our season
We have the same players that lack fundalmentals, training, skills development, discipline, and field leadership. I don’t think Mora can turn around this program that is used to losing in the few months he has before the season starts. At best 7 games, including a loss to “Sourthen Cal.”
Mora is the highest paid coach in UCLA history
He didn’t come here for chump change. All over college football coaches with abilities have been able to generate dramatic results of improvement with favorable schedule. You do not have to look any further than what Michigan did this past season, which turned itself into a Sugar Bowl championship winning season, after fielding arguably one of the worst defenses in college football the year before.
The resume around Mora has been hyped as being a defensive mastermind. If he is worth what he is, he should be able to deliver a solid season (not BS 6-7 win seasons) with dramatic improvements that will be discernible to UCLA football fans.
Mora Disagrees
I heard a sound bite where he said he doesn’t have a 3 year plan, he has a 1 year plan.
Go Bruins!
I like what I'm hearing from him
I hope I’ll like what I will see from him.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
You can have that as your prediction
but you need to have much higher standards than that and expect this team to perform the way it should. Except for the field leadership, all the things you mention above are coaching related. If you get rid of a coach and pay the next one double the salary, then you should be expecting a much better performance.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Agreed
Just saying what the next season results will likely be. My expectations are different of course, just very hard for me to imagine a coach, who has just about zero college experience and questionable coaching performance in the NFL, turn around a losing, unsupported program that would result into 8 wins minimun. As Nestor points out, for the $ we gave him we should expect a dramatic turn around, but very unlikely to me, given Mora’s past experience.
Let's hope for the best Angelitos
I have reservations about Mora’s past experience as well. However, I have been encouraged by his initial moves. It seems like he did have a “plan” in place. That is something to be hopeful about I think. I will continue to maintain high/reasonable expectations but I also think there is a good shot he will get it done. Let’s send him all the good vibes we can without losing sight of the big picture.
The important thing you don't list is talent
because we have quite a bit of that. The rest can be taught.
OOC is Rice and a Keenum-less Houston which should be wins. Nebraska is tough but we have them at home and they have been caught by a lot of lesser teams. And I don’t think there is much indication that the PAC-12 is going to be much stonger than last year, even Stanford will have huge question marks losing Luck and most of its offensive line. And I don’t really like their coach, his conservative play is going to kill them like it did in their bowl.
he big question marks are the teams in a similar situation to UCLA; Wazzu, Az St and Arizona. If they get better (and I have faith that Leach will have Wazzu competing, RichRod probably needs to recruit his own players to make Arizona work and the Sun Devils are a huge question mark, they may be falling apart especially if they lose their QB) the schedule could be difficult.
Here’s my expectation of how the seaon falls out. Rice and Houston are wins. Nebraska is a close loss. One stupid loss stemming from inexperience against Oregon St/ Colorado/ Cal/ Utah. One loss possibly to one of the Arizona teams, whichever gets their act together first. Loss to Wazzu, we just play them too late. Beat Southern Cal and 50/50 vs Stanford (who I think will be talking new coach by the end of next season). 8 wins is realistic and 9 a possibility.
Expectations versus predictions
Right there with you tasser. We should always have high expectations. It is the knobs in Morgan Center who have allowed expectations to slip and have tolerated mediocrity.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
I have never tolerated
what passes as UCLA football of the past decade. I’m with BN about changing the culture and atheletic leadership. I’m just tired of loosing as the next UCLA Bruin
Schedule FAIL, IMHO
Ending with someone other than $c – and a non-division team at that – seems like idiocy from the Pac-12 schedulers.
Dream scenario for Larry Scott should be unbeaten rivalry teams meeting on the last weekend of the regular season for the right to play in the Pac-12 title game. Second best should be unbeaten division teams facing off for the right to play in the Pac-12 title game (e.g. matching teams up like a regular season Stanford/Oregon finale in the North). Worst case scenario, IMHO, is two opposite-division teams playing each other and either (a) both knowing they will meet in the title game the following weekend and not wanting to show their hand or (b) one team knowing it will be in the title game regardless and the other team still able to affect the outcome of the division.
This sucks.
Just cleared my weekend of Sept 29
As the official-unofficial BN host, I plan on arranging some stuff for Thurs and Fri night before the game, and maybe Sat night, depending on the game time. Whether I am buying tickets through U.C.L.A. remains to be seen. If Chianti is still destroying our athletic dept, we can always buy GA tix through CU and still go to the game to cheer on the team.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
I would have preferred going to Wazzou much earlier in the hope that the Cougs were still trying to get the hang of things.
After 9 games, the Cougs should be operating at high efficiency.
Beating U$C is not a minimum expectation this year
I hate the Trogans as much as anyone but saying that a win over U$C is expected and a minimum expectation is unrealistic. We’re talking about a team that will be pre-season top 5 and will easily be the most difficult game on our schedule, regardless of the fact that they are our rivals. I look for 8 wins, and 9 if we can upset the Trogans as it will definitely be an upset if it happens.
by rgalloucla on Jan 5, 2012 7:43 AM PST via mobile reply actions
No, Beating
$C should always be an expectation. There have been many times when $C is ranked higher than us and yet we whoop that @ss. No excuse, no moral victories…IMO.
Go Bruins!
I agree
It is unrealistic to expect a win against Southern Cal. Given our last few seasons, it is unrealistic to expect a win in more than half of our games.
Don't come here with that weak sauce
I am beyond sick and tired of losers who have given up before the season even starts.
Clearly, it is unrealistic to expect some Bruins fans to ever get it.
The talent is there, the schedule is there, and the coaches are getting paid a ton of money. If we can’t expect winning this year, then what’s the point.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
This is what DG's culture of mediocrity hath wrought
It’s OK to lose as long as we try hard?
There was a time when it was UNACCEPTABLE to lose to SUC. Now we have Bruins who see victory over the cross-town morons as “unrealistic”.
WTF?
I share the same POV on the rivalry as Red Sanders
Sanders said “it’s not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that!”
Go Bruins!
Given our last few seasons
we now have a new coach. Mora is getting paid twice as much as Neu; I don’t think a 50% improvement in number of victories is unreasonable to expect and demand.
Expectations versus predictions
Didn’t I just write this?
Maybe it’s the semantics…we should ALWAYS expect a program that can compete with and beat *$c. A loss to *$c, or anyone for that matter, is a failure, and we have to figure out what the problem is and fix it. For instance, it was unrealistic to predict a win over *$c this last season because we had poor and passive coaching and poor development and use of players. Because my expectations are to beat them, then something needed to be done to address that failure. I think our record against *$c under Chianti’s Reign to Guerrerror is very telling about where one of those problems still exists.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
Not only our FB record
but haven’t we lost the Gauntlet for the last three years in a row?
Go Bruins!
Wrong DMACULATEONE
We’ve beat $C more times than they’ve beat us over the last 50 years. We have 8 straight against the condoms.
ps: not sure DMACULATEONE is a bruin. nothing in his profile suggests that he is
"Players with fight never lose a game, they just run out of time"
~ John Wooden
The Mora Time Jim spends at UCLA
The Mora Dan Guerrero’s incompetence he see’s.
Go Bruins!
the mora time dan spends at ucla
the mora napa wineries benefit
Actually the opposite
When California needs all the help it can get, he goes wine tasting in a foreign country. Way to support the local economy, Chianti.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
or as biggie smalls would say......
mora money = mora problems?
or finally.......
mora football = mora than 15,000 people in the rose bowl
HOW Does Stanford Move Into The Slot On November 24?
That one I don’t get. Would rather play them on that bye week rather than after USC week where we could be in letdown mode – win or lose.
Los Angeles Rams and the UCLA Bruins!!!!!
by Minnesota Bruinfan on Jan 5, 2012 10:29 AM PST reply actions
Yet another Donut Fail
but hey, that’s to be expected
"Players with fight never lose a game, they just run out of time"
~ John Wooden
Did anyone see UW's schedule?
They play San Diego State, #1 LSU, and Portland state out of conference, then in the middle of the season play Oregon, Stanford, and USC in consecutive weeks.
UW should be good next year
Their offense can score a lot, and their defense should be significantly better with the new DC they hired. I see them being 3-3 in those games, at worst.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bruins Nation
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
