Monday News & Notes
by Nestor on Oct 1, 2007 4:47 AM PDT
in Football
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PrintFor some weird reason the Sleeping Beauty’s quotes were missing from Sunday’s papers. It seemed as if someone from Morgan Center had put on a gag order on the Thinker of college football. Well he is back. Back with his classic excuses, calling out players to explain away the mistakes and sloppiness of his joke of an offense:
False starts were again an issue as Reed had two and tight end William Snead added another. The Bruins were also flagged for delay of game, an illegal formation and an illegal substitution.
"You just keep working on it," Dorrell said. "It's something you have to continue to address. We had a couple players in there playing for the first time, significantly. A couple times it was Micah Reed that had a couple of those penalties, and he really hasn't played all that much.
"But still, it's one of those issues we have to continue to work on to get better at, because it is something that always disrupts and offense or defense, or any area, and you just have to continue to harp on those little things to get them corrected."
Anyways, one kid who hung in there through all of this offensive skullduggery was none other than much maligned Ben Olson. From Dohn on how Olson was able to produce despite being handcuffed by Dorvell’s joke offensive schemes:
And that interception was a doozy. It came on a third-and-11 from Oregon State's 17-yard line, with the Bruins trailing 14-12 late in the third quarter as Olson went to his third option for a possible 4-yard gain.
But after the interception, Olson was 4 of 6 for 115 yards and two touchdowns as the Bruins matched a school record with points in a quarter by scoring 28 in the final 15 minutes against Oregon State.
Included in Olson's fourth quarter was a magnificent 30-yard touchdown pass to Breazell.
It is even more poignant given the kind of success Tedford is having with Nate Longshore, who like Olson is a drop back QB without a lot of mobility. Yet Tedford schemes his offense in a way that makes Longshore look comfortable, putting him in best position to connect with the weapons Tedford has sprinkled throughout the Bears’ skill positions.
Given the fact that Olson looks uncomfortable in the pocket at times, wouldn’t it make sense to perhaps roll him out to the left, get him away from the rush, and give him a clearer launch point to work with? To me it seems like Olson has the arm and touch to throw passes ranging from 15-30 yards. Doesn’t it make sense then to wrinkle in more plays (including using TEs and RBs) on first and second downs in which Olson gets to throw beyond 10 yards, instead of constantly calling for dump off passes on first and second downs, which the opposing Ds seem to snuff out even before they get started. For more on this topic make sure to read tliggett’s post in the diaries. Given the suggestions in his post, it’s clear he is more than qualified to write the advanced version of Karl’s Football 101.
Lastly, LAT has this note on our next opponent:
GO BRUINS.
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Once again, Dorrell is talking about "getting better." At some point, after 5 years, it would be nice to see some improvement instead of having to correct mistakes all the time.
Hey, if a class in school consistently gets C grades on their tests, then either they just are not that smart, or they are not being taught well.
This team is too talented not to perform well, and perform consistently well, each week. Perhaps it has something to do with the teacher.
Just a thought.
We have every reason to be scared of Notre Dame.
But what about us? After 5 mediocre games, UCLA finally has a chance to play a legitimately big game. Problem is, it isn't this week against ND, it's next week against Cal. And given our players' penchant for trash talking and inflating egoes, I think that poses a big problem.
Any other year, our players couldn't avoid labeling ND as a "big" game. But this year, with ND's record, I can easily see it happening. I envision our players talking about "taking care of business" this week, and "expecting to win." But it is just as likely that our team will actually be thinking about Cal and all the "respect" they can get if they can win on October 20th. This is scary.
As bad as ND is, I would not be shocked in the least if UCLA were to lose. It's just the type of game we've lost over the last few years. We don't blow out bad teams, we keep them close. Last week was a perfect example. And let's not forget UTAH. We didn't just lose that game, we got destroyed.
I pray our players play this game like their backs are against the wall. If they do, they will take care of business and earn themselves the right to play in at least one more big game. But if they start patting themselves on the back this week, we could be in for a tough Saturday night.
Yep
I am not sure if Clausen is going to be healthy this week, but if you saw the 2nd half of their game against Purdue, it looked like he finally was getting that much maligned offense into rhythm.
And don't forget that there will be a large green-clad contingency at the Rose Bowl.
And there's the KD factor as well.
I'm predicting a lackluster, BYU-type of victory.
by godblesstyus95 on Oct 1, 2007 10:04 AM PDT up reply actions
A BYU type of "victory"
While players have to be cautious, we need to speak up and hammer the point that anything less than a blowout win should be considered as major letdown.
The Sleeping Beauty needs to feel the pressure from all of us.
Clausen wasn't playing in the 2nd half
Is it my imagination, or
The shut-up-and-enjoy-the-win chant isn't as loud this time around.
And when Tracy Pierson over at BRO publicly declared that the WCO is a joke, there is no widespread outcry.
The most vocal KD supporter seems to be DG these days.
aaaaaaah TP
Thats funny because the reason I left BRO for good was after reading Tracy breathlessly celebrating 'a true moral victory' against USC:
While you don't want a coach to sound happy after a loss, you could see in his post-game press conference that the biggest task for Karl Dorrell was containing his elation about the game. He knows that this game was something he can definitely build on, and sell to recruits. He's been telling recruits that his program is getting there, and now he has tangible proof of it.
Standing on the field after the game, yes, it was disappointing. USC fans, of course, were being their classless selves, throwing oranges on the field, the USC rooting section punctuating their band's Fleetwood Mac theme of "Tusk" by chanting "U-C-L-A sucks!" But standing on that field, in the midst of it, I have to say, the loss felt quite a bit differently than the last two years, and all the bitter losses to USC in the past. It was a feeling that many have been telling me since yesterday they felt, too. It's a feeling of great hope, and just not baseless hope, but one based on tangible accomplishment. It wasn't only that it looked like UCLA was starting to bridge the gap in talent on the field, but it had made great strides in attitude, heart and toughness. The teams from the last two seasons folded in those games, when faced with a superior USC team. Those teams would have probably folded after the first couple of minutes of this game, when Bush broke off his first touchdown run. But this team, with the heart it's shown, out-played the Trojans for the rest of the game. So, it's a feeling based on having the beginnings of a football program that the UCLA community can be quite proud of. It's now having a football staff that UCLA fans can truly respect - that the players and everyone in the athletic department respects -- that are trying to do things the right way. In the seven years since I've been covering the football program I've never respected the players on any UCLA team as much as I do this year's team. They are, by far, the classiest and most dedicated group of players UCLA has seen in many years. And you have to give a great deal of credit to Dorrell and his coaching staff, for establishing the right type of atmosphere and attitude within the program.
Yes, UCLA lost to USC. But in so many ways, it felt differently than any other loss in recent memory to the Trojans. Even if you're a USC fan (and probably just a bandwagon jumper as so many of their fans are), you'd have to admit that it was quite evident there was a different aura to the UCLA team this year. It was an aura of a program going in the right direction, doing things the right way (And actually, that's something USC fans might not recognize). Really, if UCLA had actually scored in the last minute yesterday and beaten USC, what would have been the most significant impact? The biggest impact would have been to USC, not to UCLA. Yes, UCLA's record would be 7-4 rather than 6-5, but that, right now, doesn't seem that significant. In losing the way it did, UCLA played its game well enough to possibly still receive the impact it needed.
This might sound completely nutty, but it's now a good time to be a UCLA fan. For the first time in a very long time you have the football and basketball programs going in the right direction -- with coaching staffs that can be respected. If you're a Crank, you should take a little time off from the Crankiness and put on the Blue-colored glasses. Come on, it feels good. At least for just a moment.
At least until the bowl game.
But for now, everything looks good with that Blue tinge, doesn't it? Wearing the Blue glasses that game made you put on, it's now easy to see a future where Dorrell's teams steadily improve and become a major player in college football. If UCLA were a stock, it'd be one with a BUY on it. And it's not too hard to envision a college football world, in a few years, where Norm Chow and even Pete Carroll have moved on from USC, and UCLA, under Dorrell, has become a college football power. That, just a couple months ago, wasn't possible to envision.
So, while many don't put much stock in moral victories, this was one moral victory, UCLA fans, you should put stock in. While it went down in the record books as a loss, in the future it very well could be remembered in the minds and hearts of UCLA fans as a true victory.
Yes, I remember that well
So, when TP led the celebratory dance over that loss, I knew that UCLA football had fallen into the abyss and would remain there as long as KD was permitted to remain to do continual damage.
And in year 5, UCLA looks no closer to being a BCS team than day 1 when KD took over, despite the hallucinatory 4-1 record that almost everyone now knows is a fraud.
KD is becoming more and more indefensible. So my question is, why is DG out there spewing pro-KD garbage into the wind?
DG
Wow!
The next season we got creamed by 60 points by SuC.
Ryan Reynolds
by bornagainbruin on Oct 1, 2007 2:24 PM PDT up reply actions
Anyone else
Did I just miss it or forget about it?
Frankly, any positive comments about Dorrell by DG are worrisome to me.
Yes, be worried...
by norcalbruin95 on Oct 1, 2007 2:33 PM PDT up reply actions
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