Gameday Roundup: Going Through The Motions

by Nestor on Nov 3, 2007 9:32 AM PDT in Football Comment 9 comments

While we are all holding our collective breath over the status of our starting pg, the Bruins will be playing a meaningless football game today, which DumpDorrell.com has dubbed as the Monster.com bowl. Here is their reasoning for it:

We have called this game between our UCLA Bruins and the Arizona Wildcats this year's version of the Monster.com Bowl - the losing coach of this game will most likely be looking for a new job at the end of the season. You may recall we picked the Arizona State game last year as the Monster.com Bowl game and the losing coach, Dirk Koetter, was indeed fired after ASU lost. Dorrell, as we know, kept his job. The epilogue to that story is the kind of epilogue we have envisioned for our Bruins - ASU hired an experienced proven winning head coach in Dennis Erickson who has taken the team to an undefeated season this year thus far and a #4 ranking!!

Mike Stoops has been absolutely horrible in his stint at UofA, and they had such high hopes for him. He needs to turn this season around for his Wildcats so that they have some chance to become bowl eligible. At 3-6 (2-4) Arizona must win out to realistically make a bowl game. That seems highly unlikely to happen, but if Stoops loses against Dorrell he will lock in yet another year without making a bowl game and that might be it for him.

As for the Doofus, well we all know the big picture scenario at this point. We want him gone no matter what happens in this game or rest of the season. His players though, specially his seniors, are once again trying to circle the wagon:

"We want to win the first Pac-10 championship [at UCLA] in nine years," senior center Chris Joseph said. "That is the goal of the season, that's the thing we wear on our wrist bands. This is a championship game this week."

UCLA mantra has cast each week as a championship game, and the Bruins have lost two of their last three.

Losses to Notre Dame and Washington State were sandwiched around a meaty victory over then-10th-ranked California. Of course, like Notre Dame and Washington State, Cal now appears to be headed nowhere after three consecutive losses.

The Bruins can go in another direction, with the starting point a victory over Arizona, the easiest task remaining on the schedule. UCLA's last three games are against sixth-ranked Arizona State, fourth-ranked Oregon and 13th-ranked USC.

"Our opportunities to go out there and play this great game, at this great school, are winding down," senior cornerback Trey Brown said. "You kind of got that feeling where it's time now to make this go, it's time to make this thing happen."

For themselves and Dorrell?

Said Davis: "I want for him to be here and be around to take control of this program."

This is coming from a guy who was talking about UCLA playing for the BCS championship (not the Pac-10 one) before the Washington State game and who was alleged put under a gag order. Whatever.

Bruce Davis sounds just like Earl Watson from the Lavin years, completely ignorant and unaware of the big picture. It's a shame. He is a very good player and good athlete. But the way he has associated himself with this coaching staff, I will always have a hard time thinking of him as some great Bruin.

Back to the game day stories. Dohn has a report on what sounds like to me as if the players are going through the motions:

With Aleksey Lanis scheduled to start at left tackle, UCLA will have its sixth combination of starters on the offensive line in nine games, despite having only left guard Shannon Tevaga miss a start because of injury.

"As an offense, we've just been looking at the film and watching all the missed opportunities we have had," UCLA receiver Terrence Austin said. "You don't really see all the missed opportunities we had when the game is played, but when you come back and watch (the film), it definitely is something you see."

Were the mistakes different in any of the losses?

"No," Austin said. "Same exact stuff."

UCLA right tackle Brian Abraham said he believes the solution to playing better is to execute better in practice.

"You do it bad in practice, over and over again, without fixing it, it's going to be bad in the game," Abraham said. "We have to come out (in practice) and if something's wrong, we have to fix it (in practice) and get it done before the game."

Uhm Brian, obviously you guys haven't gotten "it done" for last 4+ years. So pardon us for not holding our breath to find out whether you will get "it done" in next few weeks. We simply do not care much at this point.

If you want to read more about today's game here coverage from What's Bruin, LAT I, LAT II, and the DN.

I am obviously expecting a huge win despite all the litany of excuses the beat reporters cut and pasted into their reports. We have those magic wristbands, remember?

The game thread will go up in a bit.

GO BRUINS.

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Comments

I disagree with your comments about

Watson and Davis. I would not want any of our players saying anything but supportive things about the coaching staff in public. If they have concerns, they should go to DG, but saying anything else just creates discord and hurts the team. It's not the players job to pick the coach, its their job to support him as he leads the team, regardless of how bad he is at it. I would view them with less respect if they did otherwise.

Same with B Abraham being optomistic. He has to be. If you play football thinking negatively, or expecting failure, not only do you certainly lose, you also become more likely to get injured as you play tentatively. I would never want to see a player think he can't win a game. That's not what Bruins do.

Don't let your rightful disdain of KD color your view of these outstanding student athletes. They are doing the right thing, becuase their job as student athletes under coach KD is different than ours as alumni.

"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"

by silverlakebruin on Nov 3, 2007 11:49 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I agrre with Silverlake

As much as I hate KD and his incompetence - I DO NOT want to hear any student athlete mention anything but support for the coaching staff and the university. Regaurdless of whether they believe what they are saying or not.

by gorams77 on Nov 3, 2007 2:45 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

except it is

suppossed to be "agree"

by gorams77 on Nov 3, 2007 2:46 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't get it

"But the way he has associated himself with this coaching staff, I will always have a hard time thinking of him as some great Bruin."

What else is he supposed to say. I'd be willing to bet that he hates Dorrell but wishes him the best. He just seems diplomatic about the situation.

I respectfully disagree.

by BruinFan1 on Nov 3, 2007 12:25 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Here's what I don't get

I agree with both BruinFan1 and SilverLake. I don't think that's ever happened before. I'm starting to freak out.

by Fox 71 on Nov 3, 2007 4:46 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

For what it's worth

Davis did completely finish us off with that personal foul at the end. We would have had the ball one more time, and while it would have taken a miracle for us to win, we still had a chance.

by SuperBruinMan on Nov 3, 2007 5:29 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Bruce Davis

and rest of these players should keep their head down and STFU.

They haven't earned the right to pipe up given how they have played last few years. If they ever actually walked the walk, I'd give them a little room.

But I am just a little tired of hearing the same BS. Perhaps a little humility would help. Perhaps they should talk about what they see that is good about their next opponent.

But they really don't have a lot of credibility when they opine about the big picture.

It's pretty clear they have zero clue.

by Nestor on Nov 3, 2007 6:32 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Agree and then some

The guys don't act like winners. And little wonder. There is no one who knows how to act like a winner. Who do we have on the sideline to show our 18 and 18 year olds how to act? We sure don't have Steve Smith telling Jarrett to stop talking to the press and start looking at more film.

Our guys haven't learned to let their play do their talking for them. And again I blame CTS. He hasn't taught them how to win or how to act like winners.

It's really a shame that the players and fans have to endure this. CTS has stolen football from UCLA.

by Fox 71 on Nov 3, 2007 8:04 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs