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UCLA Season Preview Confidence Report!!! Part 3

From the diaries. If you haven't read the whole series yet here is Part I and Part 2. GO BRUINS. -N

The Confidence Report rolls on.

*Recap: If you have read the Part 1 and 2 then you will see that I have UCLA Undeafeted and their Confidence couldn't be higher after a great win off of the Cal Golden Bears.

In 2005 UCLA didn't have any defense and a QB coming back from major knee surgery but, their Confidence grew stronger after some amazing wins. That season you saw the Bruins begin to believe that they could win and it led to 10 wins.

(They didn't have the talent but they had the Confidence,they should have BOTH this year. "No Excuses"- DE Bruce Davis)

UCLA @ Washington State

For Washington State Confidence doesn't apply. Yes, thats what I said. When was the last time "WAZZU" had any expectations to be confident about? This a "Spoiler Team" a team that thrives off of making an upset. They have "Nothing to Lose" and "Everything to Gain",thats enough cliches'. But if they had any Confidence it would be very low.

  1. Bill Doba. If Pat Cowan wasn't the worst QB in UCLA history(Talent wise)Bill Doba would've lost this game last year easily. Did anyone watch him at the PAC 10 conference?? I wouldn't have 1 ounce of Confidence as a player fan or alum if this guy was my head coach.
  2. Schedule is BRUTAL: @ Wisconsin @ SUC @ Arizona @ Oregon plus an improved Arizona State will be a tough match. All of these loses/tough games are befeore Wazzu plays UCLA.
  3. No running game. The last time UCLA went up to the Palouse they faced this guy.



    Washington State has yet to replace him, and they won't this year.*I've said it over and over you must run the ball to beat this UCLA defense.
  4. Defense. Average to Below average at every level of thier defense. The Bruins should run and pass all over this team.

  5. Wide out Jason Hill is gone to the NFL,1 less thing for Dewayne Walker to deal with.
* No Run game/Lost top Wide Out/Average Defense vs Undeafeated group of senoirs who are riding high...GAME OVER

UCLA wins

UCLA @ Arizona

This is 1 of the BIG 3 games this season imo. Cal was #1 Arizona is #2 and I think we all know whos #3.Why is Arizona in my BIG 3? Because UCLA will face only 3 good/great defenses ALL Year/its the only time UCLA will have back to back road games/Arizona has screwed UCLA the last 2 seasons they ended UCLA's perfect season in 2005 and ended QB Ben Olson's year with a Late hit.

How Confident will this team be? Arizona is very similiar to UCLA: Really good Defense/New OC that are unproven/Talented QBs that have yet to break out. The bruins have a much more reliable Rushing attack with RB Markey and co.

The Confidence of the Wildcats will be meduim but, I doubt it will ever be low.

  1. O-line was horrible last year in pass protection:



    Now the Wildcats turn to an offensive system that is pass happy? They rushed the ball well last season with the big, fast RB Chris Henry um he bolted to the NFL leaving...
  2. Running Back as a big question going into the season. RB Chris Jennings and Xavier Smith are expected to replace Henry but are either of them going to effective in the Spread Offense which leads me to...
  3. The Spread Offense, the most popular offense to hit college football in a long time. I don't believe that Arizona had the pieces to make that Offense work against the Bruins. AZ has to break in new wide outs but they're talented.
  4. Schedule is loaded with tough road games: @ Cal(Very tough to beat in berkley)@ Oregon State( Good test for developing quad but, I think Arizona wins)@ SUC (This will get ugly)@ Washington( Home Crowd will make the passing game very difficult)
  5. Confidence usually comes from your leaders. Who are the Leaders for Arizona?Who can inspire this team on cusp of breaking out to reach the next level? Who can look at the rest of the team and say "I know we can beat these guys"? Arizona will not have the confidence to say we can beat a top 10 team. 2005 wasn't a Preseason ranked club that was expected to be really good, this is.
Arizona plays UCLA very well into the 4th quarter but, the O-line for AZ has blown protection and fails late.

UCLA wins.  

thats 9-0

I will post more soon.

Link to Part 1

Link to Part 2

Go Bruins!!

*Side Note

UCLA's Passing game will be very good this season imo. UCLA will only face 3 elite defenses all year, everyone else is average or worse(Stanford,Utah,BYU and Notre Dame). Momentum will be gained early because the 1st 3 defenses are all worse than this defense:

Jay Norvell will  exploit these defenses for example Nebraska put up huge numbers on Offfense against average to below average defenses:

<<p> The only question mark about Norvell is the Big 3, was it Norvell who decided to play scared like Nebraska did at the Collisium or was it Bill Callahan?

Jay Norvell will look great as an OC most of the season just like Dewayne Walker did. UCLA's defense will still have to make big plays to help them win all of the Big 3(Cal/@Arizona/@SUC)    

 

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.

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Thank you Thank you
Only if our offense can show the consistency you are showing in these posts, we are golden!

by Nestor on Aug 19, 2007 11:31 AM PDT reply actions  

Loving these
Confidence reports.

A great preview.

Keep it up! :)

This is what's pop'n

by PopnFried on Aug 19, 2007 2:01 PM PDT reply actions  

Championship Teams
A true championship team should succeed against all challenges -- its great that we have a favorable schedule and that many of the teams we will be facing have lost offensive weapons that might have hindered us in the past.  I like the fire in comments I've seen from Bruce Davis -- he has really matured and doesn't seem to accept any excuses for failure.  I want the rest of the squad to emulate his drive as well.  

If we are to contend for the Pac-10, BCS and even a NC berth -- then we will need to overcome ALL challenges and until we KNOW that we will destroy our opponents that are "average" or "below average" we will not stand a chance of standing victorious against other teams that have good coaching and KNOW they can and will win.

As has been mentioned before... why not us... why not now?  The answer remains -- the coaching.  We have the talent.

by ucsbbruinfan on Aug 20, 2007 1:04 PM PDT reply actions  

on Norvell playing scared...
I think it doesn't matter whether it was Norvell or Callahan Choosing to play scared because:
  1. if it is Norvell the team is screwed.
  2. if it was the HC then they are screwed because we know exactly how KD plays.

by isodore on Aug 20, 2007 1:17 PM PDT reply actions  

I'm not overly scared of Arizona
it's Oregon that bothers me. They ran all over us last year and Walker's D has yet to perform well against the spread. Arizona will be running the spread this year, but I don't think they have the overall team speed to run it well their 1st year.

Also, the people up here at Wazzu are as sick of Doba as we are of Dorrell. They just aren't as vocal about it because they're more willing to accept mediocrity than we are and Doba doesn't have nearly the amount of resources that KD has at UCLA. KD has EVERY advantage a coach could possibly want. Academics? Check. Location? Check. Media? Check. Campus? Check. Recruiting hotbed? Check. And on top of it all they get to play at the Rose Bowl.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Aug 20, 2007 2:18 PM PDT reply actions  

One thing to keep in mind re. Doba
At least he took his team to the Rose Bowl. Granted he did with Price's recruits but at least he showed he can coach.

Dorrell on the other hand did nothing with Toledo's recruits.

by bluestreet on Aug 20, 2007 2:20 PM PDT up reply actions  

Oregon?????
Please read the next confidence report.

I'll give you 1 of my points okay.

UCLA has a BYE before the Oregon Game.

by uclabruins05 @ Bruins Nation on Aug 20, 2007 8:36 PM PDT up reply actions  

byes
are only an advantage when there is a competant coach to take advantage of it.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Aug 21, 2007 12:03 AM PDT up reply actions  

Lets give
Dorrell the benefit of the doubt and assume he will coach in a competent way this year.

Remember we are giving this guy an honest shot!

by bluestreet on Aug 22, 2007 11:04 AM PDT up reply actions  

slightly OT, for the Bay Area folks
Just noticed this. Due to the practice of Cal fans buying up Stanford season tickets in order to obtain tickets for the "Big Game" @ Stanford, those Cal fans are dumping a large number of Stanford home tickets on the secondary market. Stubhub, for example, has a large number of reserved tickets for the UCLA game available starting at $7/each.

Thought I would bring that up in case anyone in/going to the bay area for the game had problems getting tickets from Stanford, or wants a cheaper alternative (face value = $20-40/each).

by bruinhoo on Aug 20, 2007 10:26 PM PDT reply actions  

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