Quick analysis of the Tennessee win from Stewart Mandel (who has been on point before regarding our team despite being a national writer). Given how quickly he recognized the looming disaster that was last season before it unfolded, he has earned quite a bit of trust in football related matters in my book. A reader asks whether Clemson losing or UCLA winning shocked him more, to which he replies that the Bruin victory was more shocking. In addition:
While I'm sure they're still partying in Westwood, I wouldn't get too ahead of myself if I'm a UCLA fan. Monday night's win seemed like one of those perfect storms, with the Bruins feeding off the energy and excitement surrounding Neuheisel's debut and where every conceivable break (except maybe Tennessee's field goal to force overtime) went in UCLA's favor. The Bruins are still going to take their share of licks this season, but their future hasn't looked this bright in a long, long time.
I'd argue that the 4 picks in the first half are not breaks in our favor, but those aren't really breaks at all, but rather simply a result of decisions we made. Besides, CRN says that we were lucky as well, and the man was much closer to the situation than I was. The rest of the paragraph sounds quite familiar. Perhaps like things we have been reading here on BN for a while. Mandel was right about the Dorrell disaster when many of our local writers just didn't get it. If he says the future is bright, well, let's hope that he goes 2 for 2 in his predictions for UCLA coaches.