Mandel on SI.com: 2011 is Neuheisel’s "Make-or-Break" Season

KSBruin fanshotted Stewart Mandel’s SI.com piece on Rick Neuheisel’s "make or break" forth season. It is a good read which includes balanced perspective from all parties involved.  The article provides Rick’s thoughts on running a "hybrid" offense:

Neuheisel's new course of action is a hybrid attack. Offensive coordinator Mike Johnson, another former Ravens colleague who spent the past two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, is charged with resuscitating the passing game, but Neuheisel also hired Nevada running backs coach Jim Mastro -- one of the co-creators of the Pistol -- to help bolster that effort.

"I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater; I just want to make sure we're more balanced," said Neuheisel. "Mike Johnson and I are going to put ourselves to the task of building a pass offense, and Jim has the keys to the castle in making that Pistol go."

And how Tresey could turn out to be "worth the wait":

As for Tresey, he'll be inheriting a defense that slipped from 32nd to 94th nationally last season and must replace its two best players, linebacker Akeem Ayers and safety Rahim Moore. There's reason to believe Tresey was worth the wait. At Cincinnati and USF, Tresey produced aggressive defenses (his 2007 Bearcats squad led the nation in turnovers gained) using a base 4-3. He wound up in Omaha when USF fired head coach Jim Leavitt in 2009 and successor Skip Holtz brought in his own staff.

That all sounds good but as Mandel points out, Rick most likely has "one shot" to get it right:

"Rick knows there is maybe one shot to straighten this thing out,'' Guerrero told the Los Angeles Times  last month. Citing that quote, the Bruins Nation guys wrote: "We are willing to give him 'one shot' for 2011. If Rick doesn't get the job done by the end of next season [which should be somewhere around the range of 8-9 regular season wins and a victory against Southern Cal], UCLA will need to look in another direction."

Next season cannot come soon enough.

GO BRUINS