Oregon Coaches' Comments Highlight UCLA Coaches' Failures

There has been plenty of criticism aimed at Jim Mora, Jeff Ulbrich, Adrian Klemm, and the Mazzones over the last few weeks, both here on Bruins Nation and elsewhere around the UCLA related interwebs.

But those coaches also have their defenders at those places, too, and for those myopic apologists who have a hard time facing facts (a group that includes Dan Guerrero), it's too easy to bury their heads in the sand and say it's all just noise from the irrational fan base.

They don't like hearing it from us? Fine. Then maybe they'll listen to someone else. Someone closer to the situation.

Someone, like, say, the Oregon Offensive Coordinator... (from Everett Cook at the LAT)

After the game, Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost said he ran a pretty conservative plan, mostly because the Ducks were running the ball so well even without using the complicated stuff.

Or maybe the Oregon Head Coach...

Coach Mark Helfrich said they had a lot more planned for their quarterback, Marcus Mariota, but they didn't need to use it because they were scoring so easily.

Or how about the Oregon Offensive Line Coach (you know, the guy whose unit gave up zero sacks yesterday)...

Offensive line coach Steve Greatwood said they anticipated pretty much everything UCLA did. There weren't any surprises.

It kills me to blog this stuff, because I thought we had everything in place this year for a very special season, but it's not happening and we need to take a hard look on what has gone wrong for this team.  I don't see how anyone can question the talent and the character of these kids on the team. There is maybe an exception or two, but it's not remotely enough to go from preseason #1 in some polls to out of the top 25 in the latest.

So that has to point the finger at the coaching staff.

And in a profession where the coaches share a certain fraternity so that you rarely hear anything critical uttered about an opposing coaching staff, those three quotes are pretty damning. Our defense offered no surprises. They were scoring so easily, and with just their conservative plays.

What's that say about our game plan and in-game adjustments yesterday?

Even Cook can put it all together.

And then, on UCLA's side, linebacker Eric Kendricks said that the Bruins are going to go back to fundamentals this week and focus on the things they worked on in training camp.

It's October. Fundamentals should be, for the most part, figured out. One team talked about saving offensive wrinkles because they didn't need them, and one talked about trying to relearn the basic fundamentals of football. Without a doubt, that's on the coaches.

Of course, it could also be that everyone knows those fundamentals, and it's the creative and analytical and insightful coaches who can build from those fundamentals and create something unique and surprising and effective.

The emphasis in bold in the final graf is mine. But it could be Cook's. And it sure sounds like Oregon's staff's. It ought to be every Bruin fan's. And it better damn well be Mora's immediately, because he and Ulbrich (and the rest of the staff) got owned by the Oregon coaches yesterday. Sadly, It's not the first time our coaches have been beaten this year, and I'm afraid it won't be the last.

Go Bruins!