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The UCLA Bruins had a widely ‘positive’ result to the season based upon the national spotlight cast upon them after the season was over. Sure, it did look like a positive spin on a team in a tailspin out of control under head coach Chip Kelly, but in true to recent form, the Bruins had very few positives on the season and many more negatives tied directly to coaching decisions.
In fact, those positives were truly individualized performances from the players on the field and the hiring of a new athletic director. And some of those are going to be widely recognized with postseason awards.
Mitchell Agude and Osa Odighizuwa have earned just that, being selected as First-Team All-Pac-12 members by Jon Wilner of the Bay Area News Group.
Agude was one of the top pass-rushers in the conference, recording 2.5 sacks this season as well as multiple other players behind the line of scrimmage. Odighizuwa finished the year tied for fifth in the conference with his four sacks and he also had a ton of plays behind the line of scrimmage.
They both constantly won their pass-rush reps and Agude added prowess in coverage as well.
Agude and Odighizuwa were also joined by Demetric Felton as a second-team running back, tight end Greg Dulcich also on the second-team offense and Jay Shaw and Caleb Johnson on the second-team defense.
If you missed that on Wilner’s post, I understand you probably didn’t read as they gave Karl Dorrell the Coach of the Year as well. The former UCLA coach himself turned the Buffaloes into a successful program with extremely limited contact with his own team until what felt like August. The Buffs were undefeated into December and finished the year at 4-1. It also gave Colorado RB Jarek Broussard the Offensive Player of the Year award as well while USC’s Talanoa Hufanga was the DPOY.
Either way you slice it, it was a ho-hum year that had some excitement. Kudos to the players on the Bruins who made it exciting this season. Kudos to those who are going to win some awards. But especially kudos to the others who took the field for this Bruins team amid everything that is going on globally, locally and in their own lives with this team.
Go Bruins! Let’s hope for many, better, happy returns in 2021.