Thanks to Jack Wang of InsideSoCal for sharing the video of UCLA OC No-O Mazzne's postgame presser.
He seemed to be in a mood for cracking jokes about UCLA's poor offensive performance. Mazzne said:
All the things that we always talked about that kill drives — sacks, dropped balls, and penalties — well, we pretty much cornered the market on that at the New York Stock Exchange today. Alright. So, what I'm hoping is that we got it all out of our system, you see? So, we got all rid of them for the whole year...[Reporter asks if he believes that]...Heck, yeah! I got to, right?
A little bit later on in the video, Mazzne talks about how playing tough games and facing adversity can pay dividends and, while true, I think the "good defenses" he talks about will actually be a lot better than today's Virginia team even though the Cavalier defense played a heck of a game. Mazzne said:
A lot of times these kind of games pay off a lot more in dividends in the course of the season than you go up and if you score 52 against some team and, you know, come back and don't really realize who you are. Cuz we're gonna have more games like this. We're gonna play good defenses.
The only problem with that statement is that UVA defense, which played superbly against the Bruins, was part of a team that was 2-10 last season. It leaves us wondering how struggling against them is going to "pay dividends" against the Stanfords and Oregons of the world.
For that matter, hasn't UVA just given any team that plays UCLA a defensive blueprint — rush 5 guys — for stopping our offense? Memphis may be seriously undermanned next week at the Rose Bowl, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them rushing 5 guys as much as UVA did.
At the very end of the video, Mazzne finally admits what everyone watching the game was already thinking. He concludes by saying:
I didn't do a very good job coaching my guys today. They didn't do a very good job executing and we've got to get better. That's really the bottom line....We have to do a better job.
Glad to see he stopped cracking jokes by the end. But it leaves us wondering....Why does this seem to happen so frequently with our offense, Coach?
Go Bruins!