Practice counts
As expected, UCLA's "Over the Wall" practice day counts toward one of the 15 spring practices. The school checked and was told that was the case since meetings took place and instruction was given on the field.
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About Inside UCLA
This is Brian Dohn's sixth season covering UCLA after spending 4 1/2 years covering the Dodgers for the Daily News and other Los Angeles Newspaper Group papers. He graduated from Rutgers, where the first college football game was played in 1869. Sure, the Scarlet Knights suffered for a long time, but now RU is doing what Jerseyans always thought was possible. Winning at Rutgers also proves winning is possible everywhere else in the nation, so underachieving coaches better be careful. Now, if only men's hoops can turn it around.
After Neuheisel was hired, he made a point to re-assure the seniors that he does not plan to "rebuild", as in sacrificing the seniors in favor of developing younger talent for the future. Perhaps that re-assurance has gotten into the heads of the seniors. With a new offense to install and so many holes to fill, the seniors decided to demonstrate their leadership by ditching precious practice time. This, coming from a group of players with a history of losing and playing soft, is a clear display of their lack of commitment to establishing a tradition of winning. Perhaps Neuheisel should re-evaluate his commitment to this group of seniors and consider rebuilding after all.
In contrast to the footabll program, when Coach Howland took over the basketball program he had to tear down the tradition of laziness and mediocrity in order to build the tradition of toughness and winning. Any player not committed to practice doesn't get to play. Neuheisel can learn a thing or two from Coach Howland.
Coach Neu apparently voiced his displeasure with this stupid "tradition," but his boys went and did what they wanted. And how does this build solidarity, after a few days of practice with 1/4 of the team new? 15 days of practice is not much time; 14 days is even worse.
While I would have preferred that this happen on a "no pads" day, I think you have to respect tradition. UCLA football hasn't been in the dumps for the past 30 years (since the tradition started), so I don't believe that this one lost practice makes a difference. Tradition is important, and I don't think it should be a big deal. Howland is all about tradition. He brought back former UCLA basketball players to meet with the current team, and if Wooden had instituted something like the "over the wall" tradition in basketball, I am confident that Howland would continue to follow tradition.
Because it's tradition doesn't make it right or something to respect.
And maybe the program hasn't been in the dumps the last 30 years but it hasn't been anything to be proud of either.
What's the #1 goal for a Pac-10 school? Win the Rose Bowl Game. In the last thirty years the Bruins have only appeared in five and only won three. Meanwhile, the "Evil Empire" across town has been in eleven and won eight.
Maybe we should find a way to get them to adopt our traditions.
That has to be the most stupidest tradition I have ever heard about.
When you only have 15 days of practice and you lose 1 of those days. That screws up everything for the coaches and players that may need to get the reps to win positions.
I'm a UCLA Alum and breath and die UCLA Sports and now I know why SC dominates us in football. If you have a tradition of losing all the time, then maybe you should break that tradition.
How selfish of those Sr's, New coaching staff, installing new system, players trying to win positions by impressing the coaches. People who made special trips to practice to observe. When the Sr's prove themselves by winning the Pac-10 then they can start doing stupid things like ditch day.
AW