Imperfect 10

funny how we have won exactly the same number of games as Cal (and more pac-10 games) yet this is widely considered our dark ages and it is their best in history.

The admissions' standards at ucla apparently prevent many high profile players from attending the school, but how is it ucla had very good teams (and players) in the 1990s? Have the standards changed?

And one has to wonder how that 1998 team influenced the next 10 years. The Miami game had to be rescheduled for the end of the year, and ucla's offense almost carried the day. They would have been in the national championship game (and not playing Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl) and probably would have been favored. As the 1998 Football National Champions it could have changed the landscape for the bruins for the next decade.

What if, what if...

LJ

I remember that even after the loss to Wisconsin at the Rose Bowl, we had decent recruiting classes the following years, specifically in 2001 (e.g, Marcedes Lewis, MJD). Just goes to show how bad our football program sunk under Dorrell. I hate bringing his name up again, but numbers don't lie.

I liked Ramsey's quote in BD's article - Tom Ramsey, who quarterbacked the Bruins to a 1983 Rose Bowl win. "But it's like I told my wife, football is like an aircraft carrier. You can't turn it around on a dime. If you're off six degrees, to get it back on track takes time". Good thing we have Admiral Nimitz running the ship this time.

Brian,

UCLA usually plays a tough out of conference schedule, unlike most Pac-10 teams. So the only way to make a comparisson among Pac-10 teams is the record in Pac-10. Where UCLA ranks 4th (according to your chart)instead of sixth. So UCLA is 4th in the Pac-10 for the last 10 years, not sixth! Not that I agree with UCLA being in that place, but given the strength of USC and Oregon, the best possible scenario for UCLA was to finish 3rd.

As an SC alum and fan, let me thank Brian for being 10 times the reporter than Wolf, who seems to care more about his publicity by making waves than reporting details about the program he is paid to cover.

Like many SC fans, I do hope UCLA gets better and wins 11 of 12 games every year.

Interesting point that almost every long-term Pac-10 coach has made -- it is harder to win in the Pac-10 conference than in OOC games. If you look at the charts, every team (except Stanford) has a lower winning percentage in conference than OOC during the 10 years charted.

Given that SC, Oregon, UCLA, Oregon State and Washington (and some seasons Stanford) always have tough OOC games, there is proof to defeat the anti-Pac-10 claims of being an inferior football conference.

like they said im my neighborhood growing up... you baggin??

then they said... lets break for it! LOL

Interesting article. Brian, did you compile these stats on your own or were they published elsewhere?

I've always thought UCLA's woes lay in the quarterback play. After Cade McNown, I really thought UCLA would turn into a QB factory. Who wouldn't want to come play for Bob Toledo and put up a ton of numbers.

Is it fair to blame JP Losman? He made a big deal about coming to UCLA, even graduating early from HS to attend spring practice while still in high school. Then, without warning or explanation, he transferred...and ended up being good enough to go pro.

I've heard that because UCLA got Losman, Kyle Boller went to Cal as his second choice...and he was also good enough to go pro. Turns out that Cal turned into the QB factory along with SC--seems like every year they have 2 or 3 guys on the bench who could start elsewhere (just look at Matt Cassel!)

To continue, I really think Dorrel's ultimate downfall was putting all his faith in Ben Olsen, who clearly is too immobile, too slow, and too immobile to be a D1 QB. I wonder who else UCLA could have had if B. Olsen had just stayed at BYU?

Interesting that two notable UCLA QBs recruited in recent times were Drew Olson and Matt Moore. Moore transferred to OSU where he had one mediocre year, one good. Olson had a breakout senior year. Now a few years later Moore is the back-up at Carolina while Olson struggles to find a job in the NFL. Go figure...

uhh, john henry, you might want to double-check the numbers there. maurice jones-drew was a dorrell recruit. not that i'd argue dorrell was a great recruiter - but ucla's recruiting has been good-to-mediocre for well more than just the last decade, aside from toledo's pair of top classes in the late 90s (classes that contained players which may have contributed to ucla's change in attitude towards exemptions).

The records between Cal and UCLA maybe the same but Tedford has a Pac-10 championship.

Cal has the same conference record but that's only because Holmoe was the coach fot the first three years and he went 5-19. If you just look at the Tedford years, it's Cal 34-21 and UCLA 30-25. And Tedford's got 3 finishes in the Pac-10 top 3, including a 1st place. UCLA has zero 1sts or 2nds, and only one 3rd.