Practicing to make perfect
With an extra week to prepare for the EagleBank Bowl, Temple head coach Al Golden had his players watch more film than Ebert and Roeper.
Though the Owls' were unsure of their opponents just as long as the Bruins were, Temple was able to get a head start on UCLA.
"He's had us going through different phases of practice, getting prepared for these guys," Temple defensive tackle Andre Neblett said. "We know they have to travel over here, and we're already here, and that just gave us extra opportunities to watch more film on these guys, learn what their weaknesses are."
The Bruins, though, have essentially moved past the film work and into the fun stuff.
"We installed all of our stuff last week, and it's a long time to prepare for a bowl game," Paulsen said. "Right now it's about making sure we know the ins-and-outs of everything we're doing. Making sure everything is really sharp. Practice is practice, and we're going to be hitting. But the mindset going in to these practices is more about mental sharpness rather than physically building yourself up."
"Right now it's about making sure we know the ins-and-outs of everything we're doing."
Yeah...specially you Paulsen. How many times during the season you killed a good drive with bonehead personal foul penalty?
Yeah...bone head personal foul OR A DROPPED PASS!!! Holy heck, he has had more dropped balls this season than his previous years combined. Very frustrating. Nothing like impressing the NFL scouts with bad hands and poor composure/focus in your senior season. He can redeem himself with an outstanding effort in this bowl game. We'll see what happens.
Jon, I'm usually not very picky but this sentence bothered me: "Though the Owls' were unsure of their opponents just as long as the Bruins were, Temple was able to get a head start UCLA." Just plain sloppy. I wouldn't let that kind of stuff go into one of my posts on a random forum let alone something that was part of my job.
Maybe I am just anal retentive but I check my writings carefully before producing a final product. Whether it's going to my boss first, or my customer directly. This example isn't as bad as a story I read recently in a small California newspaper by a reporter whose first language obviously wasn't English (that was one of the worst published news reports I have ever seen) but it is very sloppy, and given your vocation I just expect better. Sorry if I am being a wet blanket here.
This is just one example but there have been others. Also, I would prefer if you use this blog for items that won't be lifted and loaded completely into your formal column. In my mind this forum should be used for quick hitting info on UCLA. Timely, succinct. The formal articles should be used for either different subjects or the same subjects but more robust detail.
The intent of my comments are not to ridicule or slam your effort but just point out areas that I think could be improved. At my work I get 360 evaluations (boss, staff, peers, customers) and they provide feedback anonymously to help me improve the job I do. The truly successful folks have thick skin during this process, value the information they receive, and try to avoid having blind spots where they know they are right and the persons doing the evaluation are wrong. Anyway, that's it from me. I do appreciate what you do in terms of bringing me content on UCLA athletics. I look forward to your continued contributions.