Weekly Answers, Pt. 1
1) Is there any question that Brian Price should win the Pac 10 defensive player of the year award? He just finished the best season I've ever seen a DT have. Ever. Have you seen anyone who would even compete with him for the award? - Half-life
Price was the most dominating defensive presence I saw this year, with the possible exception of Tennessee safety Eric Berry. It is notoriously difficult for a defensive tackle to win just about any award, but I have to believe it's there for Price for the taking. Price led the league in TFLs by eight and finished tied for fourth in sacks. The only other defensive player to have monster stats this year was...Rahim Moore, who led the conference in INTs and passes defended.
2) The Bruins finish this year where you and several other of us predicted: 6-6, which is two wins better than last year, and shows minimal improvement. With arguably a tougher schedule next year, how do you see us faring? Obviously, the Longhorns will be without McCoy, but they're sure to be tougher than KState. Condensed version: How do you see the 2010 UCLA Football Bruins faring? - jonny
No worse than 7-5, if healthy. Wins over Houston, KState, Stanford, Washington, Wazzu, ASU, Arizona and OSU a toss-up, losses to Cal, Texas, USC, Oregon State.
3) Are Howland and J. Morgan getting along? I wouldn't blame Morgan for transferring. After all, losing minutes to the likes of James Keefe must be very frustrating. - ucla76
To be honest, I can't really get a gauge on the situation. Morgan has been firmly entrenched in Howland's doghouse for not showing effort on every play and not being a defensive presence. With Gordon gone, his minutes should go up, but how much remains to be seen.
4) Regarding the loss to Long Beach St., does Ben Howland think that that was a hold over/disappointment from the Butler loss? - Spencer
No, I think the team just shot badly and played bad defense. Butler played a lot of man-to-man, which the Bruins play better against.
5) Also, what does Howland think about the defensive problems? - Spencer
Howland is frustrated like crazy and is installing some zone defense. He's clearly gone off the deep end.
6) (En lieu of Howland's opinion, what do you think?) - Spencer
I think the team is missing its best player in Tyler Honeycutt, and while he won't turn the team around overnight, it will improve with him in there. Can't get much worse.
7) Saw on BRO where Cierre Wood and Shaq Evans could be thinking about transfering to UCLA. What have you heard, if anything? In general, do you think UCLA will get any reliable transfers after the season is over? Or, any Notre Dame recruits thinking twice and now considering UCLA given the firing of Charlie W. - rejn
Haven't heard anything about either, but I think people are being a little too impatient about the Weis thing. Wait to see who they get in as a replacement before jumping to conclusions.
8) I believe there are still three 5 star rated (Scout) PGs left undecided...any chance we will be or are talking with any of them or do we feel McCallum will commit? - Mike H class of 90
UCLA believes it has a really good shot with McCallum, and is willing to wait it out.
9) Any chance the coaching staff reconsiders CU transfer Darrell Scott? - bruin95grad
No, they've made it pretty clear they're not interested.
10) Any take on the recruiting of S Tony Jefferson? I've lost track, but has he really changed his commit from Stanford to UCLA and is he now favoring others, including U$C? Was he really disrespected by UCLA players as he said? Does UCLA still want him? - tim warren
I heard that TJeff was gone long ago, and said as much in the chats. He was unhappy after the 5-game losing streak and now he's "disrespected?" UCLA seems to be in pretty good hands at safety if you ask me.
i disagree Jon, i think that we'll beat 'SC considering they'll be much worse than this year. I see us moving into maybe the top 4 in the pac10, i expect big things next year
Thanks, Jon. Superior commentary, as always.
The reason Jefferson was disrespected was because he was wearing $uc gear at the game. I hope he ends up at $uc so we can kick his butt
amm did not say anything of that sort.. being optomistic never hurt anyone, you should try it sometime.
I think 7-5 sounds about right, but I have losses to OU (Pac-10 champ), OSU (#2), USC (third), tossup with CAL and wins over everyone else in conference (loss to TX and wins over the rest). 7-5 or 8-4
Tony Jefferson was on a visiting trip, when you're visiting a school you wear their gear. Stupid move by whoever was talking trash.
"UCLA seems to be in pretty good hands at safety if you ask me"
Because there's never a risk of starters getting injured. And having a 4-star recruit as a backup makes the team worse.
why do the university of south central fans come in here to post? i have never even thought about going onto their site..
don't you guys have trash to pick up on the side of the frwy? shouldn't you be preparing to meet with your parole officers?
Jon,
Where's the rest of the answers? You're giving us some good stuff, but it seems like your Q&A is lagging, ALOT. Are you even answering all the questions???
Yeah Jon, frankly, the questions were the highlight of the blog when Dohn was around, and even since you took over. However, you have been pretty slow to answer and follow through on your promise to do so. Feels like you asked for questions on Tuesday or so and just now get around to putting them out. I would be more interested in getting the answers to the questions than in getting regurgitated quotes and snippets of lame interviews with former players.
Another thing, as a committed visitor to this site -- and some one who believes that while you need some time to grow into to the job you will be very good at it - I suggest you focus more on finding a rhythm that is doable for you and something we can count on -- like don't make promises you cant keep and do what you say you are going to do. I know you have the best of intentions, but perhaps you should be a little less ambitious and more focused on doing a few things really good, rather than a lot of things ok.
When you say Brian Price is having the best season you've ever seen a DT have, do you mean in the Pac10 only?
There's a DT at Nebraska this year that will get drafted before Price and will probably even get a few Heisman votes. So while Price is a stud, maybe you should pay attention to CFB nationally.
Jon,
I agree with most of the things Ringo said. I am also committed to the site and don't agree with the people who come on here and say we should have low expectations, because the site is free. IMO, that's a loser mentality. No, the site is NOT free. My visits and clicks create ad revenue and I'm a Daily News subscriber.
That being said, I do like some of the progressive things you are doing, such as the podcasts and inside player Q's. However, many times you really lose us with some outlandish and uninteresting posts and series, such as the I Kia theme. I lose my mind with that series. Nobody cares what some guy, whose career has been a major disappointment, who's sitting on the bench injured thinks. Some of the Throwback stuff is interesting, some lame. You've also missed some major scoops.
Bottom line, the only thing people care about on this site are Recruiting and inside scoops. Just look at what most of the Q and A's one here are about. I would like to see a deeper commitment to the Q and A's.
Overall, I think I would much rather have you than Dohn. He started getting really grumpy towards the end and was very condescending to people. He's more like BH and you're more like CRN. I just hope you can focus more on these areas of interest.
Suh from Nebraska, was the most dominating defensive player this year...PERIOD!! Alabama has a player namer Rolando McClain that was dominant as well. Mr Gold...start watching football because you are losing all credentials saying Price was the most dominant. Price is great and will be a great pro but he didnt dominate like other players this year!!!!