Weekly Answers, Pt. 1
Check after the jump for this round of Answers...
1) What is up with you always using "the after the jump" phrase. What does it mean and why do you keep using it? One more question: can you please stop using it? Thanks - The BarshJumping is when you start one post on one page and you have to click on it to see the rest. I think I'll keep using it, though. Thanks.
2) Lets say we win 7 games next football season, and then 9 the season after that. Would a 9-4 record in 2011 (the year in which most of us fans believe is our best chance to be really good) be enough to keep RN off the hot seat? - AnonymousHow could nine wins not be good enough? They've won nine games ONCE in 13 years!
3) Jon, at this times last season, it was kinda hard to watch the Bruin's offense (especially when we had a fullback running the ball). What are your expectations for next year's offense? Will it be more explosive? Are we going to take more chances? - BruintranSo much of UCLA's conservatism last season had to deal with offensive line issues. For as much improvement as the unit made last season, there is still a ways to go. At times, Chow simply didn't feel like he had the options. This year, he has more.
4) Hey Jon, what did you think of the Friday Night Lights finale? - lasportsfan(noSC!!)*A quick caveat - yes, I care way too much about FNL. Way, way too much. Sorry, it's the best show on TV*
What is so absolutely amazing about that show, first and foremost, is that the directors and writers seem to really grasp how connected the audience is with certain characters. When the show debuted, they made it quite clear that the cast would be revolving, that we weren't going to follow many of the characters' lives after they graduate high school. So naturally, while I had real affection for Smash (and particularly Smash's mom) and for Jason Street and for Lyla Garrity, etc., I have grown to "know" Landry and Riggins and Saracen so much more.
That's why, even though the Riggins plotline wasn't happy and in some ways is a culmination of all his prior actions and shouldn't even be a surprise, I still needed a resolution. Saracen's exit was so abrupt earlier this year that you just expected to see him down the road, but once again, with everything that went on with Julie, we got a resolution.
The interesting one is Landry. It seems we are not going to follow him into the next stage as we did the others, who were all a year older in the show and were given a season in their new surroundings. We don't even know what school Landry's going to. But his epic moment was just enough of a thank you to him to make his character arc feel complete.
And that's really what TV shows should be about. Beginnings, ends and how they got to that point. The best shows are always the ones in which you meet a character, love a character, and grow to expect certain futures for a character.
Friday Night Lights does that, and this finale was no different. A in my book.
5) Why do you think RN is so eager to claim to be LA's top dog now that Pete Carroll has left town? We have only won the Eagle Bank Bowl and we had to cheer hard Army lost its season finale. Are our recruits that good that we can expect anything new than the status quo of 7-8 losses a year? - AnonymousIf anything, Neuheisel knows how to seize the moment. He may be preaching hope, but at this point, with an 11-14 record, that's what he has. The time is now for UCLA. Forget sanctions and all that junk: PC's departure gives the Bruins the slightest window. Combined with a "down" season last year, there is not a much better scenario for UCLA to try to wrestle control away. The three Neuheisel recruiting classes have been downright shocking, both in terms of talent and depth. Neuheisel may be an excellent recruiter in the football sense - knows how to work the family room, knows the value of persistence, understands the buttons to push - but he is doing more now. He's selling UCLA. The place, the people, the location, etc. As an alumnus, he understands the value of the school and he takes a personal stake in every win and loss. So yes, I expect a better season next year (improved record or otherwise) and a real jump in 2011.
"How could nine wins not be good enough? They've won nine games ONCE in 13 years!"
It's not about whether nine wins is good enough, standing alone, it's about whether it should be considered the "big year" that offsets the other years. The other coaches during that 13 year period were fired for not doing better, and they didn't get to play as many games every year.
Obviously, the nine win season wouldn't put him on the hot seat. But he shouldn't be able to rely on that nine win season to justify poor seasons following that. In other words, following up a nine win season with 6 or 7 wins (or less) in 2012 should put him on the hot seat. Just like '06 and '07 cratered KD despite 10-2 in 05.
Sorry Anon, that kind of rational analysis will get you nowhere on this blog...
Friday Night Lights is the best damn show on Television.
I appreciate what sounds like optimism for Bruin football in your last answer. Optimism aside, perhaps we should be focusing our Q&A on basketball so next time you interview Howland you may have some questions that don't upset him.
Clear Eyes, Full Hearts TROJANS CAN'T LOSE!!!
KD "cratered" not because of his last season's results only, but because the AD realized that three straight recruiting classes 4(2005), 6 (2006), and 6 (2007) 5/4-Star athletes of did not bode well.
While in 2005 Karl Dorrell went 10-2, the team did not play 10-2 Oregon and only beat 4 teams with a winning record, while losing one game to a 3 and 8 AZ and the other 66-19 to USC
[In comparison, the 12-1 USC beat 6 teams with winning records]
The following year could only be salvaged with another 10 win season, but he managed a 7-5 record meaning a rudderless ship headed for the rocks.
KD was handed 22 4/5s and went: 6-7, 6-6 then 10-2
Enter CRN having to pick-up the pieces.
Brother Anonymous, I understand all those nuances about KD. But the points. 9-4 cannot be the new standard for the glory year surrounded by 6 win seasons.
P.S. I really don't think the A.D. was looking at recruiting rankings and stars when it made it's decision on KD. Otherwise, he would have been encouraged by the commits for the 08 class already in hand.
This is Neuheisel's moment. Everything is going wrong at USC this year. If he can't bring a decisive win in a HOME game vs. the Trojans then he might as well give up.
The Trojans were embarrassed by their own sad performance.
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_14403308
While a 9 win season shouldn't be considered the pinnacle, us fans should have the patience to see this all through. Unreal expectations could only stunt the growth and support this regime needs. Go Neuhiesel! Go Bruins!
A nine win season is a disappointment at a real football school.
IF 9 WINS EVERY 4 YEARS IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR NEU. THEN HOW CAN THEY EVER JUSTIFY FIRING BOB TOLDEDO AFTER A 20 GAME WIN STREAK, PAC 10 CHAMPIONSHIPS, AND GETTING A HAIR AWAY FROM THE NC GAME?? NEUHEISEL NEEDS IT TO GET ELECTRIC IN A YEAR OR TWO AT MOST!! UCLA HAS TO BEAT USC AND COMPETE FOR THE PAC 10 CHAMPIONSHIP OR THE SEAT WILL NOT COOL. THAT'S WHY HE GETS PAID MORE THAN THE PARKING GUY!
FNL is the best show on television now by far, and how many TV shows do you know that can completely shift the setting of the show and replace almost half the cast with new major characters, and not miss a beat...
Can't wait for season 5.
74ucla is right, maybe a little angry but right.
Wow, you know SUC losers are scared and worried when so many seem to be infesting the UCLA blog pretending to be Bruins. Seriously, how low class and trashy are you losers? You toejams act like your mother made you while working the streets, why don't you try to act with a little more dignity and integrity...oh that's right you went to SUC, the trash heap of academia.
I'm a toejam loser that went to SUC and now I work at taco bell.
I'm not really a Bruin, I'm a SUC loser. I do work in Brentwood as a janitor though, that's the only job I could get with my crappy degree from SUC.
In one of the earlier basketball threads one of the bruin fans was complaining about ticket prices, apparently not every one at Cal Jr. is doing well.
UCLA appears to be running a clean football program as I'm pretty sure it did when Karl Dorrell was the coach. Considering USC is meeting with the NCAA infractions committe this weekend, it looks possible that USC hasn't been running a clean football program. When you have much higher entrance requirements for athletes and you are running a clean program, it makes it hard to compete with schools like USC in football. So USC fans, I wouldn't be sitting around gloating if I were in your shoes. I'd be embarrassed about my school and admit that while it's fun to win, wins that are devoid of morality and ethics are not what sport is about and are meaningless. I hate to ruin your self-esteem but I felt I needed to snap you out of your denial.
Bart,
SAT scores are private information so please cite your source. It would be illegal for UCLA or the SAT people to give that information out to the public. Until you cite your source, I have extreme doubts about the claim he scored only 1190. Either show me a copy of his SAT report or an interview with him and the words "I scored 1190 on my SAT" coming out of his mouth. Have you seen his medical records, too? His bank account? By the way, judging from his press conference on signing day, there is no freaking way he scored only 1190. And I fail to see what your score has to do with anything. The facts are UCLA's entrance requirements for athletes are higher than USC's and UCLA is running a clean program. I coach at a high school, we have a guy as good as anybody UCLA signed and he score 1190, UCLA wouldn't even talk to us after they saw his score. They said have him take it again and suggested he enroll at a certain junior college where they'd keep an eye on him.
That's outdated info. He scored much higher on the re-take. He never would have been cleared by UCLA admissions with a score of 1190.
Today's irony lesson is brought to you by....
"Seriously, how low class and trashy are you losers? You toejams act like your mother made you while working the streets, why don't you try to act with a little more dignity and integrity..."
Stay classy.