Check out the first batch of weekly answers…
1) Jon, what was the deal with kevin prince not running out of the pistol like the previous two weeks. I saw plenty of times where it was open for him to take it around the corner, and he would just hand the ball off. That in my opinion lost the game for the bruins. They needed to set a tempo and they didnt. Too predictable. – bruinfan123
Utah’s perimeter defenders stayed very disciplined and Prince said that forced most of the game inside. But beyond that, I also think Prince looked tentative and given the weather, perhaps that’s understandable. But he did not have good footing and the whole thing kind of just collapsed.
2) Jon–Do you have any thoughts on why some coaches can come into a new situation and effect a big turnaround in a short time (eg. Harbaugh at Stanford) and others can’t (eg. Neuheisel at UCLA)? – Keith
It’s a series of factors that lead to success or failure, and I’ve seen so many coaching changes in such a relatively short time that I can say the one big difference is buy-in. How quickly can a guy get his players – and staff, definitely staff – to give more than 100 percent of themselves to his ideals.
3) Hey Jon, why is this defensive coordinator so pathetic!!!!!!!! Even my 11 year old kid is wondering why they are always out of position time after time after time!!! He was yelling at the screen on a third and one and Randoll Carroll is playing 12 yards off the ball at cornerback and the other teams are always playing bump and run and we NEVER do. Would firing Tressy now help, he is clearly out of his league? – Ley
How do you really feel?
4) You know Jon. As I write this, its very tuff for me to say. I’ve been a die hard Bruin fan since I was a kid. I never miss UCLA games whether it be on t.v. at the Rose Bowl or on the radio. Its been getting so bad as of late I almost don’t wanna watch anymore, or when we start to get blown out again I know we can’t come back so I just turn it off! We are consistently inconsistent!!! We are never good on offense and defense in the same year. I hope we can win out the rest of the year. What are your thoughts after this last game? I also wonder how much fun it would have been for you to cover the beat for Ucla in 1998 during the “streak” That would have been fun eh? Thanks for all the hard work! – ucla34
I often wonder what the work would be like if UCLA had one of those incredibly successful seasons, and what the tenor of the fan base would be. As it is, I don’t think can get much worse, with the football team at .500 and the basketball team 0-2. Even going back to SDSU, I never covered anything better than a good team, so I can’t even really imagine it.
5) We live halfway between Denver & Salt Lake City. My son and I always have Bruin blue & gold on, and it was a bit surprising to sense so little respect for UCLA football around here this past week. I mean, you woulda thought Ute fans were salivating over a double-directional coming to town for the ass-wuppin we did, indeed, end up getting … did you sense the same attitude around the SLC media types, etc? – ucla-of-the-rockies
Yeah, it seemed like Utah writers and fans were particularly high on their chances last week.