Check out the latest batch of weekly answers…

1) From your view as the beat report, are UCLA football fans suffering from premature optimism or is there a real sense that the Mora hire is a real, though unproven, turning point? – Anonymous
I think the recruiting has quite frankly better than anyone imagined, so I understand the optimism. But I would need to see how they look in practice under Mora before I can call it a turning point. My issues with the way the previous regime ran practices was well-documented. I’m interested to see how things change.

2) Do you think some recruits treat the recruiting process as a game to attract attention from different schools by committing and then backing out of their commitment? Do you believe any of UCLA’s recruits will renege on their commitment before signing day? Thanks for your excellent work. – anonymous
Absolutely recruits treat the process as a game, and I think it’s pretty understandable. Would you want people to stop wining and dining you? There are always some surprises on signing day, and while I think UCLA has done a remarkable guys locking guys up and firming commitments, I wouldn’t be shocked if there were some shenanigans come next week.

3) How are Will Oliver and Conor McDermott and some of our other projects doing? – Vvvbj
Can’t really say too much because I didn’t get to see McDermott and Oliver is a work in progress. He’s at least a few years away.

4) Are switching to a 3-4 defense? Can you run a story on the change? – CodeMonkeyBruin
They’re planning to run a hybrid defense that they like to say “doesn’t have a name.” And yes, I’ll be doing a story on that at some point.

5) Is Anthony Barr moving to OLB? Especially with the change in offensive and defensive philosophy any other position moves you have heard about? – codemonkeybruin
Barr will at least get a good, hard look at linebacker in the spring, but we’ll see how it works out. As of now, haven’t heard too much about guys flipping sides of the ball.