The Dorrell era featured a complicated offense which players had trouble executing, lots of punting, lots of field goals and very little risk-taking. Sound familiar?
Dorrell was bowl eligible every year. This is nothing like Dorrell, way too generous. This is a completely talentless team, with awful coaching and schemes. Shocked we won 1 game and won’t win another. Plug needs to be pulled asap
TBF Dorrell was I believe was the last coach to win 10. Also he came within one game of the Rose Bowl I believe 3 times. He never should've been fired imo.
We finished #10 in 2014 - though that was a lost opportunity after getting blown out by a mediocre Stanfurd team at the Rose Bowl while ranked #8 when a win would have put us in the Pac12 title game against #2 Oregon who ended up going to the national title game... only 10 years ago - which seems like a million miles away now.
Oh, I don't think there's any question that Dorrell needed to be fired. Dorrell won 10 games once and it was because Drew Olsen, Marcedes Lewis, and MJD went crazy during 4th quarter desperation times and pulled a bunch of wins out of the jaws of defeat. The rest of his seasons were underachieving and he was a very passive recruiter. His second head coaching stint at Colorado showed exactly those same things.
Our roster and Bienieny are not good fits. Garbers doesn't have the skill set to reliably execute the plays that Bieniemy stubbornly continues to call, and even less so when he's constantly under pressure while waiting for receivers who struggle to create separation. The OLine regressed a lot in this game, too, which is impressive considering how close to rock bottom they already were in the first place. So, we have no reliable run game to keep the defense honest, we have awful pass protection, and we have an OC who keeps asking a limited QB to make deep drops on long developing routes and hit covered receivers 20 yards downfield. It's absolutely brutal to watch.
The poor roster falls precisely on FUChipKelly. The poor offensive schemes and play calls fall on the current coaching regime. Sadly, then, the misery of our football program falls on all of us.
This is all on the Martin Jarmond. When he came on board he should have recognized that Chip was cratering the program and started to compile of list of replacement coaches. Instead, he extended Chip's contract a couple of times and was unprepared when Chip resigned at the worst time. In his panic, Jarmond promotes a position coach to head coach and calls it a day, instantly putting Foster in a position to fail. What objective qualifications were used to justify this decision? What credibility do you think Foster has with his coordinators when he's never been a coordinator, much less a head coach? Chip left the program in shambles and Jarmond picks a total rookie to steer the ship?
Given the performance of the team so far, Foster's in-game decision-making and post-game responses, what do you think Jarmond is doing? Is he compiling and maintaining a list of replacement coaches in case the probable implosion occurs? Is he developing a presentation on his strategy to revitalize the football program as well as UCLA athletics overall to get the support of the incoming Chancellor? Nah, he's probably targeting a move to his next gig, which should be pretty soon, since he averages about 5 years per job.
I know if Dr. Julio Frenk from my time and connections with the University of Miami and I can tell you that he is t a supporter of the Athletic Department. The only reason he agreed to fire Mario Diaz and bring in Mario Cristobal, who seems to have brought the U back from the dead is the alumni and the national media was all over the school. He is the type who doesn’t understand the value athletics brings to a school. So I don’t see Dr. Frenk caring if UCLA wins in any sport. Martin Jarmond is an arrogant SOB. I met him after the LSU game at the rose bowl in 2021 and was a total ass.
It's hard to keep investing in a program that isn't supported by leadership. Gonna have to think long and hard about re-upping for a 20th year of season tickets...
I have heard from a lot of loyal fans like you, many of whom have canceled their tickets after decades of holding them. How long until this very valuable information is escalated? In any other industry cancellation, returns, whatever you want to call it is usually scrutinized, especially the reason why.
Frenk is a fossil who turned his back on Miami and left them in a lurch, with no rational explanation as to why he took the UCLA job. He is an establishment healthcare hack who says all the tired and memorized lines with no genuine love for UCLA.
You said it and you said it so well. Your words found their target the way precision guided bombs did. Hey Jarmond, are you paying attention to what the UCLA fan base is saying ? You may have to go next.
I knew Eric Bieniemy was not a good offensive coordinator. Not in the NFL and most certainly not college. He didn't call plays with Kansas City. And when he got the opportunity in Washington, it was one of the worst offenses. His play designs are very standard NFL, and it's pretty obvious what possibilities there are from each formation he has. When a casual observer can say, "this is a run formation. It's going to be a run" and it happens, a real defensive coordinator will eat him alive. I most certainly don't agree with the opinion that the offense is overly complicated.
Kelly was an awful head coach which resulted in poor recruiting. But he was a good offensive coordinator and he got a heck of a lot more out of these guys. I still don't understand why we still go with Sturdivant. Kelly never really got anything out of him and Bieniemy certainly won't. He must be a stud in practice to get this much play. I still don't understand why Loya isn't really playing. He always finds a way to get open, make the catch, and get the first down.
I don't blame Foster for it because he didn't have many options with being hired so late and so close to the season. Foster most certainly can't call plays so he needed an OC that could and unfortunately, Bieniemy is not the guy. And the defense is now atrocious. I know they lost a beast in Latu and some other players but I thought they got roughly equivalent players too (with the exception of Latu of course).
(1) Foster is a great Bruin. But his head coaching credentials are clearly a stretch. He's in a tough position and doing his best. I agree that he probably needs to get replaced with a world-class coach on the market in 2025 or 2026... if they'd want to come to Westwood. We'll see how Foster's first real recruiting class goes to see the writing on the wall. High school kids want to have the confidence in a winner and, while they may like Foster as a human, they probably all secretly know he's over his head.
(2) Bieniemy is certainly very average. I agree with everyone's comments. The plays don't seem super sophisticated or complex to me. And defenses don't seem to think so either.
(3) I think Foster, Bieniemy, and the entire season look a lot better with much better O-Line and D-Line play. They aren't creating anything on either side of trenches. Literally, nothing. The difference between Garbers having 2.5 seconds vs. 4.0 seconds would be enormous. A hole that's 1 ft wide vs. 2.5 ft wide would give Harden the ability to make a move at the second level. The difference between giving an opposing offense a loss of down and loss of 7 yards in the middle of a drive (i.e. a sack) would stall many more drives and change game momentum considerably. We have a lot of "skilled" players on both sides of the ball that can do good things; they just need the opportunity. I really hope we can recruit big boy lineman from the Midwest. That honestly has been my biggest desire from the move to the Big 10.
(4) Going for it on 4th and 10 in your territory is rarely a great idea. I know we were late in the game with little to lose, but essentially you'd give Oregon a final 41 on the scoreboard, which is especially demoralizing for a team on the ropes and with recruiting in jeopardy. I know that we want to win... but the chances were incredibly low. These are incremental decisions for the program to help stop the pain and bleeding, however sad that sounds.
(5) In general, I think these points about conservative football are a bit off-the-mark. I remember going to games in 80's with my dad where he'd get annoyed with Donahue punting on 4th and 5 from midfield. But Donahue won. It's a different brand of football and not always as exciting, but can be the right way to operate. Yes, there's a more modern "book" of what to do in each situation, but you also have to overlay those analytics with knowledge of your team and the opponent. We recently had a guy who went for it all the time and that wasn't always responsible. There's should be a balance and I think Foster is doing fine here.
Our Bruins were 1-8 and 0-4 in the Pacific Coast Conference. The head coach was a guy named Edwin Horrell who played football at UC Berkeley, which explains at least most of his suckiness. He was however our first coach to lead us to a victory over *$c (the prev year in 1942), so he'll always have that.
“Just because you punt, that’s not saying that you’re giving up because we haven’t given up in any of the games that we’ve played,” Foster said. “One thing I can say is that these guys are playing hard no matter what, so it’s not a giving up situation. If my team is still playing well and they’re playing hard, then yeah, but if offensively we’re not moving the ball well enough, then I’m not going to put them in a situation just to try to get the first down.”
- DeShaun Foster, Oct. 1, 2024, "Will Ethan Garbers play for UCLA vs. Penn State? ‘He’s going to try’", LA Times
Dorrell was bowl eligible every year. This is nothing like Dorrell, way too generous. This is a completely talentless team, with awful coaching and schemes. Shocked we won 1 game and won’t win another. Plug needs to be pulled asap
TBF Dorrell was I believe was the last coach to win 10. Also he came within one game of the Rose Bowl I believe 3 times. He never should've been fired imo.
No, he wasn't. Dorrell won ten games once. He got lucky one year. If you take that year out, he was 25-25.
Jim Mora won ten games in both 2013 and 2014.
We finished #10 in 2014 - though that was a lost opportunity after getting blown out by a mediocre Stanfurd team at the Rose Bowl while ranked #8 when a win would have put us in the Pac12 title game against #2 Oregon who ended up going to the national title game... only 10 years ago - which seems like a million miles away now.
Oh, I don't think there's any question that Dorrell needed to be fired. Dorrell won 10 games once and it was because Drew Olsen, Marcedes Lewis, and MJD went crazy during 4th quarter desperation times and pulled a bunch of wins out of the jaws of defeat. The rest of his seasons were underachieving and he was a very passive recruiter. His second head coaching stint at Colorado showed exactly those same things.
A one-legged quarterback... Griffin must be worse now than what he showed with a few past opportunities, and I guess Martin must be pretty bad.
Odds are strong that we won't go bowling this season.
I'm liking your comment for your strong use of understatement.
Our roster and Bienieny are not good fits. Garbers doesn't have the skill set to reliably execute the plays that Bieniemy stubbornly continues to call, and even less so when he's constantly under pressure while waiting for receivers who struggle to create separation. The OLine regressed a lot in this game, too, which is impressive considering how close to rock bottom they already were in the first place. So, we have no reliable run game to keep the defense honest, we have awful pass protection, and we have an OC who keeps asking a limited QB to make deep drops on long developing routes and hit covered receivers 20 yards downfield. It's absolutely brutal to watch.
The poor roster falls precisely on FUChipKelly. The poor offensive schemes and play calls fall on the current coaching regime. Sadly, then, the misery of our football program falls on all of us.
This is all on the Martin Jarmond. When he came on board he should have recognized that Chip was cratering the program and started to compile of list of replacement coaches. Instead, he extended Chip's contract a couple of times and was unprepared when Chip resigned at the worst time. In his panic, Jarmond promotes a position coach to head coach and calls it a day, instantly putting Foster in a position to fail. What objective qualifications were used to justify this decision? What credibility do you think Foster has with his coordinators when he's never been a coordinator, much less a head coach? Chip left the program in shambles and Jarmond picks a total rookie to steer the ship?
Given the performance of the team so far, Foster's in-game decision-making and post-game responses, what do you think Jarmond is doing? Is he compiling and maintaining a list of replacement coaches in case the probable implosion occurs? Is he developing a presentation on his strategy to revitalize the football program as well as UCLA athletics overall to get the support of the incoming Chancellor? Nah, he's probably targeting a move to his next gig, which should be pretty soon, since he averages about 5 years per job.
I know if Dr. Julio Frenk from my time and connections with the University of Miami and I can tell you that he is t a supporter of the Athletic Department. The only reason he agreed to fire Mario Diaz and bring in Mario Cristobal, who seems to have brought the U back from the dead is the alumni and the national media was all over the school. He is the type who doesn’t understand the value athletics brings to a school. So I don’t see Dr. Frenk caring if UCLA wins in any sport. Martin Jarmond is an arrogant SOB. I met him after the LSU game at the rose bowl in 2021 and was a total ass.
It's hard to keep investing in a program that isn't supported by leadership. Gonna have to think long and hard about re-upping for a 20th year of season tickets...
I have heard from a lot of loyal fans like you, many of whom have canceled their tickets after decades of holding them. How long until this very valuable information is escalated? In any other industry cancellation, returns, whatever you want to call it is usually scrutinized, especially the reason why.
I am also pondering about it.
Frenk is a fossil who turned his back on Miami and left them in a lurch, with no rational explanation as to why he took the UCLA job. He is an establishment healthcare hack who says all the tired and memorized lines with no genuine love for UCLA.
You said it and you said it so well. Your words found their target the way precision guided bombs did. Hey Jarmond, are you paying attention to what the UCLA fan base is saying ? You may have to go next.
I knew Eric Bieniemy was not a good offensive coordinator. Not in the NFL and most certainly not college. He didn't call plays with Kansas City. And when he got the opportunity in Washington, it was one of the worst offenses. His play designs are very standard NFL, and it's pretty obvious what possibilities there are from each formation he has. When a casual observer can say, "this is a run formation. It's going to be a run" and it happens, a real defensive coordinator will eat him alive. I most certainly don't agree with the opinion that the offense is overly complicated.
Kelly was an awful head coach which resulted in poor recruiting. But he was a good offensive coordinator and he got a heck of a lot more out of these guys. I still don't understand why we still go with Sturdivant. Kelly never really got anything out of him and Bieniemy certainly won't. He must be a stud in practice to get this much play. I still don't understand why Loya isn't really playing. He always finds a way to get open, make the catch, and get the first down.
I don't blame Foster for it because he didn't have many options with being hired so late and so close to the season. Foster most certainly can't call plays so he needed an OC that could and unfortunately, Bieniemy is not the guy. And the defense is now atrocious. I know they lost a beast in Latu and some other players but I thought they got roughly equivalent players too (with the exception of Latu of course).
(1) Foster is a great Bruin. But his head coaching credentials are clearly a stretch. He's in a tough position and doing his best. I agree that he probably needs to get replaced with a world-class coach on the market in 2025 or 2026... if they'd want to come to Westwood. We'll see how Foster's first real recruiting class goes to see the writing on the wall. High school kids want to have the confidence in a winner and, while they may like Foster as a human, they probably all secretly know he's over his head.
(2) Bieniemy is certainly very average. I agree with everyone's comments. The plays don't seem super sophisticated or complex to me. And defenses don't seem to think so either.
(3) I think Foster, Bieniemy, and the entire season look a lot better with much better O-Line and D-Line play. They aren't creating anything on either side of trenches. Literally, nothing. The difference between Garbers having 2.5 seconds vs. 4.0 seconds would be enormous. A hole that's 1 ft wide vs. 2.5 ft wide would give Harden the ability to make a move at the second level. The difference between giving an opposing offense a loss of down and loss of 7 yards in the middle of a drive (i.e. a sack) would stall many more drives and change game momentum considerably. We have a lot of "skilled" players on both sides of the ball that can do good things; they just need the opportunity. I really hope we can recruit big boy lineman from the Midwest. That honestly has been my biggest desire from the move to the Big 10.
(4) Going for it on 4th and 10 in your territory is rarely a great idea. I know we were late in the game with little to lose, but essentially you'd give Oregon a final 41 on the scoreboard, which is especially demoralizing for a team on the ropes and with recruiting in jeopardy. I know that we want to win... but the chances were incredibly low. These are incremental decisions for the program to help stop the pain and bleeding, however sad that sounds.
(5) In general, I think these points about conservative football are a bit off-the-mark. I remember going to games in 80's with my dad where he'd get annoyed with Donahue punting on 4th and 5 from midfield. But Donahue won. It's a different brand of football and not always as exciting, but can be the right way to operate. Yes, there's a more modern "book" of what to do in each situation, but you also have to overlay those analytics with knowledge of your team and the opponent. We recently had a guy who went for it all the time and that wasn't always responsible. There's should be a balance and I think Foster is doing fine here.
GO BRUINS!
It was apparent after the first game the bruins were going to be in trouble. A one win season. When was the last time it happened at Ucla?
per the internets (Thanks, Dr Kleinrock), 1943.
Our Bruins were 1-8 and 0-4 in the Pacific Coast Conference. The head coach was a guy named Edwin Horrell who played football at UC Berkeley, which explains at least most of his suckiness. He was however our first coach to lead us to a victory over *$c (the prev year in 1942), so he'll always have that.
I know this doesn’t effect us in basketball anymore but Gonzaga to the pac-12 while we were there would’ve been awesome
“Just because you punt, that’s not saying that you’re giving up because we haven’t given up in any of the games that we’ve played,” Foster said. “One thing I can say is that these guys are playing hard no matter what, so it’s not a giving up situation. If my team is still playing well and they’re playing hard, then yeah, but if offensively we’re not moving the ball well enough, then I’m not going to put them in a situation just to try to get the first down.”
- DeShaun Foster, Oct. 1, 2024, "Will Ethan Garbers play for UCLA vs. Penn State? ‘He’s going to try’", LA Times