Of course, the immediate response to the athletic director search is the article we did NOT publish yesterday titled Dan Guerrero Postpones Retirement Due to COVID-19. It had the potential to be a fun April Fool's Day post, but it also wasn't going to be very funny for multiple reasons.
Great recap, DD. I presume that the academic side of U.C.L.A. isn't making any allowances for athletes who were granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA by increasing the allowable number of units a student can accumulate? That wouldn't seem like a very U.C.L.A. thing to do, but I'd be curious how other Universities (or *$c) are handling that issue. Anyone know?
Also, re football: "Essentially, UCLA wins by everyone else being dragged down to their level."
Does that mean that Jerry Azzinaro is going to be DC for all D-1 teams? It seems that's the only way to even the field.
As long as Coach AZZ is here we are somewhat shot in the foot. My hope (but I doubt this is the case) is that Coach Norwood is calling the shots defensively. If Azz is only DC in name, then hallelujah amen and good night!
I don't necessarily agree that it's a benefit for the football team from a recruiting standpoint. Even if we assume that Kelly is a good talent evaluator, that's still only half of the battle. He's clearly not been the most aggressive recruiter and in order to get kids to pay attention when the dead period has been extended to, I believe, all the way through May (or just May 1, I skimmed the release from the NCAA) you have to really be on top of the kids.
Also, one of the biggest selling points for UCLA right now is UCLA itself. If Kelly can't get recruits on campus for tours and to meet with the people from S&C or academics or other areas UCLA has an advantage, I feel like a lot of recruits are going to rely on on-field success as an even larger part of their decision-making process. Obviously UCLA will get *some* recruits, but I can't see Kelly really parlaying this into better recruiting success.
I think that this is only going to make the rich teams richer, with recruiting and everything else as well.
That whole section was incredibly tongue-in-cheek, to be fair. It was all "you know how the staff is lazy and bad at their jobs? Now it's not as big of a deal because no one gets to do their jobs!"
Of course, the immediate response to the athletic director search is the article we did NOT publish yesterday titled Dan Guerrero Postpones Retirement Due to COVID-19. It had the potential to be a fun April Fool's Day post, but it also wasn't going to be very funny for multiple reasons.
That was probably wise. I have trouble telling if The Onion headlines are satire right now.
Great recap, DD. I presume that the academic side of U.C.L.A. isn't making any allowances for athletes who were granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA by increasing the allowable number of units a student can accumulate? That wouldn't seem like a very U.C.L.A. thing to do, but I'd be curious how other Universities (or *$c) are handling that issue. Anyone know?
Also, re football: "Essentially, UCLA wins by everyone else being dragged down to their level."
Does that mean that Jerry Azzinaro is going to be DC for all D-1 teams? It seems that's the only way to even the field.
As long as Coach AZZ is here we are somewhat shot in the foot. My hope (but I doubt this is the case) is that Coach Norwood is calling the shots defensively. If Azz is only DC in name, then hallelujah amen and good night!
For BB recruiting, it sounds like JT Thor is looking to see if Chris Smith declares or not to make his decision: https://www.zagsblog.com/2020/03/18/j-t-thor-cuts-list-to-three/
I've never heard anything about Thor truly considering UCLA, and Auburn has always looked to be the leader there.
I don't necessarily agree that it's a benefit for the football team from a recruiting standpoint. Even if we assume that Kelly is a good talent evaluator, that's still only half of the battle. He's clearly not been the most aggressive recruiter and in order to get kids to pay attention when the dead period has been extended to, I believe, all the way through May (or just May 1, I skimmed the release from the NCAA) you have to really be on top of the kids.
Also, one of the biggest selling points for UCLA right now is UCLA itself. If Kelly can't get recruits on campus for tours and to meet with the people from S&C or academics or other areas UCLA has an advantage, I feel like a lot of recruits are going to rely on on-field success as an even larger part of their decision-making process. Obviously UCLA will get *some* recruits, but I can't see Kelly really parlaying this into better recruiting success.
I think that this is only going to make the rich teams richer, with recruiting and everything else as well.
That whole section was incredibly tongue-in-cheek, to be fair. It was all "you know how the staff is lazy and bad at their jobs? Now it's not as big of a deal because no one gets to do their jobs!"
Fair enough
FUN ARTICLE...thank you!