Hope springs eternal.

That phrase has long been connected to the start of baseball season, probably because baseball begins in Spring and it’s an optimistic phrase. No matter how bad things were before the saying, which actually comes from Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man, demonstrates the fact that success can begin today.

After a pandemic and a pandemic-shortened 2020 UCLA football season, hope does, in fact, spring eternal. In many ways, that hope begins today.

Chip Kelly closed spring practices again this year, not that the pandemic would have allowed anyone to attend anyway. So, today, offers the first glimpse of the 2021 UCLA football team.

Of course, it’s hard to gauge the team’s progress when you’re playing against your own guys. If the defense dominates the Spring Showcase, is it because the offense is bad or because the defense is good? If the offense lights things up, does that tell us the offense is clicking or that the defense has reverted to old form.

So, take what happens today with multiple grains of salt.

What can we take away from this morning’s showcase? Simple: We are inching closer to returning to our Rose Bowl tailgates. That and the fact that hope springs eternal.

Here’s how to watch this morning, or at least set your DVR.

UCLA Football Spring Showcase

Time: 9:00 am PT, Thursday, May 27, 2021
Where: Spaulding Field, Los Angeles, CA
Live TV: Pac-12 Networks National and Los Angeles
Live Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app

This is your UCLA Football Spring Showcase open thread.


Go Bruins!!

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