Note that there's also an ample supply of unused hopium that wasn't needed during the Bruins 0-4 start. :-)
It's unfortunate that this interim coaching staff didn't lead the team from the very beginning of the season. The competitve test at #3 Indiana in a couple of weeks will be interesting, but the Bruins can't have a "letdown" at home against the Terps this Saturday (a trap game this time for UCLA?).
As usual, great analysis. Glad to note that under certain circumstances the current staff could stick around. That being said, other really good candidates need to be vetted and interviewed. Just hope the Penn State vacancy doesn't make this more difficult.
It's a bit ironic that our success helped make our own head coaching vacancy the second best available Big Ten job instead of the first**. And if Michigan State goes the same way, maybe we drop another?
**just looking at it from a presumed national perspective considering recent success, fan base buy in, conference affiliation, funding, etc. Personally there's nowhere better in the world than UCLA, but I might be biased.
After such a horrible start to the season, it's funny how the Bruins have contributed to the firing of the PSU HC and put MSU's HC on the hot seat. Besides the competition from other major programs that have already fired (or those that may eventually fire) their HCs, the thing that could make it harder to attract a great HC is the dysfunction surrounding the current AD and his tarp-covered Rose Bowl. Hope this particular issue is being mitigated behind the scenes by the UCLA administration and HC search committee.
UCLA must do everything to keep Jerry, period. And that means ensuring the coaching staff from top to bottom is outstanding...
And that means Frenk needs to fire Jelly 2.0 yesterday and keep him off campus and no where near UCLA Athletics. Jelly 2.0
is a fake, phony, slimey jelly donut.
Jerry can and will continue to prosper at the school he loves, if given the resources to do so. Why allow another school to steal him away? That would be 💯stupid, imho.
I don’t know that I agree with this. I say let him go run his own program or go be a coordinator at an elite school. If we finish 5-3 or 6-2 in the remaining games with what is considered a less talented roster then Jerry absolutely deserves to get his shot.
I don’t even want him to leave, I just want him to get the perspective and experience he needs to lead UCLA to a natty in five years
I think Jerry has plenty of perspective of other schools, and he will get more perspective of other schools, as UCLA's OC.
UCLA is an elite school, sans Jelly 2.0. UCLA has everything and more to offer, with the right leadership.
I am really tired of hearing UCLA is below others. It's this '7 or 8 wins is great' mentality that is the direct result of the slimey jelly donut, Jelly 2.0.
When I was an undergrad and grad student at UCLA, I never ever heard students say UCLA was anything but elite.
Jerry deserves to learn football fundamentals under an elite coach, an opportunity he has yet to experience. Hopefully then he can come back to UCLA a wiser, more experienced head coach :-)
Sometimes a coach can try too hard to look brilliant, to try to show everything they know. I think that's what was happening with Sunseri, and to some degree with Malloe too. After a couple of games, Malloe realized that the players were lost and he had to start simplifying things. It was probably never going to be a quick turnaround with the entire staff on board who were directing the old approach. Sunseri, though, never seemed to realize the need to simplify. That can happen, but that's why you have a head coach to oversee things. Sunseri, especially, was Foster's guy. So, when things weren't working, he didn't (and really couldn't) demand changes that would allow the players to play more effectively. It was all on the players who were "not executing." Clearly they were not, but the coach has to understand why. There was just a feeling of "dead in the water" from the get go this year.
The funny thing is the offense isn’t even doing anything that’s easier than what Sunseri was doing. Hell I’ve watched a number of plays where guys are running Chip’s pin and pull run scheme as well as Power and Counter Blocking. So we’re still using gap schemes. He’s also using a lot of Chip’s formations for better run fits, and the back substitution looks a lot better (Woods and Thomas should have been getting more time from the start).
Judging by what I’ve heard from insiders, it sounds like Jerry and Skip are actually teaching guys, and explaining the why, and drilling it in practice to give guys confidence, including getting more guys involved in drills so that people are getting more reps.
It’s like the difference between a teacher using PowerPoint and relying on the star pupils to answer questions in class as if that will somehow magically prepare kids for a test, vs interactive “guide-on-the-side” activities and correction to hammer home the key takeaways for a lesson.
Chip was many things bad, but one thing he got right was that “coaching is teaching”. It’s clear Skip and Jerry (and Kevin Coyle on defense) are all better teachers than at least two of the last three guys.
Thank you for the fine update. Something you can’t find on the internet! Regarding Coach Foster, I don’t think he “carried an air of arrogance”. My perception was he simply was masking the fact that he was completely underwater as far as being a head coach. No clue from day to day. I blame Jarmond for that cluster. Enough said. I am probably all wet (speaking of underwater) but watching our offense over the past two games I really feel a Noel Mazzone vibe. I am not advocating Mazzone but his footprint (based on my memories of his offensive schemes over his many well traveled years!) is currently prevalent with Lil Neu’s offense.
Foster's future is as a running back coach. His ceiling has been identified and I wish him success. Sunseri will probably have to step back to his previous job as a position coach and gain more experience prior to becoming an offensive coordinator again, probably outside a P4 conference initially. Malloe may be in a similar situation as Sunseri.
After promoting "Blue Out" for the PSU game, it seems appropriate that "Securing the Bag" (or maybe "Stealing the Credit") should be AD Martin Guerrero's next promotion for the upcoming Maryland game at the Rose Bowl. Hope he's been trying to promote himself in order to secure a job elsewhere!
The Touchdown stat for TS is actually much better for Jerry. TS averaged 1.2 touchdowns per game 5 in 4 games) Jerry is averaging 5 per game ( 10 touchdowns in 2 games). Still the O line needs to play better no-penalty ball.
Hope springs eternal. If the Bruins can keep playing like the last two weeks I believe the team can be competitive with anyone.
Note that there's also an ample supply of unused hopium that wasn't needed during the Bruins 0-4 start. :-)
It's unfortunate that this interim coaching staff didn't lead the team from the very beginning of the season. The competitve test at #3 Indiana in a couple of weeks will be interesting, but the Bruins can't have a "letdown" at home against the Terps this Saturday (a trap game this time for UCLA?).
Go Bruins!
If ever there was time for a let down this is it...of course I thought that after the PSU game...
As usual, great analysis. Glad to note that under certain circumstances the current staff could stick around. That being said, other really good candidates need to be vetted and interviewed. Just hope the Penn State vacancy doesn't make this more difficult.
It's a bit ironic that our success helped make our own head coaching vacancy the second best available Big Ten job instead of the first**. And if Michigan State goes the same way, maybe we drop another?
**just looking at it from a presumed national perspective considering recent success, fan base buy in, conference affiliation, funding, etc. Personally there's nowhere better in the world than UCLA, but I might be biased.
After such a horrible start to the season, it's funny how the Bruins have contributed to the firing of the PSU HC and put MSU's HC on the hot seat. Besides the competition from other major programs that have already fired (or those that may eventually fire) their HCs, the thing that could make it harder to attract a great HC is the dysfunction surrounding the current AD and his tarp-covered Rose Bowl. Hope this particular issue is being mitigated behind the scenes by the UCLA administration and HC search committee.
I don’t think it will make any difference to us. Although we’re in the same league as Penn State, we aren’t in the same league.
Do you say that from the perspective of UCLA leading PSU in the Big 10 (2-1 v 0-3) or having a poorer overall record in 2025 {2-4 v 3-3)?
https://youtu.be/ETN9eNOA6vw?si=fdT_trtBBXM0m5AI
UCLA must do everything to keep Jerry, period. And that means ensuring the coaching staff from top to bottom is outstanding...
And that means Frenk needs to fire Jelly 2.0 yesterday and keep him off campus and no where near UCLA Athletics. Jelly 2.0
is a fake, phony, slimey jelly donut.
Jerry can and will continue to prosper at the school he loves, if given the resources to do so. Why allow another school to steal him away? That would be 💯stupid, imho.
I don’t know that I agree with this. I say let him go run his own program or go be a coordinator at an elite school. If we finish 5-3 or 6-2 in the remaining games with what is considered a less talented roster then Jerry absolutely deserves to get his shot.
I don’t even want him to leave, I just want him to get the perspective and experience he needs to lead UCLA to a natty in five years
I think Jerry has plenty of perspective of other schools, and he will get more perspective of other schools, as UCLA's OC.
UCLA is an elite school, sans Jelly 2.0. UCLA has everything and more to offer, with the right leadership.
I am really tired of hearing UCLA is below others. It's this '7 or 8 wins is great' mentality that is the direct result of the slimey jelly donut, Jelly 2.0.
When I was an undergrad and grad student at UCLA, I never ever heard students say UCLA was anything but elite.
Jerry deserves to learn football fundamentals under an elite coach, an opportunity he has yet to experience. Hopefully then he can come back to UCLA a wiser, more experienced head coach :-)
Sometimes a coach can try too hard to look brilliant, to try to show everything they know. I think that's what was happening with Sunseri, and to some degree with Malloe too. After a couple of games, Malloe realized that the players were lost and he had to start simplifying things. It was probably never going to be a quick turnaround with the entire staff on board who were directing the old approach. Sunseri, though, never seemed to realize the need to simplify. That can happen, but that's why you have a head coach to oversee things. Sunseri, especially, was Foster's guy. So, when things weren't working, he didn't (and really couldn't) demand changes that would allow the players to play more effectively. It was all on the players who were "not executing." Clearly they were not, but the coach has to understand why. There was just a feeling of "dead in the water" from the get go this year.
The funny thing is the offense isn’t even doing anything that’s easier than what Sunseri was doing. Hell I’ve watched a number of plays where guys are running Chip’s pin and pull run scheme as well as Power and Counter Blocking. So we’re still using gap schemes. He’s also using a lot of Chip’s formations for better run fits, and the back substitution looks a lot better (Woods and Thomas should have been getting more time from the start).
Judging by what I’ve heard from insiders, it sounds like Jerry and Skip are actually teaching guys, and explaining the why, and drilling it in practice to give guys confidence, including getting more guys involved in drills so that people are getting more reps.
It’s like the difference between a teacher using PowerPoint and relying on the star pupils to answer questions in class as if that will somehow magically prepare kids for a test, vs interactive “guide-on-the-side” activities and correction to hammer home the key takeaways for a lesson.
Chip was many things bad, but one thing he got right was that “coaching is teaching”. It’s clear Skip and Jerry (and Kevin Coyle on defense) are all better teachers than at least two of the last three guys.
Thank you for the fine update. Something you can’t find on the internet! Regarding Coach Foster, I don’t think he “carried an air of arrogance”. My perception was he simply was masking the fact that he was completely underwater as far as being a head coach. No clue from day to day. I blame Jarmond for that cluster. Enough said. I am probably all wet (speaking of underwater) but watching our offense over the past two games I really feel a Noel Mazzone vibe. I am not advocating Mazzone but his footprint (based on my memories of his offensive schemes over his many well traveled years!) is currently prevalent with Lil Neu’s offense.
Foster's future is as a running back coach. His ceiling has been identified and I wish him success. Sunseri will probably have to step back to his previous job as a position coach and gain more experience prior to becoming an offensive coordinator again, probably outside a P4 conference initially. Malloe may be in a similar situation as Sunseri.
After promoting "Blue Out" for the PSU game, it seems appropriate that "Securing the Bag" (or maybe "Stealing the Credit") should be AD Martin Guerrero's next promotion for the upcoming Maryland game at the Rose Bowl. Hope he's been trying to promote himself in order to secure a job elsewhere!
The Touchdown stat for TS is actually much better for Jerry. TS averaged 1.2 touchdowns per game 5 in 4 games) Jerry is averaging 5 per game ( 10 touchdowns in 2 games). Still the O line needs to play better no-penalty ball.