Pregame Guesses: UCLA Bruins Travel to Boulder to Face The Colorado Buffaloes
Today's PGGs focus on Colorado--its Head Coach, its defense, and its offense. And a famous song from a famous band in a famous concert at a famous venue in the state.
Good morning and welcome to week four of The Mighty Bruin’s Pregame Guesses.
Today’s guesses are going to focus on Colorado and the struggles that they are experiencing under head coach Karl Dorrell in his third season helming the Buffs. As almost all who read this blog know, Coach Dorrell played at UCLA in the early to mid-80s and won three Rose Bowls as a player. Although his legacy as a player is cemented in Bruin lore, Coach Dorrell lost some of his luster when he took over the coaching reins from 2003 through 2007. Coach Dorrell went 35-27 during that stretch. His best finish in the Pac-10 was third, and he went 1-3 in mid to lower tier bowl games. The hire itself was roundly criticized as was the UCLA athletic department’s reluctance to show him the door as UCLA struggled for relevance. Sound familiar?
The spotlight today is on the Buffs because there is not a lot of great stuff to say about UCLA after the 32-31 squeaker over South Alabama, a program that didn’t exist when Karl Dorrell coached UCLA. Interestingly, football at South Alabama was approved as a sport on December 7, 2007. Karl Dorrell was terminated as UCLA Head Coach four days earlier, on December 3, 2007.
When I researched Colorado artists for today’s PGG, I was actually surprised to learn that there really are not a lot of bands that I really like from that part of the country. The Lumineers might be the most popular of those at this time, but folk rock is not really my jam. John Denver is famous, but that is the music of my parents, not me. Of groups that appeal to me, Big Head Todd and the Monsters might be the best, but I do not like them enough to include them this week. I don’t even own any of their stuff. I like Earth, Wind, and Fire, but we did The Commodores last week and those two acts are a bit too similar in their soul, funk, and disco roots. You’d be hearing “Boogie Wonderland” if we didn’t feature “Brick House” last week. So, today’s selection will have nothing to so with the geographical location of the team that we are playing (that will change next week), other than the artist to be featured played a pretty famous set at Red Rocks, the historical venue in the eastern foothills of the Rockies, just down the road from Boulder, Colorado. This is U2’s “I Will Follow,” live at Red Rocks, from June of 1983.
I have never been to Red Rocks but this concert catapulted U2 into the limelight in the U.S., paving the way for future successes. The concert was released on video, and songs from this concert, including this one, had heavy rotation on MTV. That concert and that band were truly a touchstone for my generation.
On to the guesses . . .
Colorado is struggling on both sides of the ball. This PGG focuses on the Buffs defense. That unit is ranked #119 out of 131 teams in total defense. Colorado allows an average of 452 yards per game, and they have allowed opponents to score 16 touchdowns in three games. To be fair, the Buffs have played a much tougher non-conference schedule than the Bruins, facing TCU, Air Force, and Minnesota. Those teams are a combined 8-1. The first PGG today is an over-under. Pregame Guess Number One: I am setting the line on the number of offensive touchdowns Colorado allows to the Bruin offense at 5.3 (the Buffs average so far this season). Are you taking the over or the under?
This IS a UCLA blog so I cannot entirely neglect UCLA in these PGGs. Senior defensive back Mo Osling III is playing very well on a defense that looks like it may have issues going forward this season. A lot of the new faces from the transfer portal are not playing as well as some may have thought they would. But Osling is making a statement with his play as a (the?) leader of the defense. This is Osling’s sixth year as a Bruin—yes, he played for Coach Jim L. Mora as a true freshman!
Osling has fifteen solo tackles through three games and is only four tackles away from a breaking a career high of 18 solo tackles, achieved in the COVID-shortened season of 2019. Yeah, they played less games that season but Osling may break his career high in just four games this year, depending on his performance against Colorado. (I am not going to talk about what it says about the UCLA defense that a DB is leading UCLA in solo tackles, only to say that we have seen this movie before under Head Coach Chip Kelly. Indeed, in his four years as UCLA head coach, there has been only one season where a position player other than a DB led the team in solo tackles). Pregame Guess Number Two: Predict the number of tackles Mo Osling III makes against the Buffs.
Back to Colorado. This time, let’s talk about the offense. If you thought that the Buffs had issues on the defensive side of the ball, you haven’t seen their offense. That unit is ranked #127 (out of #131) in total offense. Colorado has averaged only 243.3 yards per game and has only scored three touchdowns all season, tied with UMass for worst in the country.
The quarterback position is a mess, with both junior transfer J.T. Shrout and sophomore Brandon Lewis performing poorly. The calls for Coach Dorell to start freshman Owen McCown (son for former NFLer Josh McCown), are growing. Pregame Guess Number Three: Who starts at quarterback for Colorado versus the Bruins?
Bonus Guess: Since the game is in Boulder, we will not be guessing the attendance today. Today’s bonus guess is a two-parter. Will Karl Dorrell’s coaching stint with Colorado come to an end this season? If yes, predict if Coach Dorrell will be given his marching papers in September, October, November, or December. Feel free to look at Colorado’s schedule if you think it might help with your guess. Colorado’s last game is Saturday, November 26th. Personally, I wish Coach Dorrell success (after this game), but the teas leaves are not reading very well for him right now.
Thank you for reading and (hopefully) making some guesses in the comment section below.
Go Bruins!!!
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1. Over, but good line, its a tough call
2. 6
3. McCown. The other 2 are really really bad, so not much to lose
If you're unhappy with the UCLA AD, you wouldn't believe how bad it is at CU. They're stuck with Dorrell for a while.
And Red Rocks is amazing. My favorite thing about it is watching artists perform there for the first time. They're awe struck and it turns into a special performance.
Go Bruins!
Business first:
1. Over. 6
2. 5
3. Shrout
Bonus - Nope. Dorrell's buyout is an insane $8.6M, and it doesn't drop until Jan 1 2024 - 15 months from now. There is already all sorts of discord with athletics and the school going on, and the AD recently took to social media essentially to say his hands are tied (and basically inviting a private donor to step up with the buyout). CU is such a sad mess right now.
Red Rocks is about 15 minutes from my house, and I was there just 3 days ago showing a friend around. Everyone should make a trip to see their fav band play there at least once in their lives. The place is magic. And besides the amphitheater, theres great hiking and biking in and around the park.
Here's a back story on that legendary U2 Concert and film...It was really stormy earlier that day and the opening band got cancelled. That band was The Alarm. They became quite big later in the 80s and played a famous concert in 1986 on the quad between the Men's Gym and Dance buildings on the UCLA campus that was televised live on MTV. You can see the show here: https://youtu.be/Taq1pnJvT7s
Flash forward 29 years, The Alarm lead singer Mike Peters is the co-founder of a Denver-based charity called Love Hope Strength that gets people on the bone marrow donor registry, and he hosts a variety of fundraising hikes and treks and other events worldwide to raise money for the charity. Mike came to Red Rocks in Sep 2015 for a Love Hope Strength fundraising hike and the top fundraisers got to bring a guitar and play alongside him before and at the end of the day's hike. We started at the top of the famous amphitheater and Mike bittersweetly told the story of the rained out opening show, and then beamed and said that today he finally got to play Red Rocks - and I was fortunate enough to be among a group of 8 or so others who got to be his band that day. One of my favorite days ever.