It's Time to Give In to UCLA Football
I'm just going to turn this into an ongoing series at this point.
I have an announcement to make: UCLA is a good team.
You probably gathered that by now, what with the Bruins improving to 6-0 following their 42-32 victory over Utah last Saturday, but sometimes it bears repeating. The 2022 UCLA Bruins football team is well and truly good, and it is time we as a fanbase gave in and embraced it, warts and all.
When I look at college football, I tend to divide it into four tiers*, as follows:
The Truly Elite Teams. This is basically Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State on a loop for the next few decades.
The Good Football Teams. Think of teams like Clemson and Michigan, teams that might not have overpowering talent advantages like the top tier or a coaching staff that inspires confidence, but they are generally good at football. UCLA is currently here.
The Boring, Average, Blah Tier. About half of college football resides here, as this is where uninspiring football lives. If you were judging this off the Pac-12, this is where Washington, Washington State, and Oregon State would reside.
The Trash Tier. Pure garbage teams reside here. It’s also way bigger than you’d think.
*- There may be a fifth tier this year: the Colorado tier. They’re that bad.
If you’re looking at that list and thinking it is incredibly hard to break into that top tier, then you’re right! You have to have years of sustained, elite success both on the field and in recruiting to break in, something only those three programs have proven capable of. Even a team like Clemson, which has won multiple national titles in the past decade, has not been able to sustain at that level. There are only one or two more programs in the country that can exist at that level, and I don’t think UCLA will ever reach that status, which is perfectly ok.
Just so we’re clear, there is also nothing wrong with being a Good Football Team. Some teams in this spot are well-rounded, though not at the level of the elite teams. Others get here by being elite on one side of the ball. You can win a championship this way, just ask LSU.
This is where UCLA is at the moment, with an offense that, by any reasonable metric, qualifies as elite. The Bruins rank 3rd in offensive SP+, only trailing offensive juggernauts Ohio State and Tennessee. Prior to the Utah game, FEI had UCLA’s offense at 12th and F/+ had them at 10th; I imagine both of those rankings are about to go up considering what the Bruins just did to a highly-ranked Utah defense. The eye test (and also THE Eye Test) backs up those stats, with fans and media watching an offense led by an experienced quarterback operating at the height of his powers and a nightmare of a running back, supplemented by a deep receiving group and an offensive line playing well above its talent level. For the second week in a row (and really the fifth in six games) it never felt as though the opposing defense would be able to stop UCLA once it got going, with the Bruins scoring four-straight second-half possessions to put the game out of reach.
The UCLA offense is so good that is helping the defense by proxy. Opposing teams have begun to press in an attempt to keep up in scoring with the UCLA offense, which has led to mistakes that an opportunistic Bruin defense is taking advantage of. The Bruins ended the game with a positive turnover margin for the fourth time this year, and only have one game where they did not at least come out neutral (that game, hilariously enough, was against Bowling Green). I am not going to blow smoke and say that the defense is good, but it is doing what it has to do and is playing off the offense well-enough, which is all we probably should be asking for at this stage.
Put all that together, and you have a UCLA team that is exciting and plays a fun brand of football. That’s something to cherish and celebrate, no matter what the voice in the back of your head may be saying.
I’ve had something of a theme this year regarding UCLA football. You might have noticed it, like when I talked about the existential nature of fandom or the dread of giving in to hope knowing that the football will eventually be pulled away. I was going to make a Ted Lasso reference in this piece until I realized I had already used it for last year’s opener. The point is, I have focused more on the fans rather than the team, and with good reason. Yes, the team has been bad in recent years, but it’s the fans who have endured throughout, continuing to hope for a change in direction for the program, hoping that things will get better.
I am not here to tell you that the long-term outlook for this program has improved. UCLA continues to do poorly with high school recruiting. Their success in future years increasingly relies on the transfer portal, which as Michigan State has proven can be a volatile option. And there’s no telling what this team looks like in the future once Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Zach Charbonnet depart. Those are all conversations for the future.
For now, I encourage you to enjoy the present. Enjoy the fact that UCLA is undefeated, and that national media is talking about them as the new conference favorites. Enjoy this offense and their ridiculous level of play. Enjoy revelance, enjoy the feeling of once-again being among the good teams in college football. Give in to the joy you are feeling, and let these Bruins into your heart.
Go Bruins.
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Bravo! It's time to enjoy the ride.
How good? Win... or lose, how the Bruins play a team like the Ducks on the road in that hell-hole will say a lot. Proud to see a slightly undermanned defense fighting hard!