I’m glad you mentioned the penalties. This part hasn’t changed. It’ll be interesting to see if Coach Chesney mentions them in an interview about the game. (I’m looking at you Mora)
Great game! We took the best shots from Cal and didn’t panic. I was feeling queasy at the end of third quarter wondering if I too was mislead about the “Chesney Hype”, thankfully I was wrong. We truly hired a seasoned and poised coach and staff. We have a lot to build off of tonight.
Despite the penalties and uneven performance, I thought the competitive spirit of the Bruins was a positive factor. The early 7-0 deficit didn't phase them, and they also didn't fold after their lead evaporated in the 3rd quarter. Their running game was outstanding, and thank goodness for those 4th-quarter turnovers by the Bears. The Bruins also dodged a bullet on Nico's fumble recovery and the leg injury he suffered on that play. Congrats to HC Chesney and his staff on securing their first win at UCLA.
From an outcomes standpoint, we certainly did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, but most importantly, from a process standpoint, we didn't fold or panic when hardship came and momentum turned against us after the pick and after the 3rd quarter - which is *such* a breath of fresh air! Coaches often say teams always improve the most from game 1 to game 2 - looking forward to seeing that against SDSU next Saturday.
Oh, and also from an outcomes standpoint - it's never a bad thing to beat UCB!
The score is somewhat deceptive. I felt like we escaped with a win based on the 3rd quarter but thankfully the team did an awesome job of rallying. Cal’s QB doesn’t do well under pressure.
I believe Bob Chesney is a good coach and the program will move forward. It may take a few years though as the program was left in a big mess. I don't have any expectations for this year, and Cal is not a very good team so this was not a very impressive performance and the defense needs a lot of work. I'm also not sold on Nico as a long term solution. I'm hoping by year 3 we're back to being a very solid program.
With that said, we scored 45 points and won, so that's a big step forward. one game at a time. There's a lot to clean up. The Bob Chesney era starts off 1-0.
Very respectfully, Nico is a senior and would not be a long term solution. But I agree that UCLA will require a while to become a powerhouse in the B1G.
Chesney has won at every level on his way up and has done so by instilling enthusiasm and loyalty in his teams. There will be disappointments along the way (cf. WMU/Michigan 60:00:01 game) but the pleasant surprises should put some butts in the Rose Bowl seats where the "silly-assed" tarps were and the recruiting should pick up markedly.
With CEO Harris running the show instead of that moron goofball Jarmond* the ship should be soon righted! J. D. Morgan brought UCLA to national prominence in a matter of two-three years. From JD's Wiki bio..
"In 1963, Morgan was given the additional responsibility as UCLA's athletic director. He stepped down as tennis coach in 1966, but continued to serve as UCLA's athletic director until 1979. During Morgan's 16 years as UCLA's athletic director, he is credited with 'revitalizing the sports program, catapulting Bruin teams into the national spotlight, and ultimately redefining UCLA athletics as a model looked to by universities across the country.'"
Happy days are hear again...pending the upcoming audit, of course.
Really disappointed in our run defense.....if we don't have the horses in our front seven to stuff the run, then we need to "run-blitz" more on early downs to get the opposing offense "behind the sticks;" because we definitely have the athletes available to pass rush on passing downs and enough athletes in our secondary to "cover" without the blatant grabbing techniques exhibited last night (all the p.i. penalties were driving me to drink........well, at least more than I had planned on drinking anyway). I do like the "fresh legs" our running backs by committee showed.....a fresh Knight in the 4th quarter for the Bruins, may be the "monster closer" for us that the Dodgers have yet to find this season........
It was a "very entertaining" game! Understatement, of course. Anytime you can stuff the CalBearz in their house is exciting! To do that by "coming back"* after suffering a dead 3Q but putting up 21 points in the last 9:00 minutes of the fourth while keeping said Bearz to 7 is a good day's work to say the least!
Tangential:
(1) Any of you couch potatoes catch the graphic in the closing minutes saying that Da Chez brought 37 -- THIRTY SEVEN -- of his people with him to UCLA? That's right! Eleven players, most of his coaching staff, and a healthy slice of "support staff" with him essentially turning UCLA into "James Madison West". Not arguing against that at all but just worried that with the impending audit after the firing of Jarmond, I'm hoping that no unsightly "budget bulges" show up because of this westward ho the wagon train. FB is, after all, is the money maker and it looks like Da Chez is intent on removing those silly-assed tarps in the Rose Bowl!
(2) Take a look around for a YouTube for the "Bruin Brotherhood: An All-Access Look at the New Era of UCLA Football" video that show a pretty inspiring preview of the enthusiasm that the new coach is infusing into hos team! Pretty inspiring.
(3) Coach has also brought his own gangsta hand sign for UCLA which resembles showing four fingers for the letters U..C..L..A! I like to call it the UCLA FOUR BIRD FLIP OFF -- especially for use at the UCLA-USC battle!
Extra Freebie Comment:
If any of youse are going to Michigan's house for the game on November 21st, pre-make a sign showing "00:00" emblematic of the Sergei Belov 72 Olympics ref do-over that the "M"margarines got at the end of the WMU/MU game! We just could not have one of our B1G sacred cows go 0-1 to a lowly Michigan JC now, could we?
WP, it seems you missed the 4's Up addition to the UCLA fan repertoire. It goes back years as it was around when we were still at the old site. 2 hands with 4 fingers up = 8 as in 8 Clap or 4 fingers representing the Four Letters. It goes back to Coach Meat's first stint when Jim Mora was head coach.
I certainly did! Thanks for the history lesson! I do still prefer the "four bird flipoff"~~ it's impertinent and certainly be reflective of our new FB fan attitude!
Yes, that 3rd quarter brought back the "Oh No's" of the previous years, but not to the same extent. Something was saying just wait Coach Ches has changed the culture, this is not the old Bruins. And it proved correct, great way to close out the game.
First off, I would like to say that it's refreshing to have a real football coach. He's energized the program. He's engaged on the sideline. He's not going to embarrass the university. I think it's wise not to nitpick the first game regarding the mistakes that were made. This team stayed together and won the game. We have a brand new staff coaching a bunch of new players and the staff still has plenty to learn about how to utilize their players according to their strengths and weaknesses. I see some interesting comments here. First off, Cal ran 87 plays to UCLA;s 54. Cal only averaged 3 yards per carry. That's a good number for a run defense. UCLA developed a pass rush that improved throughout the game. The Cal QB was hit on a regular basis and it looks its toll. Other than some breakdowns at the end of the first half, the D fared pretty well. Did we struggle on 3rd down and long defense at time. Yes. Our D gave up 24 points which isn't a be number. It should've been 17 in my opinion, but it was a vast improvement from last season. This was a game we would have lost in years past. Enjoy the win. My preseason guess is that we would go 8-4 this season, which counted on a win versus Cal. Well done.
If you look closer AB, Mohammed had 128 yds.......and 54 of them on that half a quarter drive that tied the game.....it was apparent to me at that point that we need to scheme better with our front seven against the run, because that type of feature back, a 6'0" and 220 lb battering ram, with some speed will appear in half of our Big 18 conference games........I liked our skill positions on offense, the tenacity of our offensive line, and the athletes that are on the defensive side of the ball......the problem that I saw; a consistent problem that wasn't just a blown coverage or a misread, IMHO, was our run defense and its inability to stop this physical back, Adam Mohammed. Again, I don't know if we have the horses in our front seven to stop such a back...,..and if I'm right, we need to recognize this Achilles heel now, so that when opponents try to exploit it we are ready to scheme around it.....There is a lot to like about this team and this new "buzz" that surrounds it......And I have to hand it to Tamara......she took a lot of crap from some people on this board because of her unwavering faith in Chesney and how he was going to bring in alumni money, attract new players, change the culture and win games.......and so far she has been right on all accounts.......So, I send a Labor Day toast to you T and join you in the hope that Chesney can bring about a "Cignetti-style" resurrection of our UCLA Football Program......
I hear what you are saying about Mohammed and that one long drive in the 3rd quarter was an issue. That being said, at the end of the day, the Bears only averaged 3 yards per carry and under 5 yards per play. And, had we not stabbed ourselves in the foot, we were poised to be up 28-10 at the half and getting the ball to start the 2nd half. We failed to capitalize on that. Every game has its issues and our 3rd down defense in the first half and the number of penalties were an issue. Yet, we won a game going away that we would have lost in the past. I agree with Tamara and I think we made a great hire in Bob Chesney. The schedule looks very favorable over all and my prediction is that we will be 8-2 prior to the road trip to Michigan and the home game against the Trojans. We shall see.
While watching live, I thought we'd done a good job in the first half on run defense then came that long, grinding drive that I think had us all thinking "here we go again"... but looking at the play-by-play, while UC-Berkeley seems to have made adjustments at half to open up Mohammed in that first drive - his success didn't really continue after that drive, which bodes well for the idea that DC Hitschler made some adjustments as well.
After that 3rd quarter drive, for the rest of the game, Mohammad had 9 carries for 36 yards, which is 4.0 per carry - but 2 of the 9 carries account for 21 of the 36, one of which was a 12-yard run on a drive-opening draw after we'd made it 38-24 with under 3 minutes left... with the game closer than 2 scores, after the one disquieting long drive, Mohammad was held to 8 carries for 24 yards - the same 3.0 that they averaged for the game.
Sorry to nerd out :-) but this makes it seem like the one long 3rd quarter drive was the anomaly - clearly work still needs to be done, as the coaches clearly understand, but I agree with Army - it's really nice to see us win a game in a scenario where we've lost so many in the past and it does seem like this staff has things going very much in the right direction.
Was at the game last night, and it was stressful through the third quarter. I had already been subjected to the last loss to Cal at the Rose Bowl and couldn't deal with a repeat. I kept thinking that whoever has the ball last is going to win. I was waiting for those halftime adjustments, but nothing seemed to click until UCLA made JKS uncomfortable and his miraculous throws started turning into picks. Yes, I got my wish that he would do the same thing he did against at Stanford if the Bruins could get to him, and they did capitalize on it. The penalties were so aggravating, but my nephew joined us for the game, and the guy watches a ton of football and looks at games from analytical standpoint as opposed to entertainment like I do. I really value his insight. When one of the PIs was called I immediately groaned and he stopped me and said it is actually a good thing. I think my mouth fell open. FWIW this was his take - the Cal receiver had the UCLA player beat. It was do nothing and let Cal score a TD or risk PI which may or may not be called. It's statistically hard to score in the red zone so let's see what happens. So what happened? UCLA backed them up and Cal settled for a field goal. His take was that's a win in the long run. I've never thought about a penalty that way but in this case, it kind of proved a point. Another take of his and I noticed this too - when the fourth quarter started, UCLA was huddled up and the players were jumping around and having a very animated conversation. Like nothing I had seen in a long time. In contrast the Cal huddle was very subdued. The game completely changed at this point, and the Bruins dominated last quarter. Anyway our seats are right next to the Cal student section so I got to see Coach Chesney walking the sidelines which was awesome. And also to hear Cal fans vocal complaints about Mikey Matthews and other players who were having great games. Go Bruins!
Plus - PI is a 15-yard foul in the NCAA as opposed to a "spot foul" in the NFL so it can definitely be a good choice if you've been beat deep - not unlike what's commonly referred to as a "professional foul" in soccer...
Glad you got to celebrate behind enemy lines! Go Bruins!
I’m glad you mentioned the penalties. This part hasn’t changed. It’ll be interesting to see if Coach Chesney mentions them in an interview about the game. (I’m looking at you Mora)
Great game! We took the best shots from Cal and didn’t panic. I was feeling queasy at the end of third quarter wondering if I too was mislead about the “Chesney Hype”, thankfully I was wrong. We truly hired a seasoned and poised coach and staff. We have a lot to build off of tonight.
Go Bruins!!!!! #4s Up!!!!!!
Despite the penalties and uneven performance, I thought the competitive spirit of the Bruins was a positive factor. The early 7-0 deficit didn't phase them, and they also didn't fold after their lead evaporated in the 3rd quarter. Their running game was outstanding, and thank goodness for those 4th-quarter turnovers by the Bears. The Bruins also dodged a bullet on Nico's fumble recovery and the leg injury he suffered on that play. Congrats to HC Chesney and his staff on securing their first win at UCLA.
Go (JMUcla) Bruins!
Plenty of positives, energy, Nico, 4th quarter D and running game. Here's hoping it's an upward trajectory to even better things for the program.
From an outcomes standpoint, we certainly did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, but most importantly, from a process standpoint, we didn't fold or panic when hardship came and momentum turned against us after the pick and after the 3rd quarter - which is *such* a breath of fresh air! Coaches often say teams always improve the most from game 1 to game 2 - looking forward to seeing that against SDSU next Saturday.
Oh, and also from an outcomes standpoint - it's never a bad thing to beat UCB!
The score is somewhat deceptive. I felt like we escaped with a win based on the 3rd quarter but thankfully the team did an awesome job of rallying. Cal’s QB doesn’t do well under pressure.
I believe Bob Chesney is a good coach and the program will move forward. It may take a few years though as the program was left in a big mess. I don't have any expectations for this year, and Cal is not a very good team so this was not a very impressive performance and the defense needs a lot of work. I'm also not sold on Nico as a long term solution. I'm hoping by year 3 we're back to being a very solid program.
With that said, we scored 45 points and won, so that's a big step forward. one game at a time. There's a lot to clean up. The Bob Chesney era starts off 1-0.
Very respectfully, Nico is a senior and would not be a long term solution. But I agree that UCLA will require a while to become a powerhouse in the B1G.
Chesney has won at every level on his way up and has done so by instilling enthusiasm and loyalty in his teams. There will be disappointments along the way (cf. WMU/Michigan 60:00:01 game) but the pleasant surprises should put some butts in the Rose Bowl seats where the "silly-assed" tarps were and the recruiting should pick up markedly.
With CEO Harris running the show instead of that moron goofball Jarmond* the ship should be soon righted! J. D. Morgan brought UCLA to national prominence in a matter of two-three years. From JD's Wiki bio..
"In 1963, Morgan was given the additional responsibility as UCLA's athletic director. He stepped down as tennis coach in 1966, but continued to serve as UCLA's athletic director until 1979. During Morgan's 16 years as UCLA's athletic director, he is credited with 'revitalizing the sports program, catapulting Bruin teams into the national spotlight, and ultimately redefining UCLA athletics as a model looked to by universities across the country.'"
Happy days are hear again...pending the upcoming audit, of course.
*{{{Spit}}}
I agree and I forgot Nico was a senior.
Really disappointed in our run defense.....if we don't have the horses in our front seven to stuff the run, then we need to "run-blitz" more on early downs to get the opposing offense "behind the sticks;" because we definitely have the athletes available to pass rush on passing downs and enough athletes in our secondary to "cover" without the blatant grabbing techniques exhibited last night (all the p.i. penalties were driving me to drink........well, at least more than I had planned on drinking anyway). I do like the "fresh legs" our running backs by committee showed.....a fresh Knight in the 4th quarter for the Bruins, may be the "monster closer" for us that the Dodgers have yet to find this season........
It was a "very entertaining" game! Understatement, of course. Anytime you can stuff the CalBearz in their house is exciting! To do that by "coming back"* after suffering a dead 3Q but putting up 21 points in the last 9:00 minutes of the fourth while keeping said Bearz to 7 is a good day's work to say the least!
Tangential:
(1) Any of you couch potatoes catch the graphic in the closing minutes saying that Da Chez brought 37 -- THIRTY SEVEN -- of his people with him to UCLA? That's right! Eleven players, most of his coaching staff, and a healthy slice of "support staff" with him essentially turning UCLA into "James Madison West". Not arguing against that at all but just worried that with the impending audit after the firing of Jarmond, I'm hoping that no unsightly "budget bulges" show up because of this westward ho the wagon train. FB is, after all, is the money maker and it looks like Da Chez is intent on removing those silly-assed tarps in the Rose Bowl!
(2) Take a look around for a YouTube for the "Bruin Brotherhood: An All-Access Look at the New Era of UCLA Football" video that show a pretty inspiring preview of the enthusiasm that the new coach is infusing into hos team! Pretty inspiring.
https://youtu.be/6MbWfoQgskQ?si=g71af8RB_0-HWaW0
(3) Coach has also brought his own gangsta hand sign for UCLA which resembles showing four fingers for the letters U..C..L..A! I like to call it the UCLA FOUR BIRD FLIP OFF -- especially for use at the UCLA-USC battle!
Extra Freebie Comment:
If any of youse are going to Michigan's house for the game on November 21st, pre-make a sign showing "00:00" emblematic of the Sergei Belov 72 Olympics ref do-over that the "M"margarines got at the end of the WMU/MU game! We just could not have one of our B1G sacred cows go 0-1 to a lowly Michigan JC now, could we?
To quote our revered Joe Piekowski..
..Go Bruins!
*From a tie? Get a grip, WP!
WP, it seems you missed the 4's Up addition to the UCLA fan repertoire. It goes back years as it was around when we were still at the old site. 2 hands with 4 fingers up = 8 as in 8 Clap or 4 fingers representing the Four Letters. It goes back to Coach Meat's first stint when Jim Mora was head coach.
Joe,
I certainly did! Thanks for the history lesson! I do still prefer the "four bird flipoff"~~ it's impertinent and certainly be reflective of our new FB fan attitude!
Appreciate it!
WP
For the first time since '97, I feel hope!
Yes, that 3rd quarter brought back the "Oh No's" of the previous years, but not to the same extent. Something was saying just wait Coach Ches has changed the culture, this is not the old Bruins. And it proved correct, great way to close out the game.
Go Bruins!!
First off, I would like to say that it's refreshing to have a real football coach. He's energized the program. He's engaged on the sideline. He's not going to embarrass the university. I think it's wise not to nitpick the first game regarding the mistakes that were made. This team stayed together and won the game. We have a brand new staff coaching a bunch of new players and the staff still has plenty to learn about how to utilize their players according to their strengths and weaknesses. I see some interesting comments here. First off, Cal ran 87 plays to UCLA;s 54. Cal only averaged 3 yards per carry. That's a good number for a run defense. UCLA developed a pass rush that improved throughout the game. The Cal QB was hit on a regular basis and it looks its toll. Other than some breakdowns at the end of the first half, the D fared pretty well. Did we struggle on 3rd down and long defense at time. Yes. Our D gave up 24 points which isn't a be number. It should've been 17 in my opinion, but it was a vast improvement from last season. This was a game we would have lost in years past. Enjoy the win. My preseason guess is that we would go 8-4 this season, which counted on a win versus Cal. Well done.
If you look closer AB, Mohammed had 128 yds.......and 54 of them on that half a quarter drive that tied the game.....it was apparent to me at that point that we need to scheme better with our front seven against the run, because that type of feature back, a 6'0" and 220 lb battering ram, with some speed will appear in half of our Big 18 conference games........I liked our skill positions on offense, the tenacity of our offensive line, and the athletes that are on the defensive side of the ball......the problem that I saw; a consistent problem that wasn't just a blown coverage or a misread, IMHO, was our run defense and its inability to stop this physical back, Adam Mohammed. Again, I don't know if we have the horses in our front seven to stop such a back...,..and if I'm right, we need to recognize this Achilles heel now, so that when opponents try to exploit it we are ready to scheme around it.....There is a lot to like about this team and this new "buzz" that surrounds it......And I have to hand it to Tamara......she took a lot of crap from some people on this board because of her unwavering faith in Chesney and how he was going to bring in alumni money, attract new players, change the culture and win games.......and so far she has been right on all accounts.......So, I send a Labor Day toast to you T and join you in the hope that Chesney can bring about a "Cignetti-style" resurrection of our UCLA Football Program......
I hear what you are saying about Mohammed and that one long drive in the 3rd quarter was an issue. That being said, at the end of the day, the Bears only averaged 3 yards per carry and under 5 yards per play. And, had we not stabbed ourselves in the foot, we were poised to be up 28-10 at the half and getting the ball to start the 2nd half. We failed to capitalize on that. Every game has its issues and our 3rd down defense in the first half and the number of penalties were an issue. Yet, we won a game going away that we would have lost in the past. I agree with Tamara and I think we made a great hire in Bob Chesney. The schedule looks very favorable over all and my prediction is that we will be 8-2 prior to the road trip to Michigan and the home game against the Trojans. We shall see.
While watching live, I thought we'd done a good job in the first half on run defense then came that long, grinding drive that I think had us all thinking "here we go again"... but looking at the play-by-play, while UC-Berkeley seems to have made adjustments at half to open up Mohammed in that first drive - his success didn't really continue after that drive, which bodes well for the idea that DC Hitschler made some adjustments as well.
After that 3rd quarter drive, for the rest of the game, Mohammad had 9 carries for 36 yards, which is 4.0 per carry - but 2 of the 9 carries account for 21 of the 36, one of which was a 12-yard run on a drive-opening draw after we'd made it 38-24 with under 3 minutes left... with the game closer than 2 scores, after the one disquieting long drive, Mohammad was held to 8 carries for 24 yards - the same 3.0 that they averaged for the game.
Sorry to nerd out :-) but this makes it seem like the one long 3rd quarter drive was the anomaly - clearly work still needs to be done, as the coaches clearly understand, but I agree with Army - it's really nice to see us win a game in a scenario where we've lost so many in the past and it does seem like this staff has things going very much in the right direction.
Was at the game last night, and it was stressful through the third quarter. I had already been subjected to the last loss to Cal at the Rose Bowl and couldn't deal with a repeat. I kept thinking that whoever has the ball last is going to win. I was waiting for those halftime adjustments, but nothing seemed to click until UCLA made JKS uncomfortable and his miraculous throws started turning into picks. Yes, I got my wish that he would do the same thing he did against at Stanford if the Bruins could get to him, and they did capitalize on it. The penalties were so aggravating, but my nephew joined us for the game, and the guy watches a ton of football and looks at games from analytical standpoint as opposed to entertainment like I do. I really value his insight. When one of the PIs was called I immediately groaned and he stopped me and said it is actually a good thing. I think my mouth fell open. FWIW this was his take - the Cal receiver had the UCLA player beat. It was do nothing and let Cal score a TD or risk PI which may or may not be called. It's statistically hard to score in the red zone so let's see what happens. So what happened? UCLA backed them up and Cal settled for a field goal. His take was that's a win in the long run. I've never thought about a penalty that way but in this case, it kind of proved a point. Another take of his and I noticed this too - when the fourth quarter started, UCLA was huddled up and the players were jumping around and having a very animated conversation. Like nothing I had seen in a long time. In contrast the Cal huddle was very subdued. The game completely changed at this point, and the Bruins dominated last quarter. Anyway our seats are right next to the Cal student section so I got to see Coach Chesney walking the sidelines which was awesome. And also to hear Cal fans vocal complaints about Mikey Matthews and other players who were having great games. Go Bruins!
Plus - PI is a 15-yard foul in the NCAA as opposed to a "spot foul" in the NFL so it can definitely be a good choice if you've been beat deep - not unlike what's commonly referred to as a "professional foul" in soccer...
Glad you got to celebrate behind enemy lines! Go Bruins!
Much better....Defense put pressure on the QB. O line opened holes without the false starts and holding.