"The central conceit of Chip Kelly’s UCLA tenure has been this: be deliberate in your recruiting, find diamond-in-the-rough prospects that the bigger teams are overlooking, and develop them over time."
I don't disagree. However, a lot of people, here in particular, seem to think that Chip had no interest in the blue chip prospects. That's just not true. He just was failing to persuade them to come to UCLA. He offers and recruits them, they just choose other schools (for good reason by the way). 1 signee does not change that. I don't know what he did to get Moore, but according to the UCLA bball post game show today this kid didn't even have UCLA in his top 10 until he visited campus like last week. He's our best recruit since Rosen (best ever?). But it doesn't mean much from a macro recruiting perspective if's another 7 years until our next 5 star recruit.
As for Moore, I'm hoping his signing persuades some other elite recruits and transfer to choose UCLA.
"Clancy Pendergast essentially took his name out of the running with his playcalling down the stretch." You're forgetting who our coach is. While it's obvious to us fans, Azz did just as poorly and kept his job year after year; I have no confidence in Kelly getting a real defensive coordinator for our program.
Are there enough high-quality OL guys to protect Chip Kelly's 5-star QB? Wonder if that's why he got so many QBs to sign and be able to step in when any of them gets injured. Good thing DTR was athletic enough to avoid a lot of serious downtime this year. The Bruins overall talent level this past season only got them a 5th-place finish in the Pac-12, so does Chip's latest recruiting efforts help make them better than that? The Bruins defense was porous for much of the season, so if Chip doesn't or can't find a competent DC, then they'll have similar losses to Arizona and U$C, where the defense is incapable of helping out their offense. Always hoping for the best, but really anticipating the same old level of mediocrity next year...
I wish I could share some of the B1G optimism. I'm afraid West Coast offenses are not capable of surviving many late October/November 10-7 slugfests in a driving blizzard and will not be competitive for years, and I include $C in that assessment. I hope I'm wrong.
Right on point, as usual. And thanks Chip for the apparent change; at my age just glad to have survived the 5 years of recruiting mediocrity to get to this point!
I think McGovern was a big step up over the previous DC and a big step up over Pendergast. It was very unfortunate that he had health issues and had to hand over to Pendergast et al for the remainder of the season. Can you imagine the season if Pendergast didn't run any defense? Pendergast can't coach up any defense. UCLA gashed him numerous times when he was at $C.
Excellent write. Thank you. Question: can Dante Moore play defense?
"The central conceit of Chip Kelly’s UCLA tenure has been this: be deliberate in your recruiting, find diamond-in-the-rough prospects that the bigger teams are overlooking, and develop them over time."
I don't disagree. However, a lot of people, here in particular, seem to think that Chip had no interest in the blue chip prospects. That's just not true. He just was failing to persuade them to come to UCLA. He offers and recruits them, they just choose other schools (for good reason by the way). 1 signee does not change that. I don't know what he did to get Moore, but according to the UCLA bball post game show today this kid didn't even have UCLA in his top 10 until he visited campus like last week. He's our best recruit since Rosen (best ever?). But it doesn't mean much from a macro recruiting perspective if's another 7 years until our next 5 star recruit.
As for Moore, I'm hoping his signing persuades some other elite recruits and transfer to choose UCLA.
The term Calimony is absolutely brilliant. Should be immediately added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
"Clancy Pendergast essentially took his name out of the running with his playcalling down the stretch." You're forgetting who our coach is. While it's obvious to us fans, Azz did just as poorly and kept his job year after year; I have no confidence in Kelly getting a real defensive coordinator for our program.
Are there enough high-quality OL guys to protect Chip Kelly's 5-star QB? Wonder if that's why he got so many QBs to sign and be able to step in when any of them gets injured. Good thing DTR was athletic enough to avoid a lot of serious downtime this year. The Bruins overall talent level this past season only got them a 5th-place finish in the Pac-12, so does Chip's latest recruiting efforts help make them better than that? The Bruins defense was porous for much of the season, so if Chip doesn't or can't find a competent DC, then they'll have similar losses to Arizona and U$C, where the defense is incapable of helping out their offense. Always hoping for the best, but really anticipating the same old level of mediocrity next year...
I wish I could share some of the B1G optimism. I'm afraid West Coast offenses are not capable of surviving many late October/November 10-7 slugfests in a driving blizzard and will not be competitive for years, and I include $C in that assessment. I hope I'm wrong.
Right on point, as usual. And thanks Chip for the apparent change; at my age just glad to have survived the 5 years of recruiting mediocrity to get to this point!
I think McGovern was a big step up over the previous DC and a big step up over Pendergast. It was very unfortunate that he had health issues and had to hand over to Pendergast et al for the remainder of the season. Can you imagine the season if Pendergast didn't run any defense? Pendergast can't coach up any defense. UCLA gashed him numerous times when he was at $C.
We endured the heartbreak of opening up the Rose Bowl Game, now we must endure playing in the Big 10. All for $$$. Suck.
Damn Kaz Allen is gone
Merry Christmas, Mighty Bruins!