While it is nice to pad the record with wins,, playing three non power five teams to start the season and then lowly Pac 12 Colorado is a piss poor approach to getting a team ready for conference play. Playing one, or even two scrimmages--OK. Then the Bruins should have been putting on their big boy pants and play a decent non conference team. Understand playing Colorado was mandated. Bad for the fans and bad for the team.
You need to remember that UCLA didn't necessarily plan this year's schedule this way.
The Bruins were originally slated to play Michigan in Ann Arbor this week, but the Wolverines cancelled the contract.
To be sure, that Michigan game was sandwiched by Bowling Green and South Alabama, but Michigan's cancellation left UCLA in a bad spot since most schedules were already filled up and Martin Jarmond was able to get Alabama State to fill the hole. That means that it was filled in the last two years. It's not very far in advance at all, given typical college football scheduling.
As an example, UCLA has had a home and home series on the books with Wisconsin for 2029 & 2030 for a while, though they will likely need to schedule a new non-conference game for those years due to the move to the Big Ten.
While it is nice to pad the record with wins,, playing three non power five teams to start the season and then lowly Pac 12 Colorado is a piss poor approach to getting a team ready for conference play. Playing one, or even two scrimmages--OK. Then the Bruins should have been putting on their big boy pants and play a decent non conference team. Understand playing Colorado was mandated. Bad for the fans and bad for the team.
You need to remember that UCLA didn't necessarily plan this year's schedule this way.
The Bruins were originally slated to play Michigan in Ann Arbor this week, but the Wolverines cancelled the contract.
To be sure, that Michigan game was sandwiched by Bowling Green and South Alabama, but Michigan's cancellation left UCLA in a bad spot since most schedules were already filled up and Martin Jarmond was able to get Alabama State to fill the hole. That means that it was filled in the last two years. It's not very far in advance at all, given typical college football scheduling.
As an example, UCLA has had a home and home series on the books with Wisconsin for 2029 & 2030 for a while, though they will likely need to schedule a new non-conference game for those years due to the move to the Big Ten.