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Tedd's avatar

Makes you wonder why we couldn’t retain Chip as the OC and Lynn as the DC in addition to hiring a real head coach. The explanation is only lack of will, commitment and, above all, thrift. When does thrift win anything? I’d love to purchase a beach cottage in Malibu for the price of one in a Florida retirement community.

And we all saw what the hire and hope strategy produces. We’re nowhere near bottoming yet.

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paulieg896's avatar

There's no way chip would've wanted to stay on as OC here. He wanted to move on to bigger things, which is at Ohio State, not here.

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paulieg896's avatar

D'Anton Lynn leaving was definitely an issue of us being cheap

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Tedd's avatar

And yet no heads rolled over the coaching fiasco that got the program into this situation.

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Evan's avatar

if that's the case, we should have promoted him to HC. he'd be making at least $1 million more than he is at SC.

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gbruin's avatar

That would have been a great move. Unfortunately Lynn bailed on UCLA at the end of the season while Chip strung us along for another two months before slinking away and leaving a vacancy.

Now if Jarmond had been bold....aw, who am I kidding?

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Henry Tse's avatar

Jarmond is feeble, timid without vision, tends to take the easy way out as evidenced by the Kelly extension which, in hindsight, was simply to avoid hard work of hiring a new coach. He dreaded it, even knowing it was inevitable. Chip Kelly, ever the con artist, was determined to milk it for as long as he could.

UCLA have had a bad run of average to mediocre football coaches after Donahue. Is it our destiny ?

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E2148's avatar

Some sources say money wasn’t the only issue. Lynn knew Chip was dead man walking after the ASU loss, regardless of whether he survived the season

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Clio 98's avatar

Thank you for the analysis Joe - watching it live at the Rose Bowl as well, it struck me as it was happening as a very "typical NFL" game management strategy - take few chances, take points when you can regardless of game situation, check down and "live to play another down/series", only "take what they give you" and "stay in it", and never "gamble" unless *really* forced to... that "NFL mentality" is certainly something that Bieniemy (the experienced play caller who installed the offense) and Dorrell (from the Shanahan tree directly before his hire) have in common...

I'd even go so far to wonder whether that "infected" chip to "NFL-ize" what had been the "Blur" at Oregon which we all hoped for and not only never really saw but he essentially disavowed, if memory serves, after he was hired...

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E2148's avatar

That’s exactly why Chip didn’t run the blur anymore, except for the series Schlee was in.

The other thing that affected the blur was the rules instituted after the 2012 season to allow like for like defensive substitutions when an offensive player subs out. That takes away part of the advantage of playing fast, and actually creates a disadvantage because the d can slow roll that sub and drain precious seconds from you

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Runfastandwin's avatar

Kelly left the cupboard bare is the real problem. No wonder he slunk off in the middle of the night looking over his shoulder...

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SEAUCLAn's avatar

See my comment below re the real problem.

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Henry Tse's avatar

Was he also pulling up his pants as he fled ? The way he left reminded of some dirty old man who knew it was appropriate, criminal in fact, to even flirt with adolescent girls and yet he did.

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SEAUCLAn's avatar

Fire M. Jarmond.

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Henry Tse's avatar

Sure, we want no Jarmond the chicken !

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Jeffro_TBS's avatar

I always expected to struggle this year, but we’re just plain bad. There’s not even a kernel of talent to build around, so I think we’re 2-3 years minimum away from turning it around. And I like Foster, but I’m not sure he’s the guy for the job, he’s got a ‘deer in the headlights’ look whenever he’s speaking.

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Bleedbruinblue's avatar

I think there needs to be ground swell of discontent before anything changes. Trying to analyze a team which has no talent from the AD down is wasted breath. Nothing, not now or in the future, will change until a complete house cleaning happens.

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Henry Tse's avatar

Should we encourage Nick Saban to un-retire and come out west ?

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Grider55's avatar

At the game, and it didn't take long for the average fan to figure out that Indiana was a far better team, and taking the strategic 3 points opportunities was going to be a losing uphill climb.

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Evan's avatar

At this point it is indisputable that the season outlook would be significantly better if Chip Kelly were still the coach. Be careful what you wish for.

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Henry Tse's avatar

A bruin fan put it succinctly, Evan is Evan. We understand. That said, I don't think even your idol Kelly would agree with your statement at this point. He left fully aware that his dismissal was imminent because the program under him was nearing disaster. You are a well known Kelly apologist. For you now to justify retroactively your support of him is ludicrous, utterly beneath anyone's dignity.

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E2148's avatar

The only advantage we would have had retaining him is that would have been better timing if things were going to be as bad as we expected. Would have been able to get a jump on firing him

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Robert Downs's avatar

The UCLA football program is heading in the wrong direction quickly, this could easily be the worst season in many many years. Whoever is hiring the coaches, needs to look in the mirror. Eric Bienemy was only good because of Andy Reid. Coach Foster is in over his head as head coach at this time. Chip Kelly was seen smiling after watching the UCLA game on TV.

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Henry Tse's avatar

Foster is not in over his head. He is not. The blame is on Jarmond for his poor planning, dithering, utter lack of vision as an AD when Kelly floundered season after season. He should already have instituted a time table to scout for and hire a new coach as the buyout phase of Kelly's contract began to expire. USC pried lose Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma with extensive planning, preparation behind the scene once the previous coach began to struggle. In our case, Jarmond merely handed the job to Foster like an impulsive response to the move by Kelly whom he thought would never leave. The Kelly extension stemmed from his own perception that Westwood had largely accepted Kelly's mediocrity as the norm, notwithstanding many of the coach's apologists support. That explained why Jarmond took the easy way out, thinking that it would still beat the hard work entailed in hiring a good competitive coach. In short, his laziness precipitated the dire situation facing our football program.

Kelly can smile all he wants in Columbus. Wait till kharma befalls him. Westwood would celebrate with free tequila for everyone who wants to have one !!!!

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UCLA4EVER's avatar

I agree about Jarmond and his lame approach with Kelly and Foster. I like Foster as he seems to have a genuine enthusiastic approach to our program and players contrasted to Chip. Regarding being "over his head", Foster's lack of head coaching experience is showing--particularly with the disaster Chip left him with a bare cubard of players. It was evident in the post game presser with Foster that he was foundering. Hopefully, with a couple years of experience along with aggressive recruiting, Foster can learn on the job and produce a competitive team.

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kingjim1954's avatar

"shows little faith in the ability of your offense to get the first down, much less score from inside your opponent’s territory".I don't think the talent is on the field.

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