I had hoped we could avenge my rejection letter from Keck but just no adjustments made at halftime and ultimately, their better recruiting pushed through on both lines.
Yep, just a week ago. Decided to give medicine a try again after a decade in Public Health including the worst PH disasters of the last century and now the worst PH job environment thanks to the current administration.
Good luck to you! Clinical care isn't that great these days either, but it's a paradise compared to the ignorant and untenable environment you and your PH colleagues have been dealing with lately. Wishing you well, Bruinrogue. 🤞💪
The players hung tough last night and made it a closer game than many, including myself, expected. In the end, our own mistakes more than anything cost us that game. A couple key dropped passes killed one drive. A series of preventable false start and delay of game penalties killed another. The overturned interception was a joke of a call, too. Our overmatched defensive line got no help when numerous holds and hands to the face went unflagged. It was a hill too steep to climb.
But we were starting out from such a hole in the first place. Play after play showed our game but woefully slow defensive players fruitlessly running after trogan ballcarriers and highlighted the vast talent gap between the teams. Our OL has been a weak spot all season (well, for a decade or longer tbh) and finally fell apart in the last 20 minutes of the game. I thought Little Neu called a pretty smart game by regularly getting the ball out of Nico's hands quickly to offset our vulnerable pass pro, but that limited downfield throws and bigger gains. Our skill players made a few good plays but didn't make them all when we couldn't afford to miss on any opportunity. The effort was there last night. The skill level and execution and playbook were not. The sum of all that got us to that sad final score last night and sadder final record this season.
Football fans talk about "any given Sunday" and that's a true thing, because if a bad team plays way up and a good one plays way down, anyone really can beat anyone. The first half showed that. *$c was highly overrated as usual, and Riley is a poser who will continue to have the trogans reasonably competitive but perennially underachieving, but we didn't play up enough for 60 minutes to overcome all the hurdles in our way.
Credit and thanks to Coach Skipper and Little Neu and Coyle and the rest of the staff for taking over this train wreck. The three wins in retrospect were a bit of a miracle, but they should get some credit for them happening at all. But even with that miracle, this was the worst Bruin football season since 1972 and tied Chump Kelly's first year in 2018. Hopefully the new staff has the will and the smarts - and a new AD who gives and is worth a damn - to rebuild this program into something which meets our opponents on equal footing. My daughter is a senior in Westwood this year and I feel so awful that she and her friends didn't get to experience the joy and excitement and pride and fun that a winning football team brings to the students.
Finally, a deep heartfelt respect and gratitude to you all for sticking it out this season in the virtual stands through these articles and game threads that DD and Joe thankfully build for us every day. My misery has truly loved your outstanding company.
..your recap is excellent and you draw attention to an excellent point: although I am saddened that your daughter graduates without knowing the thrill of Bruin conquests in other than "Lawn Darts and Women's Field Hockey", the theme and centerpiece of the college experience since the early 20th century has been football. We see this in the scratchy mid 20th films glorifying the college gridiron tradition, the advertisements citing the ivy-covered halls of academe tradition, the image of the freshly scrubbed football heroes and coeds, and so on. Alas, she and others will have spent four years without experiencing the thrills and pride of decent athletic teams commensurate with the Bruin tradition!
As UCLA alums and Bruin fans, we have lived through over a quarter of a century of ever-increasing* mediocrity capped off by the Chipster .500 coaching swindle, the hiring of the thoroughly incompetent AD who handed out contract extensions like mafia bribes and failed to read the room, a now almost criminally bankrupt athletic department manned by boobs and morons with no business acumen and no desire to keep a promise it made to an august and legendary football venue, and an administration who seemingly will rubber stamp this illicit operation by allowing the current personnel to continue.
My how time flies when you're having fun!
*Remember a large number of us are members of TMB because of the rise of the Dump Dorrell and Bruins' Nation websites.
Well, not national but otherwise a nightmare. However, thanks is due to Joe Piechowski and Dimitri Dolis for their reportage on both football but UCLA athletics -- including the Fetus intrigues and coaching searches -- and analyses making our life a little brighter.
I also would like to thank my fellow comrades and comrade-ettes for your humor, pathos, sharp wit, and perseverance. Ladies and gentlemen, it's been real.
An afterthought: Like the Buffalo NFL franchise who has suffered four Super Bowl defeats, mightn't we label this season "2025 UCLLLLLLLLLA Football"?
..The happiest of holidays to all! I'll see myself out.
I feel like this game summary could have been written weeks ago. what a predictable and sad end to a terrible season.
I had hoped we could avenge my rejection letter from Keck but just no adjustments made at halftime and ultimately, their better recruiting pushed through on both lines.
Keck SoM? Was that recent? Screw them. They're missing out.
Yep, just a week ago. Decided to give medicine a try again after a decade in Public Health including the worst PH disasters of the last century and now the worst PH job environment thanks to the current administration.
Good luck to you! Clinical care isn't that great these days either, but it's a paradise compared to the ignorant and untenable environment you and your PH colleagues have been dealing with lately. Wishing you well, Bruinrogue. 🤞💪
Chesney is praying for a call from Penn State, so he doesn't have to take on this disaster.
More importantly, we should all take a moment to give "Smiling Martin" a HUGE round of applause. Well done!!!
Now, I have the entire off-season to decide which luxury box at SoFi will bring me closest to the action for the highest price.
Fun!!!
Don't forget to "READ THE ROOM".
🤣
I knew the game was lost when we opted for a field goal try on 4th and inches.
Well, they were 3-8 coming in soooooo….
It was 2025 UCLA football in a nutshell.
The players hung tough last night and made it a closer game than many, including myself, expected. In the end, our own mistakes more than anything cost us that game. A couple key dropped passes killed one drive. A series of preventable false start and delay of game penalties killed another. The overturned interception was a joke of a call, too. Our overmatched defensive line got no help when numerous holds and hands to the face went unflagged. It was a hill too steep to climb.
But we were starting out from such a hole in the first place. Play after play showed our game but woefully slow defensive players fruitlessly running after trogan ballcarriers and highlighted the vast talent gap between the teams. Our OL has been a weak spot all season (well, for a decade or longer tbh) and finally fell apart in the last 20 minutes of the game. I thought Little Neu called a pretty smart game by regularly getting the ball out of Nico's hands quickly to offset our vulnerable pass pro, but that limited downfield throws and bigger gains. Our skill players made a few good plays but didn't make them all when we couldn't afford to miss on any opportunity. The effort was there last night. The skill level and execution and playbook were not. The sum of all that got us to that sad final score last night and sadder final record this season.
Football fans talk about "any given Sunday" and that's a true thing, because if a bad team plays way up and a good one plays way down, anyone really can beat anyone. The first half showed that. *$c was highly overrated as usual, and Riley is a poser who will continue to have the trogans reasonably competitive but perennially underachieving, but we didn't play up enough for 60 minutes to overcome all the hurdles in our way.
Credit and thanks to Coach Skipper and Little Neu and Coyle and the rest of the staff for taking over this train wreck. The three wins in retrospect were a bit of a miracle, but they should get some credit for them happening at all. But even with that miracle, this was the worst Bruin football season since 1972 and tied Chump Kelly's first year in 2018. Hopefully the new staff has the will and the smarts - and a new AD who gives and is worth a damn - to rebuild this program into something which meets our opponents on equal footing. My daughter is a senior in Westwood this year and I feel so awful that she and her friends didn't get to experience the joy and excitement and pride and fun that a winning football team brings to the students.
Finally, a deep heartfelt respect and gratitude to you all for sticking it out this season in the virtual stands through these articles and game threads that DD and Joe thankfully build for us every day. My misery has truly loved your outstanding company.
Onward.
GO BRUINS!! 💙🏈💛
..your recap is excellent and you draw attention to an excellent point: although I am saddened that your daughter graduates without knowing the thrill of Bruin conquests in other than "Lawn Darts and Women's Field Hockey", the theme and centerpiece of the college experience since the early 20th century has been football. We see this in the scratchy mid 20th films glorifying the college gridiron tradition, the advertisements citing the ivy-covered halls of academe tradition, the image of the freshly scrubbed football heroes and coeds, and so on. Alas, she and others will have spent four years without experiencing the thrills and pride of decent athletic teams commensurate with the Bruin tradition!
As UCLA alums and Bruin fans, we have lived through over a quarter of a century of ever-increasing* mediocrity capped off by the Chipster .500 coaching swindle, the hiring of the thoroughly incompetent AD who handed out contract extensions like mafia bribes and failed to read the room, a now almost criminally bankrupt athletic department manned by boobs and morons with no business acumen and no desire to keep a promise it made to an august and legendary football venue, and an administration who seemingly will rubber stamp this illicit operation by allowing the current personnel to continue.
My how time flies when you're having fun!
*Remember a large number of us are members of TMB because of the rise of the Dump Dorrell and Bruins' Nation websites.
"Our long national nightmare is finally over.."
Well, not national but otherwise a nightmare. However, thanks is due to Joe Piechowski and Dimitri Dolis for their reportage on both football but UCLA athletics -- including the Fetus intrigues and coaching searches -- and analyses making our life a little brighter.
I also would like to thank my fellow comrades and comrade-ettes for your humor, pathos, sharp wit, and perseverance. Ladies and gentlemen, it's been real.
An afterthought: Like the Buffalo NFL franchise who has suffered four Super Bowl defeats, mightn't we label this season "2025 UCLLLLLLLLLA Football"?
..The happiest of holidays to all! I'll see myself out.
Mercifully, it's over.