Bruin Steve

Stats are often misleading... The Pac-12 is a pass-happy conference... No defense stops everything... When you play against predominantly passing teams, the tendency is to play defense to stop the pass... So, with most of the teams on the schedule, the Bruins were playing five DBs most of the time...willing to give up some yards on the ground so as not to be burned deep...Of course, doing that left some holes up front...and with a team breaking in some new guys in that Front 7 thanks to the injuries to Vanderdoes and Jack...hence the unusual run yardage vs passing yardage stat. Now, OTOH, If you think the opposing offense is not as much a passing threat, you have the liberty of loading up "the box"...and playing a little more to stop the run...Football is a game of adjustments... Don't begin to believe that because the Bruins gave up a lot of big rushing games that it is going to be easy... If you try to run an overwhelming majority of the time, the defense you will see will be very different from what you've seen on tape. The easiest teams to defend are the ones with the most predictable offenses.

As a Bruin, I get a nice chuckle out of the Kyle Allen story... Allen, all during high school, had been a UCLA "lean" and, according to some sources, a "silent commit"... But, all that suddenly changed...and no secret why...TRENT DILFER... Kyle was one of Dilfer's prize pupils...and UCLA already had another of Dilfer's prize pupils on the roster...a kid named Asianti Woulard... Woulard was, assumedly, waiting out Brett Hundley's graduation and in position to take over the starting role. Dilfer didn't want Allen going to UCLA and competing with Woulard--so he forcefully steered Allen away from the Bruins...and to A&M where soon Manziel would be gone... Of course, nothing turned out to Dilfer's liking... Woulard never really lived up to expectations and was even behind Jerry Neuheisel in the pecking order...UCLA brought in Josh Rosen...which caused Woulard to transfer to University of South Florida...and Kyle Allen never quite made the grade at A&M anyway... My view: Allen will transfer, under the direction of Dilfer, to somewhere where he will not have to compete for a starting job...

Funny thing is that there is a large part of the Bruin fan base who think we'd be better off without Noel Mazzone....They think he's too conservative in his play calling... Of course, I've always found that to be true of just about every fan base...Everyone thinks their OC is too conservative... With Mazzone, it was a bit scary.,..he actually was at the Team Awards Banquet when, suddenly he wasn't feeling well and was taken to the hospital...I'm glad to see he's back up and around...

Mora is NOT going back to the NFL. Everyone here knows that, including the team, the coaching staff, the administration...so, it really has no effect at all on bowl preparations. Mora was born in Los Angeles--when his father was an assistant coach here at UCLA. His parents live in the area--in Palm Springs (his dad sits in front of me at the Rose Bowl). Most importantly, his wife won't leave Manhattan Beach... To be honest, I'm sure that not all Bruin fans are excited about the match-up...It's a no-win situation: You win and everyone says "big deal--you beat a 5-7 team", you lose and it's "OMG, you guys lost to a 5-7 team"...We'd rather be playing another team with a 8-4 or 9-3 record. OTOH, Nebraska is still a big name program from a major conference. For ME, I'm happy...but for me, it's a little more personal. My wife was born and raised in Kearney, Nebraska...My late father-in-law was a big time Husker fan. I am not sure how bowl tickets are selling, but I am sure we should have a good turnout--there are a LOT of UCLA alums in the Bay Area...and for a lot of us, it's a short one-hour plane trip or a 5 hour drive. We'll be driving up since we'll spend a couple of nights in Santa Clara and one daughter--who lives in San Francisco will join us, then, Sunday morning, we'll head up to my brother and sister-in-law who live in Mill Valley, then over to Sacramento to visit our other daughter... I think what most Bruins are excited about is seeing this team play one more game this year in anticipation of next season--when most of these guys will be returning (our greatest fear right now is that a few of our juniors may decide to declare for the NFL draft). As to Mike Riley, there's always been a mixed feeling about him here. A few years back, when Karl Dorrell was hired to be the head coach, Riley was the "other finalist". IIRC, most here weren't really excited about either choice. But Riley was looked upon as a guy who always seemed to do a lot with what little talent he was able to attract to Corvallis. But, OTOH, though he won a few big games, he was never a consistent winner...he seemed to be the king of the "trap game"--where he caught some team right between a big win and a big upcoming opponent the next week. Lifetime, he's a slightly better than .500 coach--if you take away the gimmies he had every year against the likes of the Eastern Washingtons and Portland States, he's basically a .500 college coach. (Oops...he LOST to Eastern Washington in 2113, so maybe not that much a gimmie). He's 3-7 vs. the Bruins. His last season at OSU, he was 5-7, but only 2-7 in the Pac12...and ended the season with losses of 37-13 to UW and 47-19 to Oregon... ...so, yeah, I was really a bit surprised to see Nebraska hire him... Forever, it seemed Nebraska always made an "inside" hire--someone connected to the program. If they were going to step out of that, I would have thought they would go with a proven winner or with a hot young coach at a lesser program...not a 60+ year old .500 coach. OTOH, everyone who knows him thinks he's a great guy and a knowledable coach

i went to their forum to try to find out. you wouldn't know they have a bowl game judging from there. all the talk is about USC and sark. the kids that are transferring out from UCLA. and some sort of controversy about their season long pick-em contest. nothing about the bowl game on their first page in the forum. I am assuming from the description that the UCLA forum you went to was "BruinZone"? There are actually several active UCLA message boards. BruinZone usually gets a lot more discussion on their basketball side than football. The one with the most bowl-related discussion is the Premium board of BRO (BruinReportOnline) on scout.com. Unfortunately for you, that board is a members-only forum. On the whole, after lurking here for awhile, I'd say there really isn't any more discussion here than there is on UCLA forums. Maybe it's that the bowl isn't all that exciting a matchup for many, but, IMHO, it's all a byproduct of what has happened in college football of late. Bowls used to mean a lot more. Now there are 40 of them...and they are all irrelevant due to the playoff format. That said, I'll try to answer the original question. In the first couple of games of the season, UCLA lost its best D-Lineman, Eddie Vanderdoes, its best D-back, CB Justin Moreau and its best Linebacker, Myles Jack. All three are done for the season. Myles Jack, BTW, is not just a loss of a linebacker...Jack, as a freshman, was the Pac12 Defensive Freshman of the Year AND the Pac12 Offensive Freshman of the Year...played starting middle linebacker AND was the tailback in short yardage situations. Pretty much a freak of an athlete. Vanderdoes also played two ways--as the fullback in goal line situations. Jack has now withdrawn from school to get ready for the NFL draft. The loss of Vanderdoes and Jack has shown mostly in the four losses with the Bruins' greatest defensive liability being stopping the run. Of course, the teams we've lost to have all had viable passing offenses, so that limits selling out to stop the run. OTOH, the guys who have had to step in for the injured players have really stepped it up and have had some dynamite games. Aaron Wallace, who replaces Jack, ended up as one of the leading tacklers on the team. The secondary had little issue in replacing Moreau as there were actually five returning starters (one CB had started prior to last year, then sat out last year injured...and one was suspended the first couple of games then returned just as Moreau went out. But, overall, what you will see on defense is the same defense that has played virtually the entire year.