UCLA Football This Season

This is the post I haven't wanted to write. I'm not a football expert, though I have lost my voice plenty of times as a result of a UCLA football game. This will be the first season for UCLA's new coach, Rick Neuheisel. We retained defensive coach DeWayne Walker and added Norm Chow for offense. But we don't have a lot to work with on the field. Our two quarterbacks are injured. We lost a few other players due to injury, a few to other schools, and a few to graduation.

During the Pac 10's media day last week, UCLA was projected to take fifth in the Pac 10 after all is said and done. Don't know that I believe we'll do that well.

In the end, the wins and losses don't really matter this season. There is no magic number of wins that will make me feel that this season was a success. More important is how we play the games. And that will reflect how Neuheisel and his staff do in practice. Already there have been some good signs that the coaches are forward thinking, not just thinking of our season opener against Tennessee (where we will likely be beaten badly) but of the long term. For instance, bruinsnation has a great article about (injured) QB Ben Olson's intense workouts. Neuheisel didn't praise him for those workouts, said they would definitely help him prevent more injuries, but what really matters is going to be how he steps up in the games when the stakes are high. This should be shouted from the rooftops. Practice obviously is important, but all the practice in the world matters little if you choke during the games. If we lose and the other team is just better, fine. But I cannot take too many more awful losses to worse teams (last year's Utah and Notre Dame games, for instance).

My expectations are not for a perfect season. But I will judge this year's season by how we play our games. How the players handle themselves. So far, so very, very good. There hasn't been weird bragging and bravado on the part of the players, and Neuheisel has sounded like the wise coach we all dream of...but I will wait until the season is over to make my judgment.