My Thoughts On The Current State of UCLA Football

I’m not going to lie…

After my alma mater’s football team, the Bruins of UCLA, not only played like a Pop Warner team full of eight year olds and got smoked in every way possible by the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson, embarrassing themselves and the entire Bruin Nation with a bench clearing brawl and getting six of their players, including four wide receivers, suspended in the process, I felt a depression that was bigger than the team’s losses to crosstown rival USC, of which there were many over the past ten years-plus.

And it wasn’t merely due to this particular loss, or any of the many losses that the Bruins have suffered these past few years under Rick Neuheisel.

It was due to the fact that the quality of play and execution from the UCLA players has been steadily getting worse, with this year reaching new lows.

I won’t go into details of their lack of sound fundamentals such as tackling, or the way that opposing offenses have been running all over the Bruins’ defense and treating them like bowling pins. Doing so would take far too long and depress me further, but…

I will say that the vast majority of UCLA fans and alumni, more than ever, are calling for Neuheisel’s immediate dismissal.

I, admittedly, have not been one of those fans/alums for a long time as I have been an optimist and, for lack of a better term, an apologist. However…

While I’m not officially on the run-Rick-out-of-town bandwagon, I do have one foot on it at this moment.

I am going to give Neuheisel one last chance to make things right, for him and his staff to fix things and get the players to execute well and win in UCLA’s next game vs. California at the Rose Bowl this coming Saturday, which incidentally is Homecoming.

If the Bruins perform like they did against Arizona, stinking up the place and embarrassing the UCLA community with their inept play while getting beat by their older Golden Bear brothers from Berkeley, then – surprisingly enough – I STILL don’t think that Neuheisel should be fired.

He should do the honorable thing, concede failure, and resign.

It is what I would do if I were in his situation.

That he has stated that he’s not giving up is admirable, but he’s starting to sound like a general who subbornly refuses to surrender despite the fact that his army has clearly lost the war.

He should say something like:

“I have tried my absolute best, worked my tail off and put my heart and soul into making this program better and returning it to among the elite teams in major college football, but most unfortunately, it didn’t work out…

As evidenced by the brawl at the Arizona game and what has happened since, I realize that I’ve lost my team and have failed to bring this program to greatness.

Since that is the case, I feel like I have no choice but to step down, effective immediately.

Prehaps by doing so, the athletic department can start fresh and bring in someone new who can accomplish what I ultimately couldn’t, which is to make the UCLA Bruins relevant in football again.”

Maybe I’m being too much of an optimist again, but it’s my hope that Neuheisel won’t have to make that speech.

Hopefully his Bruins will rally, beat Cal, go on a hot streak and not only become bowl eligible, but make it to the post season.

I know it’s wishable and laughable thinking to at least 95% of the Bruin fans out there, but…

Time will tell.