UCLA football

This shit is funny.

For all his flaws the Huskies did fairly well under Neuheisel. They sure have sucked since he was canned here (although the Dawgs looked decent against LSU last night under Sark).

Neuheisel may be a liar and a scammer when it comes to rules and is the bane of an administration, but he also has a genuine love for the game and seemed to connect with his players. After he was let go by the Huskies he voluntarily assistant coached a Seattle area High School. There may have been some opportunistic reason in there somewhere for Neuheisel (I don't see what) but those players really appreciated it. Even imperfect people have their good points.

I actually think Dennis Erickson is as much of a scumbag as Neuheisel. The way he lied to so many administrations and players on his way to his next gig is sad. Before he is done he'll probably end up coaching at every pac 10 school. His players were notoriously allowed very lax discipline. But, hey, he's a DUI man himself. I know some WSU people who said he fudged a lot of players academics. The man does know his football though.

It's funny seeing coaches who have been vilified or shot themselves in the foot make a come back. One hopes they learn but some never do.

Also, can't seriously and sagarin take their squabble to private email and not clutter up this thread? I enjoy sagarins posts even if I don't agree with all of them. They at least get a person thinking.

mixed thoughts wrote:

Also, can't seriously and sagarin take their squabble to private email and not clutter up this thread?

Agreed! These message boards NEVER have a thread that strays off-topic or is invaded by trolls, so why start now? Please adhere to Letsrun's strict code of conduct!

I've never seen any evidence that he is a good head coach. He had some winning seasons in Colorado and maybe top ten finishes. But compared to where Colorado's program had been before, RN took it down hill from there. Same with Washington.

I just don't see him commanding his players' respect. They like him maybe, but they don't respect him.

The main reason he is even a HC is because of the confluence that the media and schools thinks it looks cool to see a pretty blonde haired person seen on TV a lot, and that RN has an out of control ego that wants to be seen.

I think RN could be a pretty good offensive coordinator but nothing more.

Sagarin wrote:

Anyhow, you can take some solace in the fact that I'm off to see my CU Buffs beat up on the Rams tonight in Boulder.

Colorado State 23, Colorado 17

Just wasn't your day today, huh Sagarin?

Nope, CU has no running game again it appears, and the D-line is worse than I thought it would be. D. Scott only got one carry, which boggles the mind. And they don't use their tight ends enough. CU used to be "tight-end" U. Of course, CSU could be a very good team and Fairchild has done an amazing job. CU was a 9.5 favorite too.

I believe there's more hope for UCLA. Here's hoping Neuheisel doesn't leave the same aftermath with the Bruins that he has in his past sojourns (it always takes about two years to witness the repercussions). I don't think he will. I think this is a good fit, and, as others have pointed out, he's starting to compete with USC for recruiting prospects and has skilled coaches around him. Talent will take you a long way.

As I said on another thread last week, watch Ok. St. and Ole Miss. They're going to mess up the BCS this year. Should be fun. It always is.

By the way "mixed thoughts," Sarkanian will take you out of the doldrums. I love the Huskies (I almost went to UW, my mother's alma mater). I have fond memories of them being perennial contenders right around the time that CU was top dog, pun intended (they were nonconference rivals of a sort). The more teams like UW resuscitate themselves, the more it will bolster the Pac-10 in the pollsters' eyes (USC got screwed last year, dropping or otherwise stagnating in the polls despite winning convincingly and being one of the two best teams at the end of the year).

Ironic that the Pac-10 had the best bowl record last year, I believe. I still think the SEC and Big 12 are a step ahead DEPTH wise, but there's a lot of parity between the major conferences. But it will never be totally equitable until all conferences play conference championship games (or drop them) and at least two nonconference games from other major conferences (USC does a good job of this every year), preferably one early and one late.

I'll tell you one thing... with all of these threads about Boise State littering the boards, I'll bet CU coach Dan Hawkins has a litle "buyer's remorse" in that he didn't stay there, even if he wasn't the "X's and O's" guy. He had the key to that city, and his son would've performed fine at QB in that system. He can talk about the size of QB not mattering, it's all about passing lanes, blah, blah, blah,..., but, at the end of the day, he staked his career on his son at QB and didn't really ever draft anyone better.

Either CU gets it turned around quickly and establishes a running game within the next three games, or Hawkins may find himself out of a job. To be fair, he lost one of his playmakers in Josh Smith to UCLA, which, the cynic in me attributes to Rick Neuweisel. In any event, UCLA at Tennessee next week should be an interesting game.

draft... hah, hah. Recruit is more like it... I was joking around with some of my colleagues that perhaps CU needs to paint the field blue.