WACoug wrote:
The part that I love is how they are struggling adjusting to Chow's offense, not that we expected different but it is still nice to hear. The tidbit about the o-line and how the starting center used to be a guard and one of the starters is coming over from tight end also gets me excited. Rick said it best "We are thin and inexperienced" :evil: :evil:
Don't get too excited. It is a common tactic for new coaches to downplay the capabilities of their new team early-on. This makes it easier for the coach to claim complete credit for any successes they have that first season. Only rarely do coaches walk into a situation with a "loaded" team (aka BSU a couple of years ago, Urban Meyer & Florida, Crowton & BYU the first year).
It is much easier to claim that the previous coach left the cupboard bare, then later take credit for anything moderately successful. Neuheisel has done that enough that if he was in Hollywood, they would say he was "type-cast".
UCLA signed seven 4-star recruits in 2006, six in 2007 (plus one 5-star), eleven in 2008 (plus two 5-star).
Their recruiting classes have ranked pretty good. The 2005 recruiting class was #24, 2006 was #20, 2007 was #36, 2008 they are ranked #10.
Their cupboard is far from bare.
We've ranged from #42 to #57 in that same time frame.
Despite UCLA's "superior" paper talent, I strongly believe that Bronco and staff do a much better job of developing the players' talents after they arrive on campus than almost any other staff at the Div 1 level.
Now they just need to stop making dumb play calls the lead to things like fumbling the ball on a running play just before the half instead of taking a knee and a ten point lead into the locker. But then that's a topic for a different thread...
