I have never had a favorite college football team but lately I have turned into a traveling Bob Chesney fan and have switched my allegiance this year to UCLA after being a James Madison fan the past two years and a Holy Cross fan before that. Bob Chesney is objectively a top three coach in college football (Bob Sr. being number one, Bob Jr. at two, and Curt Cignetti a distant third), and I have objectively chosen to be a fan of any team that he coaches. This year, I will do my best to recap the UCLA games each week even though I am a brand new fan. Luckily there are a decent amount of JMU transfers that I am familiar with and have followed Nico the QB since Tennessee so I can get by for a couple weeks until I actually know what I am talking about. Ok, let’s see how this goes.
The New Look Bruins
While, this may be a breath of fresh air for long time bruins fans, this was more of the same for me. This looks like every Chesney coached team that I have seen. The team is upbeat, they fly around, they believe they can win every game and they look like they are having fun doing it. Combine that with the talent on the roster and this will be a dangerous opponent that no one is looking forward to playing. This was a 45-24 win (a lot closer than the scoreboard suggests) and there is still a lot of room for improvement, thats encouraging.
The Bruins Offense
I love this offense and it’s the perfect style of offense to compliment what should be a lockdown Chesney defense. Low risk, high upside passing paired with a dominant running game that rushed for 277 yards on on 8.7 YPC and 6 Touchdowns!! That is absurd. Nico’s stats may not look the best 14/22 for 184 passing 1 Total TD and 1 INT but he was the point guard of this offense and made the entire thing work. He is a super versatile player, accurate, throws a catchable ball, makes quick smart decisions, can run when needed and can throw a deep pretty ball when called upon. I love how this offense threatens you laterally with quick passing and misdirection and then follows it up with stud running backs who put their foot in the ground and run DOWNHILL!. I LOVE running backs that know how to run downhill and I love teams with three running backs. Some great three headed monsters that I have enjoyed watching over the years were the Cowboys (Barber, Jones & Choice), Chargers (Tomlinson, Turner & Sproles. Maybe the best ever) and in college the 00s Florida Gators. This may be too much praise but this offense looked a lot like those 00’s Florida teams with Rainey, Demps & Harvin ripping off big chunk plays. Woods, Knight and Thomas all averaged 8+ YPC and there were two touchdown runs of 30+ yards (Woods & Knight). The running game was a thing of beauty and I can’t wait to see more.
It would be a disservice to the sport of football if I wrote a blog about a team that rushed for 277 and did not mention one player on the offensive line by name. I think I may have found my favorite player on the team and that is the left guard #55 Eugene Brooks (apprently they have two #55’s on the roster?). Every football team needs players to fill certain roles: the leader, the jokester, the natural, the smart guy and my favorite - the enforcer. I think Eugene Brooks may be the enforcer. With roughly 4 minutes to go in the second quarter, Nico rushes on the left side for a first down to the three yard line to put the team in scoring position. He is tackled by #9 on the defense and #9 made the mistake of not getting off of Nico quick enough. Brooks comes over, shoves #9, then gently goes to pick up Nico, #9 comes back for some more and Brooks shoves him again with one arm while picking up Nico! I must have watched this ten times this morning, I love offensive linemen. Heart and soul of the team, heart and soul of this country. All offensive linemen go to heaven.
Resilience Under Pressure
As mentioned earlier, this game was closer than the scoreboard suggests, it felt more like a one score game. Right before the half, Sagapolutele (nephew of the late Pio Sagapolutele who was a DT for the New England Patriots and one of my mother’s favorite players. Mostly because of how fun his name sounds. Will root for him the rest of the year) hits a big pass down the left sidline that leads to a score to make it 21-17 right before the half. This is one of those moments where the winning team gets frustrated because they feel like they dominated the entire half and all they have to show for it is 21-17. 21-17 & 21-10 going into halftime feel completely different especially after a TD setup by a big play on the opponent’s last drive. Instead of shrinking from the moment, UCLA put a nice drive together and were able to add three points to their tally and most importantly preserve their momentum going into the half.
Its a good thing they did because Cal comes right out of the half and puts together a 14 play 85 yard back breaking drive to even the score at 24. Now the momentum had switched again and it felt like the game could go either way. This is the part of the game where the margin for error gets small, players get tight and where football has built its reputation for a “game of inches”. A tipped ball, combined with some good hustle from #27 Ta’Shawn James is what the Bruins needed to break the gridlock. Wayne Knight follows this up with a 31 yard touchdown run and the bruins never looked back. Knight gets another touchdown and Woods breaks free for a 53 yard score to make the score 45-24. A game that looked neck and neck in the 4th quarter turns into a 19 point win, but why did this happen? Was it because of a herculean effort from an individual or a mastermind plan hatched by the coaching staff? No. It was back to basics disciplined football. Take care of the football, hustle on every play, limit mental mistakes and fight to the last second. This is the little secret about how winning happens in football and how it happens in most sports. Talent matters, yes, and there is nothing teams/players can do in certain situations where the difference in talent crosses a certain threshold. But a game between relatively even matched opponents is typically decided by who does the basics better, limits fundamental mistakes and puts themselves in position to take advantage of the mistakes of their opponent.
The Defense
This may sound like I am making excuses, but I thought the defense was much better than the scoreboard shows. Two drives (one before the half and one after) accounted for the majority of the points scored, otherwise the defense played very well and were able to get stops/turnovers when it mattered (when you’re tired! when it matters… real ones know what comes next). Sustaining that level of play for the entire game will be the key going forward as small drops in concentration can be costly.
I know the defense will be better, Chesney defenses are always good and I expect nothing different from this team. Sammy Omosigho looks like a total stud. Combining his talent with LB coach Jacob Dobbs’ (loved watching him play at holy cross and JMU) experience should be a nightmare for opposing offenses. Sahir West has transferred over from JMU and has picked up right where he left off. Colin Hitschler has always gotten the best out of his pass rushers dating back to 2011 so West is in good hands here at UCLA.
Looking Ahead
This game has made me super excited for the season and I will enjoy seeing how far they can go. Maybe I will have to take a trip down to Maryland on 9/26… we will see.
