Bruins fans, don't go thinking this ugly season is an anomaly. It has happened before. A sampling: two wins in 1971, three wins in '58, '68 and '89, four in 1999, five in 1979.
Interspersed among these dog seasons are some really fine ones and some very average ones -- but almost never a season that pushes itself toward the upper levels of the NCAA annals. Those levels appear to be reserved for the USC Trojans.
Remember, we're talking Bruins football here, not Bruins hoops.
Still, UCLA fans deserve better than they've had recently. They deserve a consistently good team, a team that makes bowls and weathers up and downs. A team that consistently gives the best Trojans teams hell.
How to get there from this sorry state? Having witnessed up close my share of UCLA games this season, what follows are four kindly suggestions.
1) The coaches should take full responsibility for the product.
Too often, when asked after games whether the talent is there to really compete, I've seen Bruins coaches say the right things yet also communicate through subtle mannerisms -- e.g., the rolling of eyes, and/or looks to the floor and heavy sighs -- that they've chalked up this year as a lost one because the players are too god awful to be turned around.
The players are to blame. So are their leaders. This is college ball. The way I see it, the coaches, being educators and mature adults, should take all of the heat and in this case take it with much greater conviction.
Consider quarterback Kevin Craft -- a.k.a., Scapegoat No. 1. Granted, overall, he has stunk. But it's not as if Craft is some guy UCLA got from the frat-guy intramural league. In 2006, Craft was a starter at San Diego State as a redshirt freshman (20 for 32 and 216 yards in his first start, at BYU). In one season of junior college ball, he passed for 44 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. With the Bruins he has had a small share of nice moments.
If Craft can play well once, he can be coached to do it again.
Same tune for the offensive line -- a.k.a., Scapegoat No. 2. Sure, they're easy to pick on. But remember that many of them came to college among the most highly recruited linemen in the country. It's hard for me to believe the athletes on the line of scrimmage for any Pacific 10 Conference school outside the state of Washington would be so bad that they can't improve. It's way too easy to pitch these kids under the bus.
