{"id":33853,"date":"2020-12-21T20:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T01:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=33853"},"modified":"2020-12-21T16:51:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T21:51:55","slug":"33853-uclas-rebuilding-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/12\/21\/33853-uclas-rebuilding-process\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA’s Rebuilding Process Is 22 Years In The Making"},"content":{"rendered":"

No real UCLA football fan needs to be reminded of the dark day in December 1998 in Miami. We won\u2019t revisit it here. Brad Melsby\u2019s<\/strong> knee was down, UCLA belonged in the inaugural BCS championship game, period, full stop. UCLA’s rebuilding process is 22 years in the making.<\/p>\n

UCLA’s Rebuilding Process<\/h2>\n

Ask most real UCLA football fan and they will take that day in Miami over where the program is now. The game was painful, and the hurt lingers decades later. But the program was nationally relevant. Sure, head coach Bob Toledo<\/strong> could not hold his locker room together in those closing weeks of the season. And yes, there was some behind-the-curtain ugliness. But that paled in comparison to the transgressions of many schools across the country. What was real was that UCLA football was a top story on college gameday shows and throughout the country. Quarterback Cade McNown<\/strong> was leading a high wire offense and it was fun.<\/p>\n

Post Miami Meltdown<\/h3>\n

Now if UCLA makes it on ESPN, it is as part of someone else\u2019s highlights. The last time the program was a headline was three years ago this month when they hired one Charles Edward Kelly<\/strong> as its head coach. It\u2019s been a long three years, speckled with some highlights, but inundated mostly with malaise.<\/p>\n

After Toledo was dismissed, UCLA settled for Karl Dorrell<\/a>. He was a Bruin through and through. And he was average a head coach in Westwood. Turns out he is better now than he was then. That provides all the proof you need that UCLA athletics should not be on-the-job training for anyone.<\/p>\n

From Dorrell, we went to Rick Neuheisel<\/a>. This was never going to work. Sure, he was a Bruin here and Rose Bowl legend. But as a coach his teams at Colorado and Washington got worse the longer he stayed. He was a fixer of other coaches\u2019 mistakes, but not a creator of his own success. What happened at Colorado and Washington predictably happened in Westwood, and he had to go.<\/p>\n

That gets us to the curious hiring of Jim Mora<\/a> with a significant lack of college football coaching experience. His hiring\/firing is still a hot button topic with too many UCLA fans, and thus we are not going to hyper-analyze here. It needs two columns of its own. He has gone on to a career as a mediocre tv analyst and is fine where he is.<\/p>\n

The Chip Kelly Era<\/h3>\n

Mora transitions to Kelly, which was supposed to be a landmark hire for the program. It was the first time in anyone\u2019s memory that UCLA went after a big-name target and got their coach. They were allegedly in competition with Florida for Kelly\u2019s services, but that was smoke and mirrors. Florida had sent their biggest and most influential boosters up to New Hampshire up to seven times, with no other school even making a bid, and they still had no commitment from Kelly. Seven times and not hearing, \u201cyes,\u201d is like taking your dad\u2019s car to go see the same girl of your desires time and time again, and always leaving by yourself.<\/p>\n

It took only a couple of weeks for UCLA and its posse of Rebholz, Wasserman, and Aikman to seal the deal with Kelly. The promise was in what could be at UCLA.<\/p>\n

We are still waiting for it, three years later. When, exactly, does \u201cthe process\u201d kick in?<\/p>\n

In three years of the Kelly era, UCLA is 3-9, 4-8, and 3-4. A combined 10-21 is not exactly what the excited contingency had in mind at Kelly\u2019s introductory press conference three years ago. The Bruins have, in order, finished fifth, third, and fifth in the six team Pac 12 South. The high-water mark so far is finishing one game under .500 in conference play last year, but with the Pac 12 being so bad, it was good enough for third place in the division. UCLA is fighting to improve enough to get to middling in an increasingly bad college football conference. Was this part of \u201cthe process?\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA = Vandy….Sort Of<\/h3>\n

Before readers start to misconstrue this column, this is not a call for the dismissal of Kelly. Nor is it an endorsement of his tenure. More, it is an advocating of UCLA fans learning the phrase, \u201cIt is what it is,\u201d and accept that it has been 22 years with only intermittent flashes of promise.<\/p>\n

There was a recent blog post in which we said UCLA had become Vanderbilt but with better facilities. That created a lot of pushback, but it is accurate. Both schools are academically elite; they both succeed in non-revenue sports; they both have new, young, forward-thinking athletic directors; and they both are crippled by a lack of commitment to competitive college football at the top of the university.<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt\u2019s Candice Lee<\/strong> is flummoxed by having to exist like that in the all-or-nothing SEC. UCLA\u2019s Martin Jarmond<\/a> is handcuffed by inheriting an $18 million budget deficit and then going into the revenue losses created by the COVID era of college sports. He undoubtedly smiles on the outside while being puzzled on the inside as conference commissioner Larry Scott talks about non-existent investment money that will help the schools. The Pac 12 now falls far below even the American Athletic Conference when it comes to quality football.<\/p>\n

Some of the latter trickles down to the fan base. Oh, sure there is grumbling after yet another bad season. Heck, Vandy even fired a good man who is a good position coach\/coordinator, but not ready to be a major head coach. But mostly from the fan bases it is, \u201cWe were close in this game or that game. The guys never quit. They fought hard to the end. If only it weren\u2019t for those turnovers, we would be undefeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excuses For And From The Fans<\/h3>\n

Now I have been covering college football across the country for a long time. I have never seen a stat line that include, \u201cIf only\u2026..\u201d Or one that says, \u201cThey lost but did not quit.\u201d The two-sided coin of that argument for UCLA fans is, yeah they gave up an 18 point lead and lost to USC, and they gave up a two-touchdown lead to Stanford and lost. But hey, at least they had the leads to give up at all. Like it or not, college football is big business. It is about statistics that lead to wins and losses. Everything is flim flam. There are no points given in a game for effort. Even Kelly said there no excuses, like the above. “One thing about this program — we don\u2019t make excuses, we let others make excuses for us,” Kelly said after the Stanford loss Saturday.<\/p>\n

In the coming years, UCLA has home-and-home series with LSU, Georgia, Auburn, and other powerhouses. Kudos for the great scheduling job. But the program is nowhere near ready to play with the big boys of college football.<\/p>\n

You Are What Your Record Says You Are<\/h3>\n

There is no visible improvement over the last three years. And frankly, there is no sustained improvement over the last two decades. Re-read that before you start to respond\u2026.sustained improvement. <\/em>The turnovers are still there on offense. The meltdowns in critical times are still there on defense. Sure, you can point out that the defense went from one of the worst in the country to top 60 this year. But isn\u2019t that just accepting our premise? When did top 60 become the acceptable benchmark? Many are excited about Kelly\u2019s 2021 recruiting class. Indeed, he landed some big, high-end targets. What was the end result? UCLA moved from 11th<\/sup> in the Pac 12 when the day started to 6th<\/sup>, when it was over. What do we call that? Middle of the pack.<\/p>\n

Invariably, when training camp starts, all of us who cover UCLA on a regular basis, will get a quote from a player who will say the defense is faster than at any time he has been there. Or the offense is clicking better than before. Or they all \u201cGet it\u201d now. We all take those quotes every year and print them. And UCLA fans are led to optimism only to wind up with another three or four win season.<\/p>\n

Next Year?<\/h3>\n

UCLA receiver Kyle Philips<\/a> took to Twitter over the weekend, urging the faithful to hang in there.<\/p>\n

\n

Stay with us a little longer Bruin nation. We are gonna get there. It hasn\u2019t been what we\u2019ve wanted the last few seasons but I promise we are close. This is a very special place, I love this staff and I love this team. Things will be different next season<\/p>\n

— Kyle Philips (@kylephilips17) December 20, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n