{"id":35984,"date":"2021-05-12T18:53:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T22:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=35984"},"modified":"2021-05-12T18:53:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T22:53:19","slug":"35984-uclas-gunderson-on-the-learning-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2021\/05\/12\/35984-uclas-gunderson-on-the-learning-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA’s Gunderson Is On The Learning Curve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Gunderson<\/strong> has only been on staff at UCLA for a few months, yet his pupils will be the most closely watched and critiqued on the team. UCLA’s Gunderson is on the learning curve as the new quarterback coach. He inherits a stable of players with talent and experience. Just not a lot of wins. And with this being UCLA\u2019s most veteran team in many years, and win-now expectations, his group will be at the forefront of the season\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n

UCLA’s Gunderson Is On The Learning Curve<\/h2>\n

Gunderson and UCLA head coach Chip Kelly<\/strong> have history. Gunderson was on the staff at Oregon State when Kelly\u2019s Oregon Ducks were running roughshod through the Pac 12. \u201cWe don\u2019t have much that we can say about the games that we played against Coach Kelly\u2019s team. We didn\u2019t win,\u201d Gunderson said Wednesday. At 36 years old, Gunderson, along with new receiver\u2019s coach Jerry Neuheise<\/strong>l, (age 29), significantly brings down the average age of what was a venerable coaching staff. He was a quarterback in Corvallis from 2004 through 2007. His peak year in terms of activity was his sophomore season where he was 54 for 102 passing. He finished his career with a 53% completion rate and had two touchdowns against four interceptions. His new pupils will need to outperform their new mentor by a lot.<\/p>\n

He spent two years as a grad assistant at Oregon State. He followed Mike Riley<\/strong> to Nebraska for one year as director of player personnel, before moving on to San Jose State as the quarterbacks coach in 2017. The Spartans were 19th<\/sup> in the country in passing offense in 2020, with just under 300 yards per game through the air. UCLA was 68th<\/sup> in the country at 224 yards per game. He has his work cut out for him in Westwood.<\/p>\n

Teacher Meets Students<\/h3>\n

That work started with doing homework on each of his new quarterbacks. \u201cThere was a lot of walk-through time. There were a lot of learning opportunities during that time,\u201d Gunderson said. But he added the biggest factor was getting to know not so much what<\/em> he was working with, but who<\/em> he was working with. \u201cTo really do a good job of coaching, I think, you kind of have to have a personal relationship. It can\u2019t just be football all the time. I had them all in to talk, and kind of get to know them a little bit better. My goals are my players\u2019 goals. If everybody\u2019s got the same goal of being the starter, I can\u2019t necessarily help you all be the starter. But I want to move everybody in the direction of what their goals are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly made it clear weeks ago that as a starter for two-and-a-half years, Dorian Thompson-Robinson<\/a> is the ordained starter going into 2021. He said the incumbent\u2019s biggest competition was with himself<\/a> in terms of the need to improve.<\/p>\n

The Incumbent<\/h3>\n

\u201cDorian\u2019s base of football knowledge is really, really good,\u201d Gunderson said. \u201cHe\u2019s bright. He sees stuff. His vision is really good. He really wants to learn. And he wants to know the bad. He doesn\u2019t just want to be told what he\u2019s doing right. We\u2019ve had an awesome experience so far. I\u2019m not na\u00efve enough to think it\u2019s just going to be like that. There are no real bullets flying yet. Stuff\u2019s going to get real here in the Fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, Thompson-Robinson referred to Gunderson as, \u201cA player\u2019s coach; someone I can go to, and I am in his office at all times of the day.\u201d Gunderson attributes that relationship to the natural maturation process from a young athlete into a mature leader. \u201cOnce you get older and you start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, it becomes more real. And they\u2019re a lot more accepting of the hard coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Learning Process<\/h3>\n

Gunderson willfully acknowledges that his playing days pale in comparison to the talent he is coaching now. He said when he watches his quarterbacks, he knows he did not have the ability to make some of the plays they do. That puts his emphasis more on what is in the head than what is in the arm. \u201cI\u2019m trying to coach the decision making.\u201d He said it is about calling the right play against the right coverage. \u201cLet\u2019s make sure we are doing this thing exactly right, and putting this team, this offense, in the best situation possible to move the ball down the field and score points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunderson tends to get outwardly excited about what he calls learning opportunities, at one point calling them, \u201cAwesome learning opportunities.\u201d He never came right out and gave the Chip Kelly line about, \u201cSo what, now what?\u201d But he does have his own version. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t necessarily matter what happened previously. Where you are is where you are. What are you going to do about it going forward?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Class<\/h3>\n

While he is new to the coaching position, he is not completely new to the personnel at his disposal. Gunderson says San Jose State was the first to offer Ethan Garbers<\/strong> a scholarship. Garbers of course went to Washington instead, before transferring in this off-season to UCLA. His eligibility status is still being held hostage by Washington, using a loophole to defy new NCAA transfer guidelines. \u201cI\u2019d like to say I knew who he was first,\u201d Gunderson says with a wry grin. He called Garbers’ throwing motion and arm strength, \u201cFun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for last year\u2019s backup quarterback, Chase Griffin<\/strong>, Gunderson said, \u201cHe\u2019s really football smart. He\u2019s done a good job. I use the term, \u2018Drive the bus.\u2019 You don\u2019t necessarily gotta drive a sports car, but you\u2019ve got to get all the kids to school. He does a good job of operating the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Journey<\/h3>\n

Beyond all that comes with taking a new job at a Power 5 school, there is the personal part that comes with a coach’s travails. Gunderson chronicled the journey he and his wife have experienced. Hillary is from the city of Astoria, Oregon, with a population of all of 9,000 people. The two met at Oregon State, which has an undergrad population of about 30,000. The coaching jobs eventually took them to Lincoln, Nebraska, which on game day is the second biggest population center in the entire state. At San Jose State, they lived in a city of just over one million people. Now they are in Los Angeles. \u201cWhen I told her we were moving to LA, I said, \u2018Hillary, this is as big as it\u2019s going to get.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As for that other partner in life\u2026the professional one\u2026Gunderson said it was an easy decision to come work for Chip Kelly and learn his offenses. \u201cYou wanted to learn, and you wanted to kind of know the secret sauce.\u201d He called it a great opportunity to learn something different. \u201cIt\u2019s the only way you are going to grow.\u201d He stopped just short of reverting to his theme of, \u201cAwesome learning opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Main image courtesy San Jose State Athletics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Gunderson has only been on staff at UCLA for a few months, yet his pupils will be the most closely watched and critiqued on the team. UCLA’s Gunderson is on the learning curve as the new quarterback coach. He inherits a stable of players with talent and experience. Just not a lot of wins. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":35987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[4210,2539,6560,511,168,7570],"class_list":["post-35984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-pac12","tag-chase-griffin","tag-chip-kelly","tag-ethan-garbers","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-oregon-state-beavers","tag-ryan-gunderson"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}