Disclaimer: If you care nothing about sports, college football, or UCLA in general, you can skip this entry. It's ok, don't feel guilty. I give you permission.
Ok, is it me, or does this UCLA football season look an awful lot like 1998? Once again we have an undefeated Bruin team coming out of nowhere with a stellar offense capable of putting up 50 a game on any field, home or away. However, the same glaring deficiently haunts this Bruin team as the Cade McNown-led '98 squad -- the defense can't stop anyone.
Just to refresh your memory, in 1998 UCLA reeled off 10 straight victories before having to meet Miami at the end of the season. The Miami game was actually supposed to be played in the beginning of the season but got rescheduled due to a huge hurricane (but you can call it slurricane) hitting Florida. Long story short, Edgerrin James ran all over the Bruin defenders for about 12,000 yards that day and the Bruins lost 49-45 (but as a complete side note, UCLA backup QB Drew Bennett caught a long bomb at about the 3 yard line as the final seconds ticked away to almost win it -- foreshadowing his new career as the Tennessee Titan's #1 WR). The best part of the whole fiasco? UCLA still made it to the Rose Bowl, but gave up 14,000 yards on the ground to Ron Dayne to lose that game too (which by the way I attended in person, a blue blip in a sea of Wisconsin red).
Sadly, UCLA looks no better at stopping the run this season. Even worse, this time around the guys killing us on the ground aren't even Edgerrin James-level talents. Jerome Harrison - 260 yards, Yvenson Bernard - 167 yards, Louis Rankin - 109 yards. I think my mom (who incidentally steals cha cha music... pass it on) could put up triple digits rushing against our D. When Reggie Bush comes into town I'm almost afraid that the NCAA season rushing record will be shattered in just that one game alone.
And yet, despite all the glaring holes, I still think UCLA can pull it off. Call it hope, blind faith, or complete mental delusion. It's ok. So what if we can't stop anyone on D, all we have to do is score 73 on O. I believe in you Bruins (but if this turns out to be 1998 all over again, well let's just forget I wrote this, shall we?).
1 comment:
I never wrote this entry. You hear me? I don't even know how I'm able to post a comment about a non-existant blog entry. It's really quite a mystery.
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