EXTRA POINTS: Football earns a mediocre GPA

It’s mid-season report card time! Aren’t you excited?

The easy route would be to go through the different aspects of the team ““ the passing game, the defense, etc. ““ and grade each accordingly. And usually, I’m not an easy-route type of guy.

Usually…

But considering I’ve had my face planted in the works of Michel Foucault for about, let’s say, nine consecutive days, I’m going to go ahead and let this be the exception.

Easy route!

The Passing Game: I

That’s correct, the passing game gets an “Incomplete.”

Now, if I were being cut and dry about the situation, a grade in the ballpark of an “F” would certainly be justifiable. But my reasoning for giving the Bruins’ passing game an “Incomplete” is because it seems to be just that ““ incomplete.

From what I’ve seen of the passing attack in the pistol offense, the Bruins clearly haven’t gotten it down pat quite yet. There still seems to be a lack of cohesion between redshirt sophomore quarterback Kevin Prince and his receivers, which signifies to me that the air brigade is far behind the rushing attack.

If we were to go by stats alone, well, that would just make for a bad column because the stats are horrible.

Through the air, the Bruins have only tallied 573 yards and have completed less than 50 percent of their passes. They are averaging less than five yards per completion and have three passing touchdowns compared to six interceptions.

But since the numbers are that bad, I’m forced to cut Prince, sophomore quarterback Richard Brehaut and the UCLA receivers some slack. They have far from mastered how to effectively pass in their newly implemented offense, and because it’s the first season with the pistol, maybe we should let them off the hook.

Maybe.

*The Rushing Attack: B-/C *

It pains me to grade our backfield so low, but the rush was effective in weeks three, four and five, but nowhere to be found in weeks one, two and six.

How could I give that type of inconsistency anything higher than a B-?

One thing is for certain: The pistol has benefited the rushing attack tremendously this season. Redshirt sophomore Johnathan Franklin has already eclipsed his output from last season in six games this season. He has five touchdowns and is averaging more than six yards a carry, as opposed to a little over four last season.

Prince has also been effective on his feet, not to mention Franklin’s backfield Robin, junior tailback Derrick Coleman, who had a breakout performance against Washington State, rushing for 185 yards and three touchdowns.

But against Cal, he had one yard on two carries. I’m not sure why Coleman only got two carries, but either way, that’s a knock on the rushing attack. And after his 217-yard rushing barrage against WSU, Franklin only amassed 64 yards against Cal.

So at this point, we can’t anoint the Bruins’ backfield as great when it has disappointing performances in Pac-10 rivalry games, such as last week.

*The Defense: B *

The Bruins are giving up 370 yards per game and are allowing nearly 26 points per game.

Those stats don’t really signify a defense deserving of a B , I know.

But after the 35-0 rout at the hands of Stanford in week two, coach Rick Neuheisel was adamant that his defense played well, and that it was just on the field too long. And he was definitely onto something.

In the game against Stanford, the Cardinal held the ball for nearly 37 minutes as opposed to 23 for the Bruins. In the loss to Kansas State, KSU was in possession for 36 minutes, the Bruins for 24. And against Cal, it was a 34-minute to 26-minute advantage for the Bears.

But in UCLA’s wins against Houston, Texas and WSU, the Bruins held the ball for five minutes more than the Cougars, 11 minutes longer than the Longhorns, and nearly 10 minutes longer than Washington State.

Point taken, Rick.

A major part of how this defense performs is how the offense performs. And when the offense has performed above average, or even just average, UCLA’s defensive unit has had success.
However, the biggest test for the Bruins is still on the horizon, as they will travel to take on No. 1 Oregon on Thursday night.

This could either spell disaster for UCLA, as the Ducks are leading the country in points scored this season, or it could be the type of game in which the UCLA defense makes a name for itself.

With that said, we’ll wait a week before grading Neuheisel and the coaching staff. I’d hate to overshoot Slick Rick’s grade or diminish his grade, depending on the outcome of the Oregon game.
Let’s think of Thursday’s game as Neuheisel’s midterm. Stay tuned…

E-mail Watson at [email protected].