Regarding the 19-13 UCLA loss to USC this past Saturday LA Times Sports columnist Ben Bolch wrote; “This game film should be cataloged in the horror section for anyone associated with UCLA.” This was a tough season for Bruin fans and a loss against their cross town rivals in front of a number of invited high school recruits on their home field didn’t make things any better on the night or going forward. Note to head coach Sean Foster; you’re a defensive coach with a world class offensive coordinator on your staff in Eric Bieniemy—stop making calls for the offense in critical situations, you’re not good at it. Sadly, it’s probably going to get even worse as the Bruins will try to send their Seniors off with a win in their last game of the season against Fresno State. But as Bolch pointed out later in his article; “A warning for the Bruins: The Bulldogs have won the last four games in the series. A warning for Foster: Fresno State has been especially hard on new UCLA coaches, beating Chip Kelly, Rick Neuheisel and Karl Dorrell in each of their first years on the job in Westwood.”
I guess I’m a glass half full kind of person usually because there were a lot of good things on both sides of the ball for UCLA. They held the Trojans to under 100 yards of rushing and denied them TD’s three consecutive times deep in the red zone in the first half. Before throwing four incompletions in a row with just over two minutes left and an opportunity to drive down the field and win the game, Bruin QB Ethan Garbers was 11-for-11 in the second half for over 150 yards and a TD to take a one point lead at the time. You have to ask yourself, with a good two minutes left and a Junior RB in TJ Harden who rushed for 98 yards on 14 attempts—averaging 7 yards a carry—why did UCLA throw four consecutive passes? Feel free to go back to my note to head coach Sean Foster above. UCLA went through those four downs so quickly that there was about fifteen seconds shy of two minutes still left on the clock when they turned it back over to the Trojans.
But give the Trojans some credit too because in spite of being down 13-9 at the end of three they held UCLA scoreless in that fourth quarter, sacked Garbers on the Bruins next possession after they went ahead and forced a short punt which gave them great field position at midfield. Four plays later USC QB Jayden Maiava hit Ja’Kobi Lane in the end zone to go up 16-13. With five minutes left in the game and only down by three UCLA goes for a 4th and 1 from their own 34 yard line. If this was a computer program I’d just have a goto statement here to a line number regarding my note regarding Foster taking the play calling out of his offensive coordinator’s hands during crucial moments of the game. Needless to say UCLA did not pick up the first down but I credit their defense for once more holding the Trojans to just three points well inside the Bruin’s red zone to go up 19-13.
Regarding Foster I think he served as a good assistant defensive coordinator last year and credit him for keeping D’Anton Lynn’s program in place after he left for USC. UCLA had a horrendously tough schedule and their QB Ethan Garbers struggled with Bieniemy’s offense for quite a few games before breaking out. But once he did I think Foster would have served the program better by completely backing off of any decisions regarding the offense since that’s not his background. I think the Bruins should dump Foster and promote Eric Bieniemy to the head coach position. Regarding USC and head coach Lincoln Riley, in spite of the record I think he’s a great coach and will get it right. I think he needs to revamp the offensive side of the ball next year like he did this year with the defense. They are pretty good at pass protection but have a hard time controlling the line of scrimmage and developing room for a solid running game. In spite of the concerns going into this game that it was a must-win for USC with No. 6 Notre Dame up next on their dance card and having only five wins coming in—don’t forget USC only lost by three points to No. 4 Penn State at home and I wouldn’t be surprised to see an upset in the Coliseum this coming Saturday.