I'm all for healthy debate and being critical of the team we spend inordinate amounts of time thinking, reading, and talking about. But the reality is, the offense is better than it's been...maybe ever.
YRU already posted the stats and many people chose to ignore them because they were inconvenient to the belief that Mazzone is the problem. In terms of offensive production, UCLA ranks highly in almost every category. We are 41st in scoring, right behind Ala frickin bama. We score at a clip that ranks 46th in the country in front of Zona, WSU, and Utah. We are the 17th most efficient team in the red zone. We are right there with the Baylors, Texas Techs, and Oklahoma States of the country, who are perennially the standard bearers of explosiveness and efficiency on offense. You know how hard it is to score in the red zone? We do it better than 90% of the teams in the nation. We don't turn it over either (Rosen's post-BYU streak comes to mind), which is testament to the coaching provided by Mazzone, Pola, and Yarber. Speaking of Josh, he slung it all over the yard! The offense was designed for him, and he thrived in it. You can't have a great freshman QB without at least a good OC and QB coach. And I'd argue you can't give too much credit to Rosen without at least giving a nod to the Mazzone's offensive schemes.
So I ask...what do you anti-Mazzones want? You want to have a MORE explosive offense than Baylor? You want to be as consistent as Bama? Well, time to switch fan bases then, cause that ain't happening unless Art Briles himself decides to take a 4 million dollar pay cut to become our OC. In fact, I'm sure if we went and asked Art Briles if we'd be better with or without Mazzone, he's probably say we're crazy for wanting him gone.
Of course the Mazzones have their faults, including the well-documented failures of QB recruiting. Totally agree with that. The lack of progress of Hundley was a concern, but he was one guy with some questionable deeply ingrained habits. We'll see how Josh progresses. Stubbornness? Again, I bring up Briles. Or how about Mike Leach. Most stubborn people on Earth. Won't stray from their systems. Mazzone was better than Leach this year, and in the neighborhood of Briles. So again, what do you want?
If you ask me what the problems were this year, I'd say 2 things: SIZE and PENALTIES. Penalties I've beaten that drum enough. Size is a problem. We are small across the fronts on both sides of the ball. I don't want any more 5'10 175 LB guys. Can the staff please go grab some maulers and some space-eaters? We'll never compete for P-12 titles until we can bang with SC and Stanford. It's not on Alosi, or Mazzone, or Angus, or the weightroom supervisor, or Guerrero, or the remnants of Rick and Karl, or the graduate assistants, or the guy who serves the food to the players (though maybe he should give them a little more!). There's no one to blame. We just need to get BIGGER. We need big dudes who weigh a lot, like, now.
If we get bigger and more disciplined, and hang onto our juniors with stars and dollars in their eyes, we can win a Pac-12 title maybe next year, and definitely in 2017. I personally, do not think any coaching changes need to be made to get to that place.
Thoughts?
YRU already posted the stats and many people chose to ignore them because they were inconvenient to the belief that Mazzone is the problem. In terms of offensive production, UCLA ranks highly in almost every category. We are 41st in scoring, right behind Ala frickin bama. We score at a clip that ranks 46th in the country in front of Zona, WSU, and Utah. We are the 17th most efficient team in the red zone. We are right there with the Baylors, Texas Techs, and Oklahoma States of the country, who are perennially the standard bearers of explosiveness and efficiency on offense. You know how hard it is to score in the red zone? We do it better than 90% of the teams in the nation. We don't turn it over either (Rosen's post-BYU streak comes to mind), which is testament to the coaching provided by Mazzone, Pola, and Yarber. Speaking of Josh, he slung it all over the yard! The offense was designed for him, and he thrived in it. You can't have a great freshman QB without at least a good OC and QB coach. And I'd argue you can't give too much credit to Rosen without at least giving a nod to the Mazzone's offensive schemes.
So I ask...what do you anti-Mazzones want? You want to have a MORE explosive offense than Baylor? You want to be as consistent as Bama? Well, time to switch fan bases then, cause that ain't happening unless Art Briles himself decides to take a 4 million dollar pay cut to become our OC. In fact, I'm sure if we went and asked Art Briles if we'd be better with or without Mazzone, he's probably say we're crazy for wanting him gone.
Of course the Mazzones have their faults, including the well-documented failures of QB recruiting. Totally agree with that. The lack of progress of Hundley was a concern, but he was one guy with some questionable deeply ingrained habits. We'll see how Josh progresses. Stubbornness? Again, I bring up Briles. Or how about Mike Leach. Most stubborn people on Earth. Won't stray from their systems. Mazzone was better than Leach this year, and in the neighborhood of Briles. So again, what do you want?
If you ask me what the problems were this year, I'd say 2 things: SIZE and PENALTIES. Penalties I've beaten that drum enough. Size is a problem. We are small across the fronts on both sides of the ball. I don't want any more 5'10 175 LB guys. Can the staff please go grab some maulers and some space-eaters? We'll never compete for P-12 titles until we can bang with SC and Stanford. It's not on Alosi, or Mazzone, or Angus, or the weightroom supervisor, or Guerrero, or the remnants of Rick and Karl, or the graduate assistants, or the guy who serves the food to the players (though maybe he should give them a little more!). There's no one to blame. We just need to get BIGGER. We need big dudes who weigh a lot, like, now.
If we get bigger and more disciplined, and hang onto our juniors with stars and dollars in their eyes, we can win a Pac-12 title maybe next year, and definitely in 2017. I personally, do not think any coaching changes need to be made to get to that place.
Thoughts?
