In Reply to: UCLA is Running Out of Time to be Relevant posted by mh on September 09, 2025 at 14:07:01
HIstorically, some of UCLA's best teams struggled out of the gate. the 20 game win streak started with 2 straight losses out of the gate, the '94 RB squad had a slow start, as did many of Donahue's best teams.
BUT- this ain't them. But there is a lot of room for improvement. The biggest obstacle right now is the OL and LB's - the OL has serious talent issues, the LB's have serious experience issues. Coaching and experience will improve both. A Bowl game is still possible, but we'll need to see that 2nd half carry over, Malloe has shown he can whip the defense into shape, but he really needs to do it BEFORE the season starts, not during the season.
The Offensive explosion in the 2nd half does give me hope that Sunseri (and Kwon) are starting to figure out what works for this team - over 400 yds total offense is a MASSIVE improvement over last year (we only cracked 400 v Rutgers and Iowa last year).