In Reply to: New Coaching staff posted by SehornBlew on March 14, 2024 at 07:24:23
Regardless of the love that most UCLA fans have Deshaun Foster, the fact remains that UCLA hired a head coach that not a single other program in all of college football would have considered hiring as its head coach. And there is nothing to suggest that UCLA should be given the benefit of the doubt in terms of knowing better than the rest of programs out there - particularly when you consider its past failures with this strategy - Dorrell, Neuheisel, Mora. Mora turned out to be the best of that bunch, and it certainly didn't work out that great.
DF's entire introductory press conference was a weird, sad affair where both Jarmond and Deshaun spent nearly all their time speaking addressing the elephant in the room by attempting to justify DF's hiring and impress upon everyone that he was not only deserving, but was also, clearly the best candidate that to emerge from Jarmond's 45 second coaching search. I don't ever recall seeing an introductory press conference with a tone anything like this before.
Then in his announcement that he was going to be UCLA's OC, EB similarly took a very defensive tone, though his was far more combative than DF's. Again, for all his accolades, EB is a coach that for whatever reason, was not in high demand, and he has rounded out his staff with a collection of subordinates that largely fit that bill as well.
Defensively, the staff looks incomplete, inexperienced and overall, rather suspect. Moreover, nothing about this staff on either side of the ball speaks to any sort of specific or even generalized vision of the HC that was responsible for assembling it. To me, it screams as being the staff of a guy that doesn't yet really know what the hell he is doing and still just kind of making it up as he goes along. Sure, it could hall magically work out beautifully in the end, but with the lack fo talent on the roster, the hole Chop dug in recruiting - one that is not going to overcome in a matter of weeks or likely even months, the paucity of NIL resources, and the track record of UCLA in these sorts of situations, optimism remains in very short supply