<p>We can all (hopefully) agree college football rocks, and it’s in everyone’s best interest UCLA becomes competitive again.</p>
<p>honestly, from personal experience, the student body doesn’t care about our athletics programs…let alone UCLA football. its sad. </p>
<p>I agree with Asif7187, people don’t realize how much money a good sports program generates for schools. Besides ticket sales, there are the alumni donations, sponsorships, media limelight, etc. It really could help alleviate part of the budget crisis.</p>
<p>Anyway, if UCLA football is to look to next year, we need at least two things:</p>
<p>-A DECENT QB/maybe new coach
-More school spirit</p>
<p>UCLA needs a QB that can be consistent…and well, throw. From craft to prince to Brehaut, its a shame that schools like michigan and USC can get great rookie quarterbacks, yet for the last five years UCLA can’t seem to get a great commitment.
Being one of the worst offenses in the nation (rank 120 something?) = something is obviously wrong with the qb/coaching. I like RN, but so far it feels like things haven’t changed at all in the last 3 years.</p>
<p>On school spirit, its really sad when the crowd for the USC vs UCLA game is 71,000 when the capacity is around 90,000…what happened to the great rivalry? I think it was a huge mistake to take out spirit week this year because of 10th week. I’m leaving SAA to figure this one out, but I think we can all agree that school pride is at an all time low right now.</p>
<p>UCLA has a gained a great reputation from its academic AND athletic programs. Its part of what makes UCLA different from the Claremont college or UCSD. </p>
<p>@Asif7187: yup, the bottom line is that it would be awesome for UCLA football to do better and it would benefit everyone on campus, whether you like the team or not</p>
<p>I think its safe to say that before people can start investing themselves into school spirit, there needs to be incentive.
If the football team wants me to go and cheer for them, I want to be given the same courtesy, win a game, and then we’ll talk.</p>
<p>I don’t really have a huge problem with people that don’t care about sports. The ignorance you see from people like sid3000 is just an extension of that.</p>
<p>I’m more annoyed by the people that have some knowledge of sports but have the classic LA fan (i.e. bandwagon *******) mentality, as PauM11 seems to have.</p>
<p>LA fan, bandwagon mentality? ThisCouldBeHeaven, you think too highly of me. </p>
<p>As long as not I’m not rooting for the opposite team, in this case USC vs. UCLA, how is it that I will jump the bandwagon if UCLA starts winning? I was never against UCLA’s football team. Their continue losses leave little to be desired of, you can’t possibly tell me that your level of enthusiasm towards the team doesn’t change when they lose than when they win? Saying that the levels of joy are the same would be absurd. </p>
<p>And if the notaznguy came here for the sports, or any others, I would be interested to know if they actually go and support the teams and games that are actually giving UCLA a good name in the athletic field. The gymnastics team last year became NCAA Champions, how many of those games did you actually attend. Teams like those are what one should be rooting for, if you came for sports, because then, UCLA has actually something descent to say about its athletic department.</p>
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<p>Bandwagon fans don’t necessarily root for other teams. It’s the jumping on board when the team is good that makes someone a bandwagon fan.</p>
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<p>Joy != enthusiasm</p>
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<p>Can’t speak for notaznguy, but I went to two gymnastics meets last year, plus a few men’s soccer games, a few women’s basketball games, several baseball games, most women’s soccer games and almost every game in men’s basketball. I also wish I’d been able to go see a few softball games in person, but they play at weird times, and I’ll admit that I don’t plan my schedule around the minor sports the same way I do for football and basketball.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with Gatos about needing a new head coach. The school needs to stop hiring from within. Carl Pelini anyone? </p>
<p>But then again, I can’t really say anything too substantive about RN considering I don’t remember the last time he had a healthy quarterback.</p>
<p>he’s actually a fairweather fan, not a bandwagon fan. both bad nonetheless.</p>
<p>when you’re a bandwagon fan you just bandwagon whatever team is winning. jumping from team to team.
fairweather fans have a team, but only root and keep up with them when they win.</p>
<p>I like positive results in the teams I follow. If that makes me a fair-weather fan, so be it.</p>
<p>ThisCouldBeHeaven, that’s great that you went to other sporting events, but like you said, you give preference to some teams over others. In this case, I give preference to our team whether they are producing favorable results or not. We’re not too different.</p>
<p>Asif7187, I agree, we need to look for someone else out there.</p>
<p>And I can’t recall who mentioned something about actually recruiting good players. Couldn’t be in more agreement. We need our football team to somewhat improve so ‘will be college stars’ high school kids actually want to come to UCLA for sports, mainly football.</p>
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<p>The two terms have the same meaning, but I guess it’s beside the point…</p>
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<p>That doesn’t make any sense. Not going to every sport because there isn’t enough time to go to literally every game is very different from choosing not to go because you think they’ll lose.</p>
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<p>UCLA’s had top-10/15 recruiting classes the last 3 years. Most of those players are freshmen and sophomores and will play a bigger role in the next few years. As for the coaching, Neuheisel will be back, but Bullough probably won’t. Plus with 8-10 starters returning on defense, there should definitely be improvement. There will also be 8 or 9 starters returning on offense so there <em>should</em> be improvement there too. At the very least, if UCLA isn’t significantly better next year it will almost certainly mean the end of Neuheisel’s tenure.</p>