It’s Tough to Come to UCLA’s Defense This Week

Back in September, after squeaking out three-point victories over Michigan and mighty Fresno State, UCLA’s Ryan McCann was quick to proclaim that the Bruins should be the No. 1 team in the country.

Last Saturday, after losing to USC by three points, UCLA’s Brian Poli-Dixon was equally quick to lament that the Bruins had “lost to the worst team in the Pac-10” and that they “basically gave them the game.”

By Bruin logic, it would seem that the title of worst team in the Pac-10 is up for grabs, or at the least, shared.

AUGIE CASTAGNOLA

San Pedro

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Attention all you alcohol-addled SC fans who insisted on screaming at me in triumph as I walked down Westwood Boulevard with my young son on Saturday night while wearing my UCLA jacket: You still finished last in the conference. We are going to a bowl, probably in Hawaii. You barely beat a team whose defense was ravaged by injuries. After eight straight wins, this one still doesn’t hurt too bad. And your inept offense at the start of the game provided a Bruin score that gave us the win we wanted all season: free Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

STEVEN F. EPSTEIN

Westwood

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With another disappointing regular season in the books, Bruin fans must be wondering where their cookie is. Paul Hackett is history, and the odds against SC botching its next hire are pretty long. Meanwhile, Bruin fans are stuck with the vacant, bewildered Bob Toledo.

We can talk all we want about the futility of Bob Field, who, despite Bill Plaschke’s dubious endorsement, is unfit to coordinate a fire drill, let alone a Pac-10 defense. The fact is, his shortcomings were well known long before he was retained for yet another wretched season. But because Toledo “didn’t want a fourth coordinator in four years,” he, in effect, chose certain failure over adjustment and change.

The problem with UCLA football is not execution, injuries, lack of depth or any other comfortable lie. These are classic Bruin excuses. Trick plays notwithstanding, Toledo is a conservative coach. The Bruins are easy to read, offensively and defensively. Against any team with a competent passing game, they’ll sit back in slack nickel and dime coverages, even when these coverages fail, game after game, year after year. Opponents don’t even have to pass to convert on third and long anymore.

UCLA’s fondness for the Donahue Era is a sure sign of its lack of ambition. In Westwood, three or four losses a year are acceptable (though Toledo is below even that). And why not? Bruin fans, like Dodger Stadium lemmings, keep showing up in impressive numbers. Washington (thanks ultimately to Donahue) has secured its future with Rick Neuheisel, the Oregon schools are better than ever, Arizona State has finally dumped Bruce Snyder and things are looking up across town.

About the Bruins’ infamous defense, Toledo admits, “I don’t have an explanation right now.” Try looking in the mirror, big guy. And enjoy that Jeep Bowl. There should be many more in your future (if you’re lucky).

CHARLES CHICCOA

Reseda

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In all my years as a UCLA grad, longtime season-ticket holder and supporter of the Bruins since the ‘30s, I have never witnessed such an abysmal display of defensive ineptitude as their performance at the USC game.

I have three suggestions for Pete Dalis:

1. Hire a proven defensive coordinator. Try calling Rocky Long at New Mexico. He just might be ready to return to the fold after his experience at his alma mater since leaving us.

2. Instruct Mr. Toledo to cease pointing fingers at others for his failure to concentrate on recruiting defensive players, rather than using most of his scholarships on offensive hotshots.

3. Bob Field has been a loyal Bruin for 22 years and should not be fired. Put him in a position coach slot.

SID HOWARD

UCLA, Class of ’41

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Talk about a bittersweet victory. I had to suffer through a horrendous season rooting for a team that stunk up the Pac-10 and fell way short of anyone’s expectations. In the end, I was left hoping for a win against our cross-town rivals as some sort of salvation for a truly disappointing season.

I hate to admit this, but I guess I finally have some sort of understanding what it must feel like to be a UCLA fan.

WAYNE BUSICK

Temple City

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So Bob Toledo is shocked and angered at the defense in the USC game. Well, Bob, it’s the same inept defense you have made excuses for since 1998! New players, same lack of scheme. It’s the same sickening patterns of blown coverages, long runs up the middle, and that oh-so-effective nickel coverage on third and anything. Do you realize that many of the fans cover their eyes on every third down?

And don’t forget the defensive player who promises not to commit any more moronic personal foul penalties, only to outdo himself again at the worst possible time.

The real tragedy is that unless you do something about it, your offensive genius will be wasted when the talent stops coming to UCLA and the existing talent leaves early for the NFL, out of justifiable frustration. Please, give the defense some priority and coach these kids!

ALAN ABAJIAN

Alta Loma

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Conspiracy theory: Leaked to an obscure Web site but quickly expunged, in a private inner-circle meeting of a secret cadre of UCLA power elite, it is ordered that Bob Toledo allow a USC win in an 11th-hour attempt to save Paul Hackett’s job and ensure continued Trojan football mediocrity in the Pac-10 standings. While clueless USC fans rejoice in their Pyrrhic victory, UCLA power brokers grimly calculate the increased bowl revenues to be had with one less bona fide league competitor in the mix.

Fact or fiction? Follow the money.

PAUL BROWN

Newport Beach

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The letters criticizing USC President Steven Sample are typical of the blind, win-at-all-costs, lost-in-the-19th-century attitudes of Trojans and their alumni.

At UCLA, we understand the real purpose of a university. This is what some Bruin alumni are proud of most: alumnus Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier; alumnus Tom Bradley serving as mayor; alumnus Ralph Bunche winning the Nobel Peace Prize; student-athlete “Ace” Spaulding dying for his country in WW II; top 10 medical, law and business schools; and world-class AIDS, cancer and organ transplant research and treatment centers. And, also, our nation’s best football, basketball, volleyball, water polo, soccer, gymnastics, baseball and softball teams.

Until Sample was hired, all USC could offer was a junior-college education at an Ivy League price. Open your eyes, Trojans! Are your standards so low that you rush the field after ending an eight-year losing streak and celebrate a wounded-duck field goal to cap a two-win conference season that you cannot see a visionary on your own campus (a first-time event)?

Also, any enlightened mind knows that a good football team does not create more donations. Despite what noted Southern thespian Bear Bryant said about no one packing the stands to watch a math class, the fact is that the two schools with the wealthiest endowments are Stanford and Harvard. Stanford finally made the Rose Bowl last year after a 30-year wait, and Harvard never will. But those alumni are still mighty proud to cheer for their Cardinal and Crimson and open their checkbooks gladly. Funny thought, they cherish education.

JAY ROSS

Manhattan Beach

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Holy Toledo, Toledo! You’ve just discovered your Bruins can’t play defense? They haven’t played defense since Terry Donahue left.

MARYLYN TABER

Chatsworth

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What a sad state of affairs.

Local football’s run amok.

Instead of Trojans and Bruins,

we get “icing the puck!”

PAUL CAREY

La Canada

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This week’s battle cry: “Win one for the Hacker!”

LESLIE TSO

South Pasadena