SOUTH BEND, Ind. “”mdash; It was just too good to be true.
Saturday morning in South Bend was right out of a dream for any
serious college football fan.
Seeing all of the national championship banners was surreal.
Looking up at a full crowd 30 minutes before game time was
breathtaking.
SLIDESHOW
See more photos and listen to players and coaches react to UCLA’s
20-17 loss to No. 18 Notre Dame.
It didn’t even matter what happened in the game ““
this was an experience to treasure.
But then the game started, and the mood got even better for the
UCLA fans that traveled to Indiana.
The UCLA defense played one of the most inspired games
I’ve ever seen a defense play. It made a Notre Dame offense
loaded with weapons look like a flustered high school team.
And Pat Cowan ““ making his second career start in one of
the most pressured situations conceivable ““ played like a
warrior, making big play after big play when the Bruins needed them
most.
And for 57 minutes and 40 seconds, Karl Dorrell and the UCLA
coaching staff called a great game, putting their players in a
position to win a game that nobody gave them a chance to win.
But what happened in the last two minutes and 20 seconds was
gut-wrenching, painful and, above all, irritating.
After 57 minutes and 40 seconds of being smart, the UCLA
coaching staff decided to sacrifice smart for “safe.”
The coaches decided that rather than try to win the game, they
would try not to lose it.
It’s not even that UCLA ran the ball three times. You want
to make Notre Dame burn its timeouts. You want to keep the clock
running if you can.
But to run Markey three times up the middle at that moment in
the game was the equivalent of taking three knees.
Run a misdirection play. Roll Cowan out. Do something to at
least try to pick up the first down.
The Bruins had three downs to win the game outright, but the
coaching staff didn’t see it like that. The coaches decided
there were three plays not to lose the game.
The defensive play-calling on the next possession displayed the
same poor attitude: Safe, not smart. Try not to lose.
The UCLA defense proved for 57 minutes and 40 seconds what every
Notre Dame fan already knew ““ Brady Quinn struggles under
heavy pressure.
But give him and his playmaking receivers time, and they are
unstoppable.
Yet the UCLA coaching staff chose the timid, uncontroversial
path. Once again, they didn’t want to lose the game on a big
play. They were afraid.
So they strayed away from what had worked for them all game,
dropped everyone possible back into coverage, and the Fighting
Irish had their three most successful plays of the second half.
I’d wager to say that I’m in the 99th percentile of
people on campus who support Karl Dorrell, but even I have no one
else to point the finger at here.
Dorrell may not have been the one calling the plays, but he knew
what was going on and, as the head of the program, presumably had
the power to override it.
It’s the head coach’s responsibility to instill a
certain attitude in his team, an attitude of confidence and
strength.
Instead, the attitude was one of fear and weakness. It was
gutless.
I realize that the decisions the coaching staff made down the
stretch were the same decisions that many coaches would have made
in a similar situation.
But at UCLA, that is a lame excuse. We expect people to use
their heads at this school.
It’s a real shame that down the stretch, Dorrell and his
staff couldn’t match the heart of the players.
The outcome for those UCLA fans in attendance was one of pain
and disappointment after what should have been an overwhelmingly
positive experience, regardless of the result.
E-mail Azar at bazar@media.ucla.edu.