Just past the half way mark of the season, with the Bruins sitting at 5-2, Jim Mora and staff are looking to finish season number one on a strong note.  Offensively, Noel Mazzone has transformed a unit that was 72^nd in total offense and 88^th in scoring offense in 2011.  The offense, filled with freshman across the board, has seen marked improvement and is in the top 25 in both passing and rushing yards nationally and averages nearly 32 points per game, up from 23 last season.  As we dig deeper, position by position, we will grade the Bruins and look for ways to improve even more so as the team hits the stretch run the final five weeks.

Quarterback:  Freshman Brett Hundley is completing 67% of his passes and has thrown for 273 yards per game thus far in 2012.  His 14 passing touchdowns ranks 5^th in the Pac 12, his passer rating of 143.5 ranks 4^th, and his passing yards rank 2^nd.  He has a touchdown to interception ratio of 14:7 and is on pace to throw for 3,284 yards and 24 touchdowns.  To go along with his passing stats, he also has 240 rushing yards and his five rushing touchdowns leads the Bruins.  Not bad for a freshman, huh?  As talented as Brett has been, he obviously has some things he needs to work on.  While his pocket presence is very good, he often locks in on one receiver and if he isn’t open, holds the ball too long.  Brett also struggles sometimes with his accuracy on short crossing routes.  He misses receivers on slants and drags across the field far too often.  Brett has fairly good deep ball accuracy and throws the ball well on the run.  Much has been made of his throwing motion, but although unnatural, he keeps the ball high and hasn’t got many passes batted down.  The meat of the Bruin schedule is ahead and Hundley will have to continue his solid play if the Bruins are to continue winning. Grade: B

Running Backs:  Senior Jonathan Franklin aka “Jetski” aka “The Mayor” is off to a fantastic start to his 2012 campaign.  Franklin has 878 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 6.8 yards per carry.  Franklin is only 184 yards away from passing former Bruin great Gaston Green and becoming UCLA’s all-time leading rusher.  Green finished his career with 3,731 yards from 1984-1987.  Green’s record isn’t the only one in Franklin’s sights, however.  The UCLA single season rushing record is 1,571 yards set by Karim Abdul Jabbar in 1995.  Franklin is on pace for 1,505 yards in the regular season.  Barring a complete collapse, the Bruins will make a bowl game and give Jonathan another chance at the record.  While Franklin has carried much of the load, Damien Thigpen has been a pleasant surprise, as well.  Thigpen, known for his blazing speed, has battled injuries the last two seasons, but is finally healthy and compliments Franklin very well.  He is averaging 5.2 yards per carry and has scored one touchdown on the season.  Jordan James also averages 4.1 yards per carry on the season.  Grade: A

Receivers:  Much maligned former Bruin receiver Nelson Rosario graduated in 2011, and despite most fans being glad to see him go, he left a 1,100 yard hole in the Bruins offense.  Seven games into the season, that hole has not been filled.  Shaquelle Evans leads the Bruins with 413 yards and 14.8 yards per catch.  Joseph Fauria leads the team in touchdowns with five and is second in receiving yards with 243.  Fauria, who is naturally a tight end, doesn’t fit the mold of a Noel Mazzone player, but with his massive 6’8” frame, he is a redzone weapon that most teams simply cannot match up with.  Steven Manfro is second on the team in receptions with 23 and third in yards with 220, but has dropped too many passes and has seen his playing time decrease as the season goes on.  The most explosive receiver on the Bruins roster had been freshman Devin Lucien, but he suffered a season ending broken clavicle against Colorado.  Jerry Johnson, Darius Bell, Jerry Rice Jr., and Ricky Marvray have contributed, along with a pair of freshman in Jordan Payton and Kenneth Walker.  Grade: C

Offensive Line:  The offensive line is very young and as you would expect, has been very up and down.  They had dominant performances against Rice and Nebraska, but also had less than stellar performances against Oregon State and Cal.  With three freshman, Torian White, Simon Goines, and Jake Brendel, the future looks very bright for the big guys up front.  At left guard, Sophomore Xavier Su’a-Filo starts, but is still searching for consistency after missing two years for a Mormon mission.  The most consistent lineman has been senior right guard Jeff Baca.  The group, altogether, has done a very good job run blocking and a solid job protecting against a four man rush, but has struggled picking up blitzes.  Grade: C

Sep 8, 2012; Pasadena, CA, USA; The Rose Bowl, where Geoff Strand has inspired UCLA fans for over three decades Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

Thirty-six years of unwaveringly loyal, faithful, and inspiring service to UCLA, UCLA Athletics – football in particular – and to Bruin Nation.

Thirty-six years of rallying and exhorting his fellow Bruin alumni – and the rest of the Bruin faithful – at the Rose Bowl to “Stand and Deliver!” for their team.

Thirty-six years of shouting “I WANT EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD! GIVE ME A ‘B’!!” and ” NOT YET…NOT YET…BUT NOW!!!”

Apparently, that means nothing to certain people in the UCLA Athletic Department as due to two mischances, Geoff Strand ’71, a former Bruin yell leader who, at least in my mind and I trust in many others, is essentially the chairman of Bruin Nation, is very possibly on his last legs of leading the alumni section at football games.

I would say that it was all over two incidents earlier in the season, when there were a miniscule number of complaints over a “Who does the Taliban NOT want you to be?!” cheer that he said and giving a student in a Bruin costume a ride on a golf cart to save her from having to walk in the heat (which was a good deed that should have gotten a big thank you).

But I get the feeling that as far as the suits in UCLA Athletics are concerned, it may be a bit more than that.

Granted, the Taliban cheer was not at all approriate, but what the athletic department is apparently trying to do to this man is akin to giving someone the death penatly for stealing a candy bar from a 7-Eleven.

These incidents were simple mistakes that could have easily been settled with a talking-to and a warning, with someone saying “OK Geoff, what you did wasn’t cool. Just make sure you don’t do it again, or actions will have to be taken.”

Anyone who has served a company with an unbridled passion for three and a half decades, since 1976 when the Bruins’ home was in the Coliseum and long before any of the current UCLA students were born, more than deserves that rather than get a call on his cell phone before the Oregon State game on September 22 telling him that he was suspended, but eveidently someone, or a group of people at the Morgan Center, just plain do not like him and are looking for an excuse to get rid of him.

Strand has admirably shown a great modesty through all of this, saying in an article written by Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, “I’m a tiny bit player; I’m less important than those who bring Gatorade to the players…my role is to be a cheerleader.”

“Some people will be glad to have me shut up, I understand that…Whatever happens, I will not question their decision,” he continues, apparently accepting his possible fate as after being suspended from the Oregon State and Utah contests, he will be allowed back on the podium in front of the alumni section at the Rose Bowl for the last three Bruin home games against Arizona, USC and Stanford.

“I love my school, I love these kids, and I’m just trying to do the best job I can with honor,” Strand added.

What the suits in charge don’t understand, however, is that before 1976, when Strand and his partners, former UCLA yell leader Frank Foellmer ’44 and Lucy McClave, a former Bruin cheerleader from the 1930′s, started exhorting fans and their fellow Bruin alums to yell and provide an advantage for their team, the atmosphere at UCLA football games were largely seen as dull and dead, with fans mostly sitting on their bottoms and only making noise and going nuts when something great happened on the field.

All of that changed when Strand came on the scene, as over the next three and a half decades the game atmosphere became much more intense than it ever was beforehand, with the fans becoming much more of a factor.

Which will very likely be gone if Strand leaves.

The Oregon State and Utah games showed evidence of that as student yell leaders took Strand’s and Foellmer’s place in front of the Bruin alums. They gave an outstanding effort and did their utmost best – I want to emphasize that and do not want to denigrate their efforts in any way, shape or form – but it just wasn’t the same. Nor did they get the same level of passion out of the alumni section as Strand did.

Which they shouldn’t feel bad about. At all. Because no one could.

Indeed, after the Utah game on September 29 someone told me that some fans remained sitting when the student yell leaders were shouting at everyone to stand up, in protest of what was happening to Strand. And more than once during the two games he was absent I heard people in the stands yelling “We want Geoff!”

In short, removing a man whom I consider to be the greatest cheerleader of all time, who to me is to cheerleading what Willie Mays and Babe Ruth are to baseball, would effectively kill the crowd advantage that the alumni section has provided on their side of the Rose Bowl.

Said UCLA spokesman Nick Ammazzalorso, “…we will evaluate the football fan experience at the end of the season and devise a plan going forward.”

That plan absolutely must include this extremely passionate Bruin who bleeds true blue and gold and has done so for decades, for to not do so would be like Florida State not letting Chief Seminole ride his horse, Renegade, and spike his flaming spear into the 50-yard line before their games, or not letting Georgia’s bulldog, UGA, on their sidelines, or Texas A & M’s “12th Man” not being allowed to stand up throughout the Aggies’ games.

That’s called tradition, which is a most essential part of the college football experience.

And to let this ex-yell leader, who in his day job is a senior vice president at Morgan Stanley, go will, in my opinion, be killing an important UCLA tradition that is badly needed.

As was said, Geoff Strand has been very modest throughout this whole affair, saying that he will accept whatever his fate will be, but that doesn’t mean that I, nor anyone else in Bruin Nation who love what he has done and provided, have to like or accept it due to the fact that for every fan who has complained about him and wants him gone, there are at least hundreds, if not thousands, who love him with all of their heart and dearly want him to stay on that podium.

Plaschke wrote in his piece that “…it’s smart of UCLA to roll out new game presentations to attract new fans.”

It would be even smarter – Albert Einstein-level smarter – to allow Strand to stay and solidify what is truly a great tradition at UCLA.

Hopefully, the Bruins will do the right thing here, for two simple reasons:

I, and many, many other Bruins, love Geoff Strand.

And none of us want to see him get hurt like this.