UCLA Football: What Is Wrong With UCLA? Are They Quitting?

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Oct 8, 2016; Tempe, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

The UCLA Football team is struggling this season as the pieces of the offense are not fitting into this puzzle that is the Bruins.

Much has been made over the last month about the slow spiral downward for UCLA Football. Head Coach Jim Mora is officially hearing hot-seat talk after starting 3-5 following a disappointing 8-5 record in 2015. Reasons for the Bruins demise have been coming fast and furious since QB Josh Rosen was injured against ASU and UCLA consequently lost three games in a row.

The popular view of UCLA’s decline is summed up quite nicely is this quick ESPN Clip titled: “What Happened to UCLA”.

The rap in a nutshell is: UCLA went away from Noel Mazzone’s simple offense in favor of a pro-style scheme (engineered by new OC Kennedy Polomalu), but they lacked the personnel to successfully use the system and have struggled to run the ball. Eight games in, UCLA is the worst team in FBS in rushing yards per game (85.5 ypg) and 2nd to last in yards per carry (2.81 ypc).

After a month and a half of seeing the Bruins struggle on the ground, fans were clamoring for the team to just throw the damn ball. The fans got their wish against Utah last Saturday when UCLA put on an Air-Raid style performance en-route to 464 yards passing and 45 points.

After the offensive outburst, UCLA fans are lamenting that the Bruins didn’t air it out sooner. Unfortunately, UCLA had its worst defensive effort of the year and allowed 52 points in the loss to Utah.

The Conference title is almost certainly out of reach, and UCLA has been reduced to a Pac-12 spoiler for the rest of the year. All that’s left for fans to do is to pick through the debris in order to find what went wrong. As we search for meaning here are some narratives that have been overblown: