Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE
UCLA football beat #16 Nebraska.
Let it ring through your face and into your head. UCLA. The Bruins. Our Bruins. The ones we root for. The good guys. They beat Nebraska.
Close your mouth, it’s rude to be in awe while you’re chewing.
Yeah, these UCLA Bruins have a tad bit of swagger to them these days, don’t they? They’re out on the football field, playing hard, hitting tough, swerving/dancing around for first downs, being aggressive offensively, attacking frighteningly defensively, flying all over the field, forcing turnovers, the whole shebang.
And now here they are, ranked 22 in the AP poll and 23 in the USA Today poll. Expectations actually exist for these Bruins, and UCLA optimism is at an all-time high with the team looking as good as it ever has.
Of course, UCLA has had a bad history of flaming out when expectations are high, especially after beating ranked out-of-conference opponents. It’s a mentality that’s plagued UCLA football for a decade and it’s one that fans are deathly afraid of.
Because long-time Bruins fans won’t be shocked if UCLA lays an egg against Houston a week after a feel-good win that has the potential to turn the UCLA football program’s fortunes around.
Mora can’t get happy about beating Nebraska. This is just the second week of a 12-week college football season, and for Mora to feel as if he’s proven enough is ridiculous.
He’s got to come out and prepare with reckless abandon, much like the way he did against Nebraska and Rice.
The game against Houston can’t be a letdown game. And while we’re confident it won’t be — everything under Jim Mora has been so damn different, and it’s hard to imagine letdown games would still exist — it’s in the back of our minds, and our mouths are primed to say, “This is the most UCLA game ever.”
We don’t need to tell Jim Mora to not be complacent, though. That’s stupid. It’s a matter of the mindset he takes against Houston rather than him purposely getting cocky.
Continue to surprise the hell out of us, will you, Jim Mora?