Review: The UCLA Bruins Debut on The Drive
If a program chronicling your favorite football team airs but no one can watch it, does it really exist?
This is the question I was asking myself as I settled down to watch the drive on my newly connected Time Warner Cable box rented for the sole purpose of watching the Pac-12 Network for the 2014 college football season (shhh… don’t tell the missus, I can already feel a scornful eye-roll forming). The reality is that no matter how good of a program the Pac-12 puts together about the Bruins this year, only a small percentage of UCLA fans will actually be able to watch it (legally that is – shame on you @billbruin). So with that is mind here are a few thoughts and photos from the 1st episode of The Drive.
I had limited space available for my Time Warner Cable Box
Thought 1: This show is going to be a direct extension of the #HundleyForHeisman campaign – I’m sure Brett Hundley’s potential exposure factored heavily when UCLA and the Pac-12 worked out the agreement for the show. More then half the show was focused squarely on Hundley’s shoulders. We are shown a flashback to 2011 when he enters the training camp facility at CSULB for the first time juxtaposed with the 2014 version of Hundley. He poignantly describes his feelings going into his last training camp and how his life will change completely in 4 months (Maturity – CHECK). We see him giving “attaboys” to teammates as well as getting after others with constructive criticism (Leadership- CHECK). He even teaches fellow QB Jerry Neuheisel how to play dominoes after hours (Camaraderie? Kindness? Charity? – whatever it is, CHECK). I’m sure as the show unfolds, we will be seeing and hearing plenty about “Hundley’s Journey.”
The UCLA QB’s in a spirited game of dominoes.
Thought 2: Jim Mora has control of the UCLA Football Program and that’s a good thing – Call it serendipity, but hearing Mora lecturing the Bruins to “Protect the team. Protect our goals. Protect our image” while the clown college (not my words! –watch ESPN) across town is dealing with a scandal gave me warm and fuzzy feelings.
”Men, we have a standard around here. My job is to enforce that standard at all times.” –Jim Mora
Mora tells the team, “You’re UCLA Football Players. You represent yourself. You represent your family. You represent your teammates. You represent this school, and you represent every person who has come through this school whether they were a player or not.” (I’m sure Sark and every other coach in America gave a similar speech this summer, but it was still cool).
More Mora before practice: “Men, we have a standard around here. My job is to enforce that standard at all times. Your job is to live up to that standard at all times.” Once again, if you have ever played football at any level, you’ve probably heard 50 speeches in the same vein, but Mora’s obvious conviction in what he believes is right for this football team just oozes out of him at all times. When he talks about the physical pain that must be suffered by players as they prepare to compete or when he is professes his love for coaching these “kids” and “young Men” at the college level, it feels like more than just coach-speak. Mora is the proverbial Leader of Men, and his players are buying in.
Mora reaches the top of the mountain; will he lead UCLA there?
Jerry!
Thought 3: Holy Crap! Jerry Neuheisel is a clone of his pop – As soon as he appears on screen, he immediately breaks into a Slick Rick impression, but close your eyes while listening to young Jerry at any point of the episode (who probably gets the 3rd most screen time behind Mora and Hundley) and it might as well be dad talking.
Thought 4: This is not an accurate view of the 909 –
This is not an accurate depiction of San Berdoo.
Admittedly, I grew up out there (or at least adjacent to there), and while CSUSB is a lovely (if slightly barren) university, get a half mile away from campus and its all strip-malls, abandoned buildings and quarries. Had the camera panned around 360 degrees for this shot, I’m sure we ‘d have seen a pack of wild dogs or a distant meth lab explosion.
Verdict on The Drive: All in all, I think The Drive will be an enjoyable watch for any Bruin fan, that is, at least as long as the Bruins perform. If UCLA football lives up to the lofty expectations of 2014, The Drive will be a fitting showcase for a special Bruin season. . . but if the team stumbles it could turn into a national chronicle of a train wreck (that no one will see anyway) – WORK IT OUT DIRECTV!