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UCLA Football: ESPN’s Pac-12 Post-Spring Power Ranking, Bruins Not On Top

By Mike Regalado

Oct 8, 2016; Tempe, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora on the sidelines against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium. The Sun Devils defeated the Bruins 23-20. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 8, 2016; Tempe, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora on the sidelines against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium. The Sun Devils defeated the Bruins 23-20. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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With spring practice now over, ESPN ranks the Pac-12 teams in their post-spring power poll and as expected, the UCLA Football team is not at the top of that list.

Ah, spring is in the air… and now it’s over! Now we have to trudge through the next four months of no college football. It’s probably one of the worst times of the year.

Buuuut, with no college football, we fill the time by continuing to talk about college football, and right now talk surrounds how the teams of the Pac-12 did with their spring practices.

Just like the other 11 programs, the UCLA Football team was able to participate in their month long off-season workouts. For the Bruins it was trying to build a foundation with yet another offensive style.

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There was progress this spring, but UCLA is still a little behind compared to other Pac-12 teams. So to get a feel of what the Conference of Champions looks like, as of now, ESPN put out their post-spring power rankings and the Bruins were not necessarily one of the top teams on the list. In fact,  they were on the bottom half.

ESPN’s Post-Spring Pac-12 Power Rankings

  1.  USC
  2.  Washington
  3.  Stanford
  4.  Washington State
  5.  Colorado
  6.  Utah
  7.  UCLA
  8.  Oregon
  9.  Oregon State
  10.  Arizona State
  11.  Arizona
  12.  Cal

These rankings are not a surprise and should be similar to what would be expected this fall.

UCLA is in transition, but hopefully, unlike last year’s transition with then-new offensive coordinator Kennedy Polamalu, the details to the new offensive scheme will be handled a bit more carefully.

Per ESPN, “Jim Mora brought in Jedd Fisch to run the offense and he spent the spring tailoring a scheme to best fit what UCLA’s players do best.”

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This is a good thing. If Mora wants his offense to improve, the roster management must be taken care of. Fisch is also getting his guys to learn the detas of the offense, so even though the progress is slow going, hopefully it can translate into success next fall.

As of now, UCLA is “Middle of the Pac”.