Saturday, April 20, 2013

With Mary Howland Shooting, Does That Meana'Gulp!a'Football Is No. 1 at UCLA?

Three Final Four appearances in the NCAA tournament are not sufficient at UCLAa'basketball mind instructor Ben Howland was dismissed Sunday, one day after the college rejected multiple stories that Howland was ended. So UCLA gets an "A" for challenging superiority but gets a "C" in semantics. More importantly, it gets an "A" for playing its group of fans. And its purses. In the last decade, grass roots campaigns have been spearheaded by Bruin fans to rid themselves of what they see as average upper-level administration in the high-profile activity programs of hockey and football. Unfortunately, UCLA was slow to react to its fans' unhappiness and sometimes seemed out of contact, especially to the growing popularity of college football. Karl Dorrell and Rick Neuheisel both likely were on life support 12 months too long as Bruin football coaches. Dorrell coached at UCLA for five periods while Neuheisel only coached four but two of Neuheisel's clubs went 4-8. Because both Dorrell and Neuheisel were UCLA alumni, probably UCLA thought it owed it to them to give them the advantage of doubt within their closing years as head coaches of UCLA baseball. It's a pleasant gesture, specially since too many instructors aren't given enough time to turnaround a programa'I am considering you Southern Missa'but when it is obvious a coach isn't maintaining with the Joneses, aka USC, it's time to create decisions with logic, not concern. Whether you agree or disagree with Howland's dismissal, the one obvious point produced by UCLA is this: We are not playing around anymore. Former UCLA basketball coach Mary HowlandRonald Martinez/Getty Images Mediocrity will not be accepted at UCLA. Nor may "pretty good" be acknowledged. And that is a good thing for a school which really hasn't done a lot in football because it won its first and only national championship (UP) in football in 1954a'the last discussion championship it won was in 1998 under Bob Toledo. UCLA has been placed as a baseball school considering that the onset of the BCS age nevertheless the atmosphere is currently different. While basketball still warms the cockles of Bruin fans' spirits, perhaps the fondness for the activity is more related to the fact Bruin basketball only hasn't compared to Bruin basketball. La is home to the biggest bandwagoners in sporta'winners put butts in seats while losers put chirping crickets in seats. UCLA was well coming to if it hadn't already arrived there becoming still another Duke, Kansas or Indiana. Hockey schools. And while these football clubs experienced spikes of progress during the last ten years, expectations from their football supporters are usually not atmosphere higha'they've been acclimated to mediocre football with some problems thrown directly into keep them happy until baseball season begins. Iowa had that good run under Mark Mangino, Duke has improved under David Cutcliffe and Indiana is well, Indiana. UCLA, however, is a different story. It is located in one of the most fertile recruiting grounds for both football and baseball and is surrounded by the largest media presence in the nation. The school is steeped in both educational and athletic excellencea'no other school has won more national championships (group) than UCLA (108). Here is the college that gave us Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (nee Lew Alcindor). This is also the school that celebrated very in 2006 when its football team upset USC 13-9 and prevented the Trojans from planning to a third straight BCS Championship. The Bruins would wind up going 7-6 that season and losing to Florida State in the Emerald Bowl but that annoyed of USC was what explained the Bruins' season. UCLA basketball coach John MoraUSA TODAY Sports Schadenfreude was once the catalyst for UCLA soccer fans' activities but that's now changed. Instead of monitoring what USC basketball is doinga'and using that as a barometer to assess its own happinessa'UCLA has turned its attention to itself. And Jim Mora is just a blood-thirsty lion. No, actually. The other day the football head coach's facebook account had an avatar of a lion with a soft facea'it has now been changed however the photo made quite an impression. The school's athletic picture was previously that of the "Gutty Little Bruins" which means, obviously, that the staff is small but reveals courage against greater opponents. It is a pretty little moniker. For only a little league team. The lion is king of the junglea'actually king of the African savannas, but marketplace does sound more fiercea'and is anticipated by all. The lion isn't guttya'it guts its food. And that remarkable picture, whether planned or not by Mora, should resonate with the others of the Pac-12. UCLA is not pleased with just winning the Pac-12 South couple of years in a line. UCLA is not the Gutty Little Bruins anymore. UCLA is enjoying in the Rose Bowl on January and on the hunt for bigger prey 1, not only six Saturdays in the fall. Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports UCLA calls the Rose Bowl stadium its home turf but it has not played there on New Year's Day since 1999 (a to Wisconsin) nor has it properly protected it since 1986 (a win over Iowa). With spring practice fast approaching, Bruin supporters are not only going right through the motions of having pumped up for school footballa'they're properly excited in part due to the school showing symptoms of strong support for the football program. Mora supposedly has a five-year, $12 million deal that was only prolonged for another year last Januarya'that's $2.4 million per year. Neuheisel, for what it's worth, had a, $1.2 million per year contract with additional incentive bonuses. In a single year, its salary was doubled by UCLA for its baseball head coach. Granted, it is not consistent with the most effective college football coaches' incomes but Mora's resume hasn't required that type of bank. Yet. But UCLA remains showing signs of important support of its football program and the Howland termination could be anAinnocuousAsign of this. Howland, despite three Final Four appearances and eight NCAA tournament visits, was release by UCLA. The thought, according to UCLA athletic manager Dan Guerrero, was not just Howland's report. More from the Pac-12 Network's Bryan Fisher: There are a amount of factors whether or not people arrived at games or not. I'd not set all of that on Benas shoulders by any stretch of the imagination. Clearly we need certainly to generate as much fan help as we can to get people in the chairs. We should bring somebody here that'll inspire the group of fans. Butts in chairs. That is the key for a happy AD. UCLA's soccer team plays in the nation's eleventh largest stadiuma'it has a 91,500 seating capacity. That is over a butts in seats if UCLA carries out the Rose Bowl in one season. Fans are held 13,800 by pauley Pavilion and if UCLA had sold out every one of its home baseball games, that's a little under 250,000 butts in seats. While UCLA always seemed to be dedicated to basketball in yesteryear, perhaps it ultimately crunched the numbers and recognized that the big money is in college basketball. Howland was making additional money than Neuheisel, according to the numbers in this LA Times report, so we could surmise that basketball was a higher priority at UCLA, if nothing else. But Mora's commitment is larger than Howland's. Mora undoubtedly understands the expectations are high at UCLA nevertheless now the athletic department's writing is on the walla'we're paying you a lot more than Howland and despite his successes, we still dismissed him. We want butts in seats and we want excited supporters. Mora gets the fans enthusiastic. We'll see about butts in seats later on this year. But baseball is apparently UCLA's No. 1 goal. Because it should be.

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