You are correct. No head coach would leave a BT or SEC job for another conference. (unless there were other considerations like an imminent firing)
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altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
I doubt he would and pray that he would not. I hope that VT is not so utterly boneheaded as to even consider pursuing it.
VT suffers form the same disease many programs having enjoyed top coaching for decades with one guy (like Frank Beamer) do: they're trying to recreate the past. That led them to hire Fry (largely because he was a solid DC at Penn State and a former Beamer assistant), which was a poor decision. The man was not HC material from Day One.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Narrator: They don’t.
they are having the problem we had from 1968-1979 . An admin that is totally ambivalent
They're also governed by a system that hates them for screwing the flagship UC institution by going to the B1G. Good luck getting someone from Berkeley, or likely any other UC school for that matter, to shift resources in order to build their football program back up.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
The addition probably makes this more true.
Money and an easier path to the playoff.
he would fit in there as well as Steve Alford did
Illinois on the road?
we weren’t in the top 20 then
My perception is beating a team that finishes in the Top 25 is more impressive than beating a team ranked Top 25 at the current moment.
Just my .02
If the barometer is ranking at the time they played, they did beat #11 USC last season. He also beat #5 Penn St. in 2019 and #9 Auburn in the Outback Bowl same year.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Read my mind
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
My good friend lives in Pasadena, and he said it's just straight-up USC country ... like as extreme as Georgia being that much more popular than Georgia Tech in Atlanta. I get there are always complications and everyone loves the Rose Bowl in theory, but it actually blows my mind that UCLA has NEVER gotten its act together to build a cool stadium with a relatively small (50k or so) capacity near its beautiful campus. With absolutely zero traffic, you are still asking students to go 40 minutes or so to get to the Rose Bowl, and it can be over an hour with bad traffic. What would our attendance be like in Bloomington, if ISU happened to be a powerhouse?!
It's always surprised me UCLA hasn't leaned into being a more geographically oriented team rather than fighting to represent all of LA ... like a Cubs/Sox setup for LA's college support. From what I have heard, UCLA's campus is in a much better area, and it could have developed a reputation over the years as being "the team of the coast" or something like that and extend its fandom territory up north of LA more.
It's always surprised me UCLA hasn't leaned into being a more geographically oriented team rather than fighting to represent all of LA ... like a Cubs/Sox setup for LA's college support. From what I have heard, UCLA's campus is in a much better area, and it could have developed a reputation over the years as being "the team of the coast" or something like that and extend its fandom territory up north of LA more.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Completely agree and they’ve likely missed the moment to make it happen. The crushing demand of NIL is going to make it impossible for a school like that to invest a billion (+) into a new football facility.
Lot of buzz on Silverfield for VaTech …
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Invisible and Bulletproof
- Miracle Mile
The Rose Bowl is gorgeous, historic, and is in an absolutely delightful location, and you can't equate traffic patterns (or willingness to tolerate them) between central Illinois and Los Angeles.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I'm genuinely not sure what you are referring to, haha. I agree the Rose Bowl is awesome ... but what does that matter if it is an hour away from campus (with traffic) and in an area dominated by USC fans? If the venue itself could simply WILL UCLA fans to attend, they would have better crowds for actually decent teams ... and they don't. So the Rose Bowl's beauty and uniqueness is clearly not, in and of itself, helping UCLA's fan base issues.
And my example of playing in Bloomington actually went out of its way to NOT equate traffic patterns between Central Illinois and LA, and that was the entire point ... it takes about an hour to get 50 miles over to B-N from Champaign and also takes an hour to only go 26 miles from UCLA's campus to the Rose Bowl! The point is, it takes an hour to both ... that's a lot to ask of students, regardless of if they are cruising or stuck in stop-and-go traffic ... it takes two hours of your day, round trip.
The entire point is that UCLA would probably benefit from a smaller stadium near campus more than their current setup in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl ... do you disagree??
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
I can confirm that you see a ton more USC support in the area than UCLA. Closer to Westwood, the Bruins banners are more prevalent, naturally. But everywhere else, including near the Rose Bowl, it’s mostly Trojans.
But the point is that college kids should not have to trek 25 miles to attend a home game. The great thing about college sports is you can roll out of bed hungover, chug a beer, walk to a tailgate, play wisest wizard with your friends, and then walk to the stadium.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
UCLA didn't begin playing football until around 1920. The Coliseum was built not long after and that was UCLA's home field through the '70s, which it shared with USC (located immediately adjacent to the stadium). UCLA started playing in the Rose Bowl in the '80s.
The UCLA campus in Westwood never had the land available for a stadium, and given the Coliseum and Rose Bowl, building one wouldn't have made sense.
If you watch USC games you'll notice that they also often struggle to cultivate a large crowd in the Coliseum, though in the days of Pete Carroll (and, in my youth, John McKaya nd Johnny Robinson) they had little problem. It's not currently UCLA-in-the-Rose-Bowl levels of empty but it's not often crowded. Metro L.A. just offers far too many alternatives on Saturday afternoons and evenings.
BTW, speaking as an old guy, I recall my formative years in the '70s and early '80s. The Saturday before Thanksgiving was Michigan v. OSU followed by UCLA v. USC in the Coliseum. Both were consistently epic tilts. Then Nebraska v. Oklahoma the day after Thanksgiving. + the Iron Bowl.
And I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time.
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