re: What's going on with UCLA?

Westwood is Awesome. The only problem is you just can't leave it. Takes like 20 minutes to drive less than a mile to the freeway. Santa Monica beach is only 7 miles away [a mere 90 minutes in traffic]. If they played Thursday night games at the Rose Bowl, it'd take three hours to make it to the game in that traffic.

UCLA is and always has been the superior intellectual school in Southern California. USC gets lot of amps for the film and TV industry, but UCLA is the place to be for smart athletes in So Cal. UCLA does have a very long way to go to put together a quality football practice and training facility. Recruits today might see that come to shape by their senior year. Any extra $$ at the school always goes to the Medical School. Sports don't mean jack to the UCLA Administration.

UCLA has always had decent recruiting classes. Probably one of the biggest underperformers on the field based on recruiting rankings.

quote:

---

UCLA has always had decent recruiting classes. Probably one of the biggest underperformers on the field based on recruiting rankings.

---

They are a sleeping giant much like LSU was at one point.

I would have killed someone to go to school at UCLA @ 18. Da parties, da broads, da money, da drug, da beach!!!

quote:

---

LA
Chicks
Mora
Cali
Weather
Chicks

---

I would add women again. Beautiful ladies in cali.

quote:

---

I just went to the 247 website and noticed that there are a lot of big time recruits that are considering UCLA. Am I missing something here? Jim Mora can't be that good of a recruiter.

---

Impressed with him being fired by the Falcons and lack of consistent winning history at collegiate level ?

OK, UCLA has this buzz that USC has a few years ago. Those two schools fill a void with no NFL team in L.A. Fans attend games because that is all there is for big time football. Once the NFL returns to LA, USC and UCLA will be on the back burner with a lot of fans.

Also, while Jim Mora is recruiting hot, he can't go OOS too much and leave a lot of good SoCal recruits going to USC or elsewhere in the Pac12. Not good recruiting philosophy in the long run, but that brings us the next question. How long will Mora stay? I think he's ready to go back to the NFL very soon. A rising USC and strong Stanford and Oregon means making the Playoff Final Four a daunting task.

One thing I know, whenever Pete Carroll decides to leave Seattle, Jim Mora will be gone. Then there is Dallas.

Its a long way from the Boot to SoCal, all other things being equal, if you go out there, family and friends will probably not be able to see you play live. All that has to be taken into consideration, and yes also the hot Cali chicks...

I have been to eery corner of the lower 48 over the coarse of a decade and will tell you that UCLA has everything that a stud prospect should want in an opportunity to expand his comfort zone and explore the rest of the country. Unlike most universities, a student is not confined to a limited mindset of that college town. In other words, there is always a dozen totally different things to do no matter who you are. Whether you are a beach person, forest/wildlife type who camps, Big City Lights type, you will always have something very cool to do. Gay or straight doesn't matter either. Even if you are a soft spoken guy who just enjoys the little things, it's all good in LA.

The bottom line is that some kids are seriously longing to experience the bigger world. LA is a great place for a stud prospect to do exactly that as long as he chooses the right place for himself on a team that has a definite need for his services because the last thing that any kid wants is to be passed up way out there with little to no family support system. As long as he can successfully navigate the life of a student athlete, I could not blame a kid at all for going to LA. It's when they choose the other SEC schools that are a big old FU in LSU's face and those players should essentially not ever expect any kind of business success in La after they chose SEC rivals over the LSU Tigers.

See Woodman, this is where you are just tremendously misinformed, and rely on stereotypes about our great( albeit sprawling) metropolis. We love our cars and we love our freeways, and we are as used to traffic as you are used to the occasional hurricane. Doesn't stop us from living a great life, and once a recruit compares UCLA to any other place in the USA we will get a very favorable look. Our football has been mediocre for the past 15 years, but that has all changed in the last two. Nobody has a better coaching staff top to bottom, and the administration now supports the football team more than ever before. You will see us again, as will those tremendous Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida recruits.

Except your facilities are worse than some big time high school programs and sub par compared to almost every school in the big conferences.

These kids all dream of playing in the NFL. Football players are made in the gym and in training facilities. While UCLA will most likely make upgrades, they won't occur till most of these recruits would be alumni.

USC is no longer a school without academic creds. I still hate the school, and I think anybody, athlete or scholar, that chooses to go to USC has made a very poor life's decision,but you have to give them props for the academic strides they have made in 20 years. Still, they are not UCLA, CAL, or STANFORD.