Why the Football Monopoly in Los Angeles Has Not Ended

The smartest guys in the PAC-10 fell victim to one of the classic blunders.

The first is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but the second, and only slightly less well known, is never install an offense that doesn't suit your personnel.

The Pistol is a fine offense, combining some of the best elements of the spread and the I formation, but it's a scheme that demands a specific skillset. Cam Newton, Taylor Martinez, Denard "Shoelace" Robinson, and Blaine Gabbert are thriving out of spread formations, and Colin Kaepernick of Nevada operates exclusively and specifically in the Pistol. All of these guys are racking up points, yards and wins, because they have the dual-threat athleticism and agility to make defenses account for them.

UCLA's two quarterbacks, Kevin Prince and Richard Brehaut, are not nimble-footed runners who would make this list. They were recruited as drop-back passers, and to make things worse, Prince has a long history of being hurt.

How could Norm Chow and the law-degree-holding genius Rick Neuheisel look at their depth chart prior to spring practice and dial up such an ill-considered change? Kevin Prince is a decent athlete, but he has a history of being banged-up that goes back to high school. And Richard Brehaut is a stiff, strictly dropback passer with little or no running ability. The players behind them have a total of ten varsity snaps.

Meanwhile, in Franklin and Coleman, the Bruins have the perfect tandem for a Pro set or I Formation offense. Prince and Brehaut would both be more effective throwing occasionally off play-action, from a traditional pocket. Prince is too brittle and Brehaut can't run anyway.

The two downhill running backs are the obvious strength of the offense and the focal point of the defense's attention. The Pistol adds elements the Bruins aren't equipped to use and can't get defenses to buy. Instead of being able to stretch opponents vertically from the pocket, the way Stanford and Wisconsin do, UCLA winds up putting their own immobile quarterbacks out on an island, and they've been marooned often. Oregon opponents have to respect both the run and the pass, and the Ducks are 2nd in the country in least sacks allowed with two for the entire season. The Bruins are 96th, surrendering 17 in their first six games, while producing just 95.5 passing yards a game. Here's how bad it is: they've allowed 17 sacks against 133 pass attempts. That's 573 yards of passing, 102 yards of sacks. They've been sacked an entire football field.

The Pistol isn't working for the Bruins. It might next year when they have Brett Hundley and a more athletic offensive line, but it was a brutally bad choice for 2010. They don't have the right people. They don't have the right triggerman. And defenses don't have to respect the multiplicity of options the Pistol normally creates. Without a quarterback that's a threat to run or pass, get the ball out quickly and pressure the defense with his feet and toughness, they're shooting blanks. UCLA's only option left is to give the ball to Coleman and Franklin 35 times a game. To make things worse, Neuheisel's squad is 109th in the country in turnovers lost with 16, 6 ints, 10 fumbles.

This is a bad football team. And a fundamentally bad decision by Neuheisel and Chow made it worse.