Love the story, and I loved CT's quotes. It gives me hope that this team won't let this happen again. "The reason it happened is we are not good enough to walk into a stadium and expect to win," Taylor said in a distinctly halting manner. "We, in order to win, have to take the win. If we don't take it, we lose."

The entire program needs that attitude: If we don't TAKE it, we lose. Let's take it.

I love it. Is it too early to offer Christian Taylor a position on the coaching staff once his playing days are over?

I hate that we're in a situation where we have to look for silver linings in the clouds, but if that is what it takes for the guys to become better players, better coaches, a better team, and a better program then so be it.

Great article and right on point. I have followed Bruin football for 25 years this October and this goes way back. The attitude that Taylor expressed is the attitude this team must have - however, I am skeptical, who could their attitude be any different, what happened to that "chip" they were supposed to have on their shoulder. This team doesn't understand that talk is talk, it is how you act when you are in the arena.

Good read Brian. Mind-boggling and frustrating to say the least.

Excellent article Brian, I loved the quotes from Christian Taylor. I hope the rest of the team was inspired by them. My only concern is whether these words will really change the culture. Your description of the issues reflects a culture that has grown over time and will take a considerable amount of effort to make a permanent change. What concerns me the most is the other component, the coaching staff, they too must change their approach to games such as Utah. KD says he will "fix the problem" but in four years superficially I don't see a change in how the coaching staff approaches game preparation. Brian, have you notice changes that would affect play attitude and preparation over the past four years.

Good article but, as far as what the players and coaches have to say, same old same old. We hear the same stuff after every humiliation. I like your comment about leadership in the top programs being in place before the disatrous losses. It seems as if we're always reacting to events and bad experiences. Good coaches make sure that their teams create the situations, as much as possible, not react to the situation that has been created for them.

I sit near the section where the alumni cheerleader reigns. and THIS is the exact moment when I thought teams like Utah and lower-ranked Pac-10 teams could give us trouble: He said this could be a very special season.. but then he started hinting at 11-0, 12-0, and being in the national championship picture, I knew the season was bound to have some stumble.

It's the very first game and sure there's some excitement, but if this guy's already counting the chickens before they're hatched and looking _that_ far ahead.. what about the team?

Brian, any chance you can get the poster/author name put into the RSS feed? With Ms. Painter posting now I can't tell what posts are from who in the feed. Thanks!

Einstein's definition of insanity covers this topic - doing the same things and expecting different results.

Didn't Havner say exactly the same thing as Taylor at some point?

Brian,
I think it was a great article. I realize they say that they need to respect every game, but you would think the seniors and Dorrell would remember games like Arizona and learn from it. I think it is more on Dorrell than it is the players. He has consistently had games every year that his players have not taken the opponent seriously. Dorrell needs to take every practice like it is the SC game and get his players up.

A team full of seniors should know better than to take anything for granted. Especially since they get blown out by lesser teams anually! Something is fundamentally wrong with this coach and staff.

Havner led the 2005 defense that stoned teams in the fourth quarter and let us win 10 games with our cardiac/comeback offense. Don't talk about what you don't know.

I'm really only curious as to what he said that you changed to "stunk" and "stinks". Was it grammatical or profane? The only logical word that fits isn't one on the George Carlin list.

My thoughts?

Simple. It would be very nice if there wasn't a reason to publich this article. Every. Single. Year.

Learning from your mistakes is great - if you actually do it. It's readily apparent, however, that learning from these sorts of mistakes is clearly not happening.

In regards to the Anon commenter who said that Havner led our defense in 2005 that 'stoned' teams in the fourth quarter: it would also be nice if our team knew how to play a complete game. Think about it: you're celebrating competence that lasted exactly one quarter in each game. Hooray.

I think you give too much relative credit to Dorrell.

The only reason he is the first person to lead us to bowl games four seasons is because of the proliferation of bowls, not because of any modicum of talent.

Truth in advertising: we have lost 3 of the 4 bowl games, even though we were favored to win all 4. The only thing you learn from losing games is how to lose more games.

Case in point: we kick FGs instead of scoring TDs. Dorrell should make a point of refusing to let us settle for FGs anymore and keep the offense out there to convert on 4th downs in the red zone. Demonstrate to your players that you have higher expectations for them.

Excellent. A perfect summary of the past 4 years.

Dean: To answer your question about what word Brian exchanged for the player's quote, well, let me simply say that as they say in Bruinland, you cannot spell it without USC