The Road to 4 Wins Off to a Fast Start

I wouldn’t exactly say this was the same thing as the Saints beating the Falcons in their Monday night opener after Katrina a few years ago, but the energy and thought of something “new” made the UCLA win over Tennessee pretty sweet Monday night. It was a new coaching regime, a big-time SEC team coming across the country, on Labor Day for a national audience in prime time, and UCLA had just declared that USC’s supremacy in the city was over. That’s a lot of hype, build up, pressure, and anticipation all built up into one game, and perhaps why UCLA had to win the opener.

Seeing three starters go down early and four interceptions by Kevin Craft in the first half was hideous. Tennessee didn’t capitalize on the mistakes and got burned in the second half. If there’s anything we learned from Monday’s game, it’s that:

– Kevin Craft can nut up in the clutch
– Ryan Moya has some serious hands
– Norm Chow and DeWayne Walker are very good at what they do, particularly Walker
– This team still has several weaknesses

I still don’t see much more than 5 wins for this team, so like I said, they’re off to a fast start. Thing is, this win was everything Rick Neuheisel needed after hyping up the program. If they went out there and laid a stinker, they would have been labeled as pretenders (which they still are) and fans could have lost faith. I’m still not expecting much this year, and worse yet, impressive wins like this only mean DeWayne Walker will be gone sooner than later. The guy has put together game plans to slow down Notre Dame, USC, and Tennessee — someone’s going to make him a head coach next year. And this Rick Neuheisel guy? Every sign points to falling in love with him (see the picture above). I’m not. I see a disingenuous snake creating something too good to be true. I’m guessing the joy of this win won’t be felt in five years when the program’s on probation. (And am I the only one who’s creeped out by his Hitler-like address of the crowd after the game?)