Our 2024 recruiting class to date is exactly the same as our 2023 class was, if we use the vaunted 247 star system for comparison purpose only. BTW that star system gives no signal for future success save for the 5 stars which all routinely go to the same 6 or 7 monied programs who end up winning all the titles. (4 stars and below are noise.)
So, given the zero change, why are FanThinking BZers reacting to the coaching change like it's an exciting "brand new day" for Ucla football recruiting? It's because Bruin media would have you believe that more "offers", some "final rounds" for 5 stars and hosting more OVs makes a difference.
It hasn't.
This must make good copy, especially at places like the 247 Sports Ucla Parasite which is wholly dependent upon clicks and BZer hosts who feed them with subscription money. Why else would they do it?
The problem with this hyperbole is that it destabilizes the program. Gullible, low information fans get whipped up into an excited state and then crash when the reality hasn't changed or lived up to the hyped expectations. Revenues go up briefly, then plunge putting Morgan Center on the defensive to do something. (Have you noticed that Morgan Center is always on the defensive?)
The panic button they mindlessly push is to hire a new coach. Rinse-repeat.
In our latest rinse-repeat cycle Morgan Center elected to forego its existing program of players who had bought in, were/are great citizens and representatives of the program and school (if that's what Ucla wants to think of itself as---really a government run social welfare program) and where a foundation was established upon which pieces could be added to elevate its competitive success.
Chip was not a complete HC. We saw that with his early season defenses and his middling special teams. But we got his offenses. When, at last, he built a defense we had a complete team in 2023. Inexplicably, he gambled the fate of that team by starting an over-matched true frosh at QB and the 2023 season's breakthrough potential was scotched.
The negative hyperbole already being drummed into fans by the Parasite before the 2023 campaign, grew continuously as the season stumbled. It intensified pressure on Morgan Center to act. Without it, they make have stayed the course. But, as we know, they took the dumb way out (as usual during the Guerrero-Jarmond era) by not renewing Chip in December 2023. That way, Morgan Center could say they didn't fire him, but, at the same time they could say they expressed dissatisfaction with him. Chip's smart. He left.
Rinse-repeat.
So now the Bruin media hyperbole has returned to positive from negative. Now FanThinking BZers are getting regular doses of dopamine from the exciting and glowing coverage of Foster's early days. The sky that once was filled with incoming fireballs of ruin is now a brilliant Bruin Blue again. Smiles (dopamine) have replaced frowns (dopamine deficit). All is well, Ucla football has testosterone and strength again. We are conquerors now and we are on a march.
No. Nope. None of that is true. It's still Ucla. Recruiting results haven't changed a bit. The team will be a circa .500 proposition in 2024 and likely below that in 2025, depending upon the unproven Foster's portal haul. By 2025 post-season, the hype cycle will click from outright giddiness to a measured neutrality. Eyebrows will arch, analyses will be written and doubts will creep in. If 2026 shows no improvement the cycle will tip back toward the negative. ("We knew Foster was inexperienced, but we had to go with him given the awful mess that the evil Kelly left us in at the time!)
So, for all of you BZers who subscribe to the Parasite, please appreciate that you're part of the problem. You're feeding the hype that destabilizes the program. (Bolch too, he's awful.).
Drop your subscription to the Parasite and use that money for MoW, if you can. And stop paying attention to the star ranks of players and recruiting classes. It's all nonsense.