rr - I absolutely do not under stand where you are coming from half of the time. You are mixing a "game plan" and an "offensive system" in your description. I don't know of an offense, especially modern, that doesn't use run/pass formation base sets and actions in the same series. You are always setting the team up for the next play or the nest series. That is the art of football and certainly is nothing new.
We matched up well against UCLA and played well for more of the game than they did. In short, we executed, they didn't. On paper (your game plan again) both teams had a plan they thought would exploit the other team's weakest areas and take advantage of their strengths. At first it looked like they had our number and then we got on a roll. I would guess if those two teams played 10 times it would be a 50-50 ordeal as the teams were pretty evenly matched.
The other question I have is you are always making suppositions you have no way to prove - Riley working the phone for Vincent and other stuff. Do facts ever get in your way? Like, what is really the truth, what really happened or is it just better to have an opinion that elevates someone and call it fact? Then the excuse is we are all in this to watch Riley fail. Some of us are in this to watch the team get better in reality, not in someones mind. I don't care how many close games there were, that is for losers, it is about wins and loses and that is how a coach is ultimately judged. You can come up with all of the sweet sounding platitudes but it doesn't mean a thing if the team doesn't win. Until further time, this team will have to show they can do that both from the coaching and players.