SB Nation - Rahim Moore

We're All Americans, But We're Not All All-Americans

Oops Pow Surprise — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:51:28 -0000

by Charlie Neibergall - AP

Iowa's Pat Angerer (43) celebrates with teammates Allen Reisner and Dace Richardson, right, after Iowa blocked a Northern Iowa field goal on the final play. Iowa won 17-16. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

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As is usually the case after a 10-win season, the accolades are beginning to pour in for the Iowa Hawkeye football team. Everyone and their mom has an all-conference or All-American team, but the two that actually matter--Walter Camp and the AP--are now out. And for the 33th year in a row, the unanimous selection for player of the year is Frank Stallone*.

More importantly, the AP named three Hawkeyes to their All-American teams. While nobody made it onto the first team, thanks to Ricky Stanzi's ankle injury--come on, you know if he stays healthy and Iowa goes 11-1 and finishes at #5 or so, even the guys on defense get a little bit more of a bump--both Bryan Bulaga and Pat Angerer made it to the second team, while Tyler Sash made third-team AA as a sophomore. A fine moment for all three players (two of whom, as we insular and provincial types are quick to point out, are native Iowans).

Meanwhile, the Walter Camp Foundation agreed with the AP, naming Bulaga and Angerer to their second team as well and effectively establishing the two as the de facto MVPs of their respective sides of the ball. We have a little beef with each designation, but for wholly different reasons.

First, though Bulaga is by far the best pro prospect on the line as of right now and was utterly dominant in 2008, the reality is that even notwithstanding the 3-week absence as he recovered from thyroid issues, he struggled in 2009. Brandon Graham and O'Brien Schofield manhandled Bulaga. And while those are two very good defensive ends, so was Aaron Maybin, the 11th pick of the 2009 by the Buffalo Bills and Bryan Bulaga's personal prison bitch after Iowa-PSU 2008. There was a substantial dropoff in play by Bulaga in 2009, and voters just didn't notice it when it came time to hand out awards.

Meanwhile, Dace Richardson was actually very good in his return to the line, and he got a fair amount of media attention when mid-season awards were being handed out. Then his ankle was rolled up on against Michigan State, and he disappeared from both the depth chart and voters' attention. But why should he have been punished for an ankle injury while voters looked past Bulaga's absence of a similar length? It's all past reputation, and that's not really fair to guys who come from nowhere and work their butts off--especially in their senior year, where there's no chance for any payoff in the "rewarded in Year X for play in Year X-minus-1" system that's come to be when it comes to honoring offensive linemen.

What this comes down to is that if the AP were to select an Iowa lineman for All-American this season, we'd have preferred it be Dace--though we'll certainly "settle for" Bulaga instead. If both men are playing their last game for Iowa next month, as lots of speculation suggests, then they've both had stellar careers in the black and gold and we wish them well.

On defense, on the other hand, Pat Angerer didn't really establish himself as the most dominant player for that Iowa defense, but that's hardly through any fault of his own. After all, one usually does so by being simply better than his teammates, and the talent level on the Iowa defense this year was both so high and so consistent that it was hard to see Angerer as someone who was the best player on defense. After all, you could always come back with, "well why not Sash? Or Adrian Clayborn? Or Amari Spievey? Or A.J. Edds? Or, hell, Jeremiha Hunter?" We're not saying that Angerer was the 6th best player on the Iowa defense by any means--just that ranking the top 5 or 6 or so would be impossible, because the gaps would be so miniscule that personal preference could easily mean a 3- or 4-spot swing here or there and it wouldn't even be objectionable.

Angerer's accolades, then, come from two areas: 1) his name, which is everything you could ever hope for times infinity; 2) and his stats, which sort of sneak up on you for the same reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph. As mentioned before, he was 5th in the nation in tackles at 11.3 a game. That's pretty outstanding, especially since--as TRE noticed during the season--Angerer's real strength might have been in pass coverage, not run support.

Still, absent game-changing plays, it's somewhat difficult to notice the overall impact a player has on a game. And all of those game-changing plays seemed to happen to other players--most notably Sash and Clayborn, and to a lesser extent Spievey.

Thus we have a weird ambiguity about how we look at Angerer's standing as the most highly-lauded member of the 2009 Iowa defense. It's not that he didn't deserve it--far from it--but with a defense like Iowa's, you could basically pick a name out of a hat and feel relatively confident that you made a good choice. It was that kind of year. Effectively singling out Angerer for praise, then, seems unusual and almost a little unfair. Oh well. There are worse problems to have.

Full AP All-American teams are after the break.

First team
Offense
	   Quarterback -- Colt McCoy, senior, 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Texas.
	   Running backs -- Toby Gerhart, senior, 6-1, 235, Stanford; Mark Ingram, sophomore, 5-10, 212, Alabama.
	   Tackles -- Russell Okung, senior, 6-5, 301, Oklahoma State; Trent Williams, senior, 6-5, 318, Oklahoma.
	   Guards -- Michael Johnson, senior, 6-6, 305, Alabama; Mike Iupati, senior, 6-6, 330, Idaho.
	   Center -- J.D. Walton, senior, 6-3, 305, Baylor.
	   Tight end -- Aaron Hernandez, junior, 6-2, 250, Florida.
	   Wide receivers -- Golden Tate, junior, 5-11, 195, Notre Dame; Jordan Shipley, senior, 6-0, 190, Texas.
	   All-purpose player -- C.J. Spiller, senior, 5-11, 195, Clemson.
	   Kicker -- Leigh Tiffin, senior, 6-2, 212, Alabama.
Defense
	   Ends -- Jerry Hughes, senior, 6-3, 257, TCU; Derrick Morgan, junior, 6-4, 272, Georgia Tech.
	   Tackles -- Ndamukong Suh, senior, 6-4, 300, Nebraska; Terrence Cody, senior, 6-5, 365, Alabama.
	   Linebackers -- Rolando McClain, junior, 6-4, 258, Alabama; Greg Jones, junior, 6-1, 228, Michigan State; Eric Norwood, senior, 6-1, 252, South Carolina.
	   Cornerbacks -- Joe Haden, junior, 5-11, 190, Florida; Javier Arenas, senior, 5-9, 198, Alabama.
	   Safeties -- Eric Berry, junior, 5-11, 203, Tennessee; Earl Thomas, sophomore, 5-10, 197, Texas.
	   Punter -- Drew Butler, sophomore, 6-2, 201, Georgia.
Second team
	   Quarterback -- Tim Tebow, senior, Florida.
	   Running backs -- Ryan Mathews, junior, Fresno State; Dion Lewis, freshman, Pittsburgh.
	   Tackles -- Bryan Bulaga, junior, Iowa; Chris Marinelli, senior, Stanford.
	   Guards -- Rodney Hudson, junior, Florida State; Mike Pouncey, junior, Florida.
	   Center -- Maurkice Pouncey, junior, Florida.
	   Tight end -- Dennis Pitta, senior, BYU.
	   Wide receivers -- Mardy Gilyard, senior, Cincinnati; Danario Alexander, senior, Missouri.
	   All-purpose player -- James Rodgers, junior, Oregon State.
	   Kicker -- Kai Forbath, junior, UCLA.
Defense
	   Ends -- Von Miller, junior, Texas A&M; Brandon Graham, senior, Michigan.
	   Tackles -- Gerald McCoy, junior, Oklahoma; Jared Odrick, senior, Penn State.
	   Linebackers -- Pat Angerer, senior, Iowa; Brandon Spikes, senior, Florida; Sean Weatherspoon, senior, Missouri.
	   Cornerbacks -- Perrish Cox, senior, Oklahoma State; Kyle Wilson, senior, Boise State.
	   Safeties -- Taylor Mays, senior, Southern California; Rahim Moore, sophomore, UCLA.
	   Punter -- Zoltan Mesko, senior, Michigan.
Third team
Offense
	   Quarterback -- Kellen Moore, sophomore, Boise State
	   Running backs -- LaMichael James, redshirt freshman, Oregon; Jacquizz Rodgers, sophomore, Oregon State.
	   Tackles -- Dennis Landolt, senior, Penn State; Ciron Black, senior, LSU.
	   Guards -- Brandon Carter, senior, Texas Tech; Jeff Byers, senior, Southern California.
	   Center -- Chris Hall, senior, Texas.
	   Tight end -- Dorin Dickerson, senior, Pittsburgh.
	   Wide receivers -- Freddie Barnes, senior, Bowling Green; Demaryius Thomas, junior, Georgia Tech.
	   All-purpose player -- Dexter McCluster, senior, Mississippi.
	   Kicker -- Hunter Lawrence, senior, Texas.
Defense
	   Ends -- Jeremy Beal, junior, Oklahoma; Brandon Sharpe, senior, Texas Tech.
	   Tackles -- Brian Price, junior, UCLA; Dan Williams, senior, Tennessee.
	   Linebackers -- Sergio Kindle, senior, Texas; Cody Grimm, senior, Virginia Tech; Navorro Bowman, junior, Penn State.
	   Cornerbacks -- Brandon Harris, sophomore, Miami; Alterraun Verner, senior, UCLA.
	   Safeties -- Tyler Sash, sophomore, Iowa; Mark Barron, sophomore, Alabama.
	   Punter -- Matt Reagan, senior, Memphis.

*Did you know he was in Tombstone, a.k.a. the SINGLE GREATEST MOVIE IN HISTORY? And in a phenomenal scene, to boot.

Ranking the 2009 Pac-10 Football MVPs: Part I

Avinash — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:00:29 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Mike Mohamed had some big plays this season. Was it enough to be a Pac-10 MVP?

Browse more photos »

In case you missed it, here's Part 1: the LVPs of their respective teams.

This post got too long, so I had to split it into three. Here are the honorable mention categories and the Pac-10 players and units ranked #30 thru #21 (#20-11 coming this afternoon, #10-1 coming Friday morning). Let's dive into it.

Honorable Mention

Jeff Locke, Reid Forrest: You know your team's in trouble when your punters are higher than anyone on your offense. And in Forrest's case, you know your team is royally fucked when your punter is the only one on your team who appears on this list.

Donald Butler: Didn't really do anything spectacular this year, but 96 tackles will get you on this list.

Daniel Te'o-Nesheim: So will 9.5 sacks and 12.5 TFL. Too bad the Huskies defense ranged from 'sheer brilliance' to 'human atrocity'

Ed Dickson: I'll be nice as possible about this--FUCK ED DICKSON. AGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

Damola Adeniji: Despite all the production of James Rodgers, he wasn't Canfield's main target on 3rd down. Probably because secondaries keyed in on Rodgers, Adeniji racked up 27 catches in that situation, 21 for first downs, 5th in the country. Only 49 catches overall, but considering he only had 1 last season, I'll say this is a slight upgrade.

Chris Polk: Finished this season on a tear: Five ninety+ yard games and a 1000 yard season overall. Hard to measure his impact though, since the Huskies lost three of those games and Locker and the defense were the focal points of the other two.

Trojan offensive line: Lost season for these guys. 17 sacks allowed, 40 tackles for loss allowed, only a top 40 rushing offense. Ho-hum for them. I would've dreamed of something like this for the Bears.

Mike Mohamed: Cal's most productive defensive player on a not-so-great defensive unit. You have to give massive props for a 100 tackle season (his 104 tackles were tops in the Pac-10). And he saved another Cal season from sliding into disaster with a crucial interception in the Big Game.

Kyle Williams, Dmitri Nance: Solid production considering their quarterback struggled to complete half of his passes. Plus I feel bad for Williams ending his career like that.

Syd'Quan Thompson: If Cal had ONE guy (Hagan, Hill, Nnabuife, Conte, Rope Guy, someone) step up at corner on the other side of the field, who knows how our season turns out. We sure as hell don't get lit up by Oregon, USC or UDub on defense (Syd's limited ability in the final game pretty much assured we were screwed against Locker).

He was still a fabulous open field tackler when he got the chance, and when quarterbacks threw to his side of the field, he usually shut down. Like Asomugha in Oakland, that kind of effort only gets rewarded with first team All Pac-10, and minimal impact on the box score. So while his talent is easy enough to gauge, it's really hard to measure his value. Which is why he's honorable mention and not on the top 30.

After the jump, here's #30-21. If there are any thoughts of players or units left off, or guesses as to who will end up in the top 20, leave them in the comments.

#30 Damian Williams, #29 Joe McKnight

via theoraclesays.files.wordpress.com

These two are actually the first since Bush and White to break 100+ all-purpose yards a game since Bush and Leinart. Solid seasons, but other than McKnight on the final drive against Ohio State and Williams tearing up Notre Dame, how many moments do you remember concerning these two? That kind of year for the Trojans. It's up in the air whether either will return too.

#28 Ryan Whalen

via www4.pictures.zimbio.com

6th in the Pac-10 in receptions, turned into Luck's best passing threat when Owusu went Section Eight in the biggest games. Thought about ranking him higher, but I don't have any Whalen moments to really justify putting him further up. Perhaps the Cardinal fans can refresh my memory...oh, wait, there are no Cardinal fans. #28 it is.

#27 Arizona's receiving corps (Turner, Criner, Roberts, Dean, Douglas)

via www.azstarnet.com

Five guys with 30 catches or more? Now that's spreading the wealth around. By contrast, Cal had only one receiver (Jones) catch more than 30. Obviously, Cal isn't built to be a passing offense, but still, this is a far cry from two-three years ago. Sigh.

#26 UCLA's secondary

via images.ocregister.com

I know Rahim Moore led the nation in picks, and Alterraun Verner had another fine year--but how good are these guys? Other than shutting down Jonathan Crompton and whoever the hell Kansas State's quarterback is, the Bruins pass D has been surprisingly average. Even Kevin Riley burned them deep. I repeat, KEVIN RILEY BURNED THEM DEEP. Does this happen to good secondaries?

Oh well...at least Moore is capable of that "deep, longing, alluring, penetrating, soul-piercing, heart-tugging look".

#25 Tyson Alualu

via cache.daylife.com

Kind of hard to say how bad the Bears defense would've been without Alualu cracking apart the line. His efforts alone helped shut down Minnesota's passing game in a tight 4th quarter. Extra linemen often were forced to commit to him, and it opened up the rest of the front to get after Arizona and the Furd's high powered offensive attack.

Unfortunately, he never really had a Mebane-like force on the line--he couldn't really disrupt the passing attacks the way his predecessors did How much of that was dictated by scheme or by his own pass rush methods is beyond my knowledge, but Cal's pass rush was far weaker than anticipated, far weaker than the 27 sacks they put up this year.

Still a great season for Tice though--Cal's run defense was top-tier, and a lot of that had to do with #44.

(Story that really depressed me this week: Bear Insider's look at how close Ndamukong Suh came to being a Golden Bear. Imagine Alualu and Suh coming together in the 3-4 the last two seasons, particularly last year. I'm getting bummed out now.)

#24 Jahvid Best

via www.pe.com

For a guy who was supposed to be a Heisman hopeful, it's shocking to see Best not even crack the top 20. But that's how it is in a frustrating season for Jahvid, whose season seemed to peak in Minneapolis. Still had some spectacular runs, but running behind the crappiest offensive line in the Tedford era, it could've been way, way better.

#23 Chris Owusu

via a.espncdn.com

A menace for us, and a big game-changer for the Furd, having huge returns on almost every opponent this year. Surprisingly (and stupidly), everyone in the Pac-10 continued to kick to Owusu long after he demonstrated he would outrace their coverage to the end zone. The Furd ranked 3rd in the country in kickoff returns, mostly due to Owusu's skills.

He gets bumped down a bit because if he could just hang onto a few passes (he dropped big catches in EVERY conference loss), the Furd are going to Pasadena.

#22 Kai Forbath

via tnjn.com

Laugh all you want that a kicker cracks the top 25. When a Bruins fan describes him as your most consistent player...well, that says a lot.

Take a look at the games Forbath swung this season.
~13 of UCLA's 19 points in a 4 point win over the Vols in Rocky Top
~11 of UCLA's 23 points in a 10 point win over the Sun Devils
~6 of UCLA's 24 points in a 1 point win over the Huskies
~11 of UCLA's 23 points in a 14 point win over K-State.

Add in these stats
~26 field goals, second most in the country behind Alabama's Tiffin
~99th scoring offense in the country

Not hard to say Forbath was UCLA's offensive MVP this season, isn't it? Switch Forbath with an average kicker and the Bruins win four games? Three?

#21 Shane Vereen

via dlerium.smugmug.com

(Image from dmo580)

Surprisingly had more impressive performances than Best this season, cementing away a Cal victory in Pasadena and being the workload in two upsets over the Wildcats and the Cardinal. Best racked up big numbers against two of the worst teams in the country and an FCS opponent, managing only one great game this season against a bowl-eligible team. Although Best ended up with more rushing yards, Vereen had more all-purpose yards thanks to his kickoff returns and his own pass-catching abilities. Most importantly, when the offensive line collapsed, Vereen had more of the elusiveness to slip away from encroaching defenders.

Best might be the better talent, but Vereen was the more valuable Bear for this Cal squad...but only by a little.

Coming this afternoon: #20-11.

Something Special Brewin? Malcolm Jones Honored As Gatorade National Player Of The Year

Nestor — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:08:15 -0000

Many of us have followed college athletics long enough to know that we shouldn't always get too excited about hype around big time recruits. It is especially true these days in the world of college basketball. Sometimes recruits in hoops such as JF, AA, and KL live up to all the hype. Other times, well I don't think I have to go through the details of the Ben Ball ~~warriors~~ class of 2008 (you can also read the comments in this thread which will go back much further).

Same dynamics also play out in football to a certain extent (even though in football it takes recruits traditionally a year or two to make discernible impact in the program). I think we can write post after posts on who has worked out (MJD, Brian Price, Akeem Ayers, Rahim Moore, XSF) and who hasn't (Ben Olson, Aundre Dean ) in recent years in Westwood. Yet, every once in a while we read and hear about a recruit in football or hoops, and we can't help but hope for something special when everything looks and sounds right about his arrival to Westwood. Well, if you haven't yet then meet Malcolm Jones. He just became the first UCLA football recruit ever to be honored as the Gatorade National High School Player Of The Year:

The LAT writeup provides the eye popping numbers:

Jones, a running back-linebacker, has scored 109 touchdowns in his four-year prep career. This season, he has rushed for 2,156 yards, putting him 40 yards short of tying the single-season school record held by Marc Tyler. He has 36 touchdowns and is nearing 6,000 yards rushing in his career.

Jon Gold from the Daily News had the following comment from MJ's team-mate on how emotional he was yesterday:

"You should have seen the expressions on his face when he was walking out of class," Oaks Christian quarterback Nick Montana said with a wide smile. "He was with his family, biggest smile on his face; I haven't seen him smile like that in a while. He was tearing up a little bit - it was awesome to see."

Well congrats to Malcolm from the entire BN. We have a little more on him after the jump.

Gold sheds a little more light on Malcolm as a student and person off the field:

Jones maintains a 3.46 grade-point average and announced in early October that he would play for UCLA, choosing the Bruins over expected front-runner Stanford. Additionally, Jones is a peer tutor and a youth basketball volunteer referee.

"He's realizes I think that he's really blessed," Marshall Jones Sr. said. "He takes his blessings as something he should utilize for the good of himself and others. And that's what makes me proud of him.

"He's a better person than he is a football player."

He also has the right perspective heading into UCLA next season:

"I really wanted to go to a school where I can really make a name for myself, not just be the "next" star running back at a USC or one of those big-time colleges," Jones said. "I want to prove to everyone that I can really help turn the program around, get them back on top."

Sounds like a Bruin already. lol Here he was few weeks ago reflecting on his team's season, his commitment to UCLA, and the looming CIF playoffs:

Well, Malcolm is going to lead his 13-0 Oaks Christian team into tonight Northwest Division championship game against Gardena Serra. He has played on three consecutive section championship teams.

In terms of some previous history on this award, I should note in hoops it was KL and Jrue Holiday who were also honored as Gatorade NPOY (as I said in my opening grafs, we have mixed records). Previous honorees as Gatorade NPOY includes names such as Peyton Manning, Emmitt Smith and Jeff George. The list also includes Matt disrespected Barkely (won the award in his junior season), who hasn't really done all that much considering the talent he was surrounded with at Southern Cal.

All that said, it's still a big deal. As noted above Malcolm is the first Bruin recruit to win this award. As excited as we all are about him, what I am even more excited is listening to him, he comes as as the perfect Bruin in the mold of ATV. Keeping my fingers crossed, Malcolm experiences the same level of success as our current senior captain both on and off the field starting next year at UCLA.

GO BRUINS.

Kai Wins Groza, Bruins Rack Up More All American Honors

Nestor — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:11:59 -0000

brtishbruin and KSBruin were already on it last night. We have more major post-season awards news to share about few Bruins from the football team. Kai won the Lou Groza award last night beating out a two great kickers from amazing SEC programsn (Alabama’s Leigh Tiffin and Geogia's Blair Walsh). In addition to Kai accepting his award on ESPN, two more Bruins - Brian Price and Rahim Moore were named in the Second Team All America by the prestigious Walter Camp Foundation:

So, let's start with Kai Forbath. Here is the official release which identfied Kai as perhaps the best kicker ever to come out of UCLA:

In the long line of UCLA All-America place kickers, Forbath might just be the best ever. On the year, he has made 26 of 29 field goals and 22 of 23 PATs for 100 points. He ranks second nationally in field goals per game (2.17). He is perfect (23 of 23) from inside 50 yards and three of six from 50+ yards. His .897 percentage this year is No. 2 in the NCAA among players with 22 or more attempts.

Dating back to last year, Forbath has converted 39 of his last 42 field goals and had a string of 16 straight successes snapped at Arizona when he missed from 52 yards. He has connected on his last 35 straight field goal attempts inside 50 yards (his last such miss came on a 47-yard attempt in game six last season at Oregon).

Forbath's .864 percentage is the highest in school history among players with at least 20 career field goals (John Lee holds the current record at .850). He ranks second (tied) in school history with 70 field goals and No. 5 in career scoring with 283 points in just 37 games.

His school-record nine field goals of 50 yards or longer rank No. 1 among active FBS kickers. His 70 field goals rank second (tied) among all active players (the next junior is 20 field goals behind him) and his career percentage of .864 is No. 2 among players with at least 40 attempts.

Kai of course deserves this award. It also shouldn't be a surprise to anyone here when Kai puts his name in during the NFL draft's "testing out the water" process to see where he might fall. Although, there is a decent chance of him returning (unlike Brian Price).

I think I appreciated Kai more this season when I was watching other college footbal teams, seeing teams flail away with poor kicking and getting hancuffed during crunch time. That said, I wish Kai would come back for one more season, so that he would get to play for an offense, in which he would play an invaluable role by connecting on long game winning or game tying FGs, instead of drive settling ones he was booming in over and over again during last few years at UCLA. More on last night awards after the jump.

As mentioned in the beginning, in addition to Kai, two other Bruins - Price and Moore - were named in the Walter Camp's All America team:

Price, a true junior, has recorded 34.5 tackles for a loss in his last 21 games, including 4.0 against Arizona State and Tennessee, 3.0 at Washington State and 2.0 against Oregon and at USC. He has 22.5 tackles for loss in 12 games this season and ranks first in the Pac-10 (by 7.5 TFL) and is tied for third in the NCAA. He ranks second all-time in UCLA history with 43.5 tackles for loss, and is also second on the single season list with 22.5, trailing only Robert Thomas' 26.0 TFL in 2001.

Moore, a true sophomore, leads the nation with nine interceptions, averaging 0.75 per game. He also ranks fourth (tied) nationally, in passes defensed (1.33 per game). He tied the UCLA single-game record with three interceptions against San Diego State and also made two each versus Tennessee and Arizona. Moore has made 45 tackles on the year, including three for loss.

That was from the official site which also provided the data point re. only Alabama (six) and Florida (four) having more selections than UCLA's three (Texas also had three). That led the LAT to take the cheap shot about those three teams finishing with a combined record of 38-1 (in comparison to UCLA's 6-6).

Of course, anyone with a basic understanding of the personnel of UCLA football program (based on recruiting and talent flow from last 6 years) wouldn't make the basic argument about UCLA having the same talent as those three programs. But hey given what we have seen over the years, often basic coverage of UCLA football is too much to ask for from the Trojan lapdogs in charge of LAT's sports section. Whatever. The basic lesson is look everywhere else before looking to LAT for information on UCLA sports.

Congrats to all of our guys. Let's hope we get to see these guys at least one more time this season. GO NAVY.

GO BRUINS.

UCLA's Price Is Right For The Pac-10: Brian Headlines 11 Bruins Honored As All Pac-10

Nestor — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:13:22 -0000

hicalliber is already on it but this deserves lot more attention. This is not a surprise but still worthy of a huge celebration on Bruin Nation. Here is our Pac-10 Defensive Player:

The official announcement came out earlier this afternoon which included lot of good news for the football team. Not only Brian Price was named Pac-10's Defense POY, he was part of a group of 11 Bruins named in the All Pac-10 team. Five of them were first-team selection:

UCLA junior defensive tackle Brian Price has been named Pac-10 Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year by vote of the league's coaches, it was announced today.

A total of 11 Bruins were named to the All-Pac-10 teams. Joining Price on the first team were senior linebacker Reggie Carter, sophomore safety Rahim Moore, senior cornerback Alterraun Verner and junior place kicker Kai Forbath. Forbath and Price were two of the three unanimous selections to the first team.

Redshirt freshman punter Jeff Locke and senior wide receiver Terrence Austin were selected to the second team, the latter as a kickoff returner. Four Bruins were named honorable mention - sophomore linebacker Akeem Ayers, senior linebacker Kyle Bosworth, sophomore wide receiver Nelson Rosario and freshman offensive tackle Xavier Su'a-Filo.

UCLA had more first-team defensive selections (four) than any other school in the conference.

You can read more from the official press release here.

Congrats to Brian, Reggie, ATV, Austin, and Bosworth. That's a wonderful way for them to leave Westwood after what they have given us last 3-4 years. We will have to wait to see what happens with Kai, as he might be testing the waters during the off season. Meanwhile, can't wait to see how Rahim, Akeem, Nelson, XSF, and Locke build on the success from this season.

For now though let's hope the Midshipmen comes though on Saturday so that we get to see these guys for one more time to close out the year. Go Navy. Oh and don't forget to congratulate our boys in this celebratory thread.

GO BRUINS.

Spaulding Roundup: DC Thoughts, Verner's Views, Finals Week & Other Notes

Nestor — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:42:46 -0000

Can Bruins handle this (if it snows in DC)? Photo Credit: photoal (flickr)

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Well yeah. It's not snowing in DC today but it did over the weekend a bit giving us our first snow of the year. The picture above is from another year though, which I think gives a little hint of what folks could expect in late December if we get a legit snow storm in Washington DC. Will the Bruins get to play in their first legit snow bowl (don't really count the one from Washington State during the regular season because it wasn't really snowing during the game) this December? Well as everyone know by now, we are not going to know until the end of Army-Navy game this upcoming weekend.

CRN is excited about rooting for the Midshipmen:

"Although we always support the men and women fighting for our country, on this particular three-hour stint, we're going to be anchor's aweigh ~~away~~," Neuheisel said on Sunday. "We're excited about the opportunity and looking forward to getting into the ball game. We know we need a little bit of help, but we're looking forward to a chance."

Interestingly, from the LAT report today, it sounds like the Bruins did have a chance to accept an invitation to the Humanitarian Bowl. However, the payout for that game ($700,000) wasn't enough for our program:

UCLA officials received interest from other bowls, as Neuheisel said, "I know there were lots of conversations and I was also told that UCLA was a desired team."

Humanitarian Bowl officials showed particular interest, and the Bruins might have gone there if Army lost, but the bowl payoff "wasn't right," said a UCLA official not authorized to speak about the situation.

UCLA officials turned down a Humanitarian Bowl invitation in 2001 after bowl officials asked for a $300,000 sponsorship from the university, a former UCLA administrator said.

Wonder who was that former UCLA administrator talking to the LAT. Anyway, if Navy does come through for the Bruins on Saturday (you never can take an outcome for granted in an intense, emotional rivalry game), Bruins will have interesting decisions to make re. the quaterback situation. CRN seemed to indicate that Prince might be ready for the bowl game:

"He told me it was getting better when I saw him last week," Neuheisel said. Given some rest, I think he would be ready."

Prince of course is still recovering from his mild AC sprain (considered a "slight separation") of his throwing shoulder. I personally think the Bruins should start Craft and prepare Brehaut as the backup option, and let Prince fully heal for spring ball. However, I feel comfortable in having Neuheisel and Chow making the call. More bowl related and end of season notes after the jump.

Players in general sound pretty excited about the bowl game. Taylor Embree "wants it really bad":

"I saw (offensive coordinator Norm Chow) today, too, and he said it looked like we had a really good chance," sophomore wide receiver Taylor Embree said. "We had a meeting with coach Neuheisel last Tuesday, and he just said, 'Focus as if we were going to a bowl.' We're prepared. If we go to one, it won't be a shock. We're ready for a bowl. We want it really bad."

While ATV thinks Bruins could be an "exciting" team to watch during the bowl season:

"We're fortunate to be put in the position to try to get one, though, and that's all we can ask for. I think we did enough to deserve it, showed enough promise through the course of the year with our youth, and we'll be an exciting team to watch come bowl season."

Oh and speaking of ATV, if you haven't done it yet, I think you will want to read the last edition of Verner's views:

[F]our years have gone by way too fast for me as a UCLA Bruin. I remember the times when I used to watch the Bruins play and wearing the #1 UCLA jersey to high school and stuff to now, when I am leaving UCLA with an interception touchdown record and lasting memories to all the Bruin Nation. My experiences here have been top of the line and something I will cherish forever. From academics - competing against the top brains in the world in my math major was always fun - just walking around campus and seeing the variety of people and cultures on campus, it was beautiful to see. Through all this intermingling, you realize that everyone is basically the same and they have the same struggles as you. You can be an athlete, a pre-med student, or grad student - it didn't matter. Everyone is fighting for their education and that is what created so many bonds with people in all areas of UCLA life.

Having the pleasure of being the student representative for the library catalogue a while back to now being spotlighted on UCLA Big Moment spots are two others things that stand out. My time with this sector of UCLA has been difficult, however all the more amazing!

Football, man it's been the craziest roller coaster, but one of those that was worth the wait, but so short that you almost missed the thrills of it. Being in the Rose Bowl with our wonderful fans that were there from the beginning, to putting on the Blue and Gold was just simply amazing. I had the honor to be coached by DeWayne Walker for most of my career and finished up this year being coached by the great Carnell Lake! Many guys have helped me in numerous ways of playing the position. I appreciate their expertise on the field. I had a great time playing with my former killa bees and current ones -- Chris Horton, Rodney Van, Trey Brown, Dennis Keyes, and Bret Lockett to Tony Dye, Rahim Moore, Glenn Love, Courtney Viney, Aaron Hester, Sheldon Price, Andrew Abbott and everyone else. Each player is so good and made my job so much easier and helped contribute to my success. I will definitely miss all my teammates, I really love them all. The hard work and the grind I had to do with all of them makes them all special to me. They are all very talented and that's why I believe UCLA will be back at the top very soon and I can't wait to see that unfold.

You need to read rest of ATV's post by going here. ATV and his team-mates will be taking finals this week. Once they are done at the end of the week (per Jon Gold) they will have practices on Friday and Saturday. They are going to practice Saturday morning, have lunch and take in the Army-Navy game. Needless to say we will have an open thread here for that game cheering on Navy.

Lastly, before I end this good luck to all of your students this week. Yeah, I know we are hard on you guys sometimes. However, look at the ideas our discussions generated in last 24 hours. While we get down sometimes during the tough times, it is clear how much passion and dedication we have among a huge core of students and alums here in Bruins Nation. Often times when we call each other out, I personally think it only makes that dedication deeper forcing us to think hard about how we can make our community bigger offline. Hopefully we can keep the discussion that started yesterday going in the coming weeks/months resulting in what I truly believe will be the most rabid fanbase in the Western US. We have had two of the worst weekends in UCLA athletcs in recent history. Yet just look around this community this am. We are still here. Aren't we? Anyway, kick ass in finals and then head down to Anaheim.

GO BRUINS.

Notable Quotables from USC vs. ucla

Paragon SC — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:19:07 -0000

There are some interesting quotes from last nights game. Particularly about the long bomb that Pete unleashed at the end of the game. Obviously, there are two things to understand when reading these...1) context and 2) honesty. I don't think we will get the real story on both.

Rick Neuheisel's comments betray that he gets it...the coaches always do. But it also betrays the one thing I knew would happen...that this is bulletin board material for ucla. They will have a year of being pissed off.

Anyway here are some quotes from the OCR...

Coach Rick Neuheisel

(On the touchdown)
"I was trying to make them punt. It’s our job to cover. They have every right to throw the ball deep. People draw their own conclusions. It’s our job to stop the play. … I had three timeouts. It was first down, I called a timeout. If they run the ball on second down, I call timeout. I’m trying to get the ball back. If they fumble I got a chance. I don’t blame them for doing it. It’s our job to cover it. I was just trying to keep the game alive."

Like said in the comments earlier...the game goes for 60 minutes. If RN thinks he has a shot then it means he wants to play. Bruins fans who are complaining need to get over it. RN was doing what they wanted him to do since the day he signed on...

Try. To. Beat. USC.

He can't do that if he doesn't have the ball and he can't try if he doesn't try and get the ball.

Like I said, he gets it. And it puts him a box. If he is lying whats that say about his character? If he understands it and would do the same thing what does that say about his character? Bit of a Catch-22

This was Pete's way of saying we heard you! Strong message follows...

Safety Rahim Moore

(On the touchdown)
"I just couldn’t believe it. I just said, Wow. I was speechless. It’s all good. You lose some, you win some. You just got to move on. Of course we were offended. They ended up scoring. We were losing so of course we all were mad. We were shocked how they disrespected and took a shot on us. It caught us off guard. We thought they were going to kneel the ball."

I get this too...this is how Taylor Mays felt when Harbaugh went for two (even though the situations are vastly different). But if Moore has a problem with it, do what SC did on the 2-pointer....DEFEND IT!

All this talk about being disrespected is just that...talk. Mays didn't like it but USC stopped it, regardless of the reasons why Harbaugh did it.

Moore knows the drill...

This one is my favorite...

Linebacker Reggie Carter

(On the touchdown)
"In a way it’s disrespectful but then again their job is to score points, our job is to stop them from scoring points. They did their job, we didn’t do ours. How mad could you be? We called a timeout, we kept the game going, so obviously we wanted to keep playing. We obviously didn’t play hard enough."

Right...this from the guy who said this...

"I don't hate people, I just want to beat them up. I don't hate them (the Trojans), I just want to beat them real bad. It's not hatred, I just want to beat them up real bad. We're just gonna keep throwing punches even if they're knocked out, we'll just keep punching, it don't matter, we're going to keep punching until we cant punch no more."

How does feel when the shoe is on the other foot pal?

Don't be fooled...he gets it too. And if the tables were turned he would not apologize one bit.

All these guys get it...regardless of all their bluster. This is big boy football. Neuheisel hasn't exactly acted with a lot of class since he got to ucla. Pete has pretty much kept to himself unless he has been poked by some of the crap that Slick Rick has pulled.

Pete didn't jump in the mud to wrestle with the pig...he did all of his talking on the field.

BN Gameday: Southern Cal Second Half Thread

Nestor — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:47:20 -0000

Well let's see what we got here. Bruins despite few frustration filled moments are right in this game. We are down 0-7 unfortunately due to an ill advised throw from Kevin Prince. Here is the box score, which has Bruin defense getting the job done and the Bruin offense despite doing a decent job of ball control, coming up short because of some tough, jittery mistakes. Prince showed his jitters in this big game as have few other underclassmen such as Rosario and Locke, who are not playing up to their usual form.

Still. We are in this game thanks to probably the best first half by our defense for this entire year. Our D at this moment thanks to Price, Carter, Moore, and ATV are manhandling McKnight and Barkley. Although we do need to make some subtle adjustments to make sure McCoy doesn't get wide open in the middle. Right now, we need to desperately find a way to take the next step on offense executing and stepping up when we get on their side of the field.

Like I said despite couple of tough mistakes we are right in this game down only by a score. We need Prince, Rosario and rest of our offense to shake it off and finish the game strong. Oh a huge return from Austin before he is done in Westwood will be nice. Let's get it done in the second half.

BEAT $C. GO BRUINS.

Moving Forward: Bruins Need One More Win (And Focus On Arizona State)

Nestor — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:36:07 -0000

More photos » by Dean Hare - AP

about 1 month ago: UCLA tailback Derick Coleman (33) runs the ball as Washington State linebacker Alex Hoffman-Ellis, right, defends during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009 at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash. UCLA won 43-7. (AP Photo/Dean Hare)

Browse more photos »

I know lot of us are dying to think about that last regular game of the season (especially after what transpired yesterday) but this is not the time for any of us to look ahead. It looks like we did have a good reason to feel slightly better after that fourth quarter against Oregon State, when we got the sense that it was time to rally around our Bruins. Well something is clearly working right now and it feels good.

Yes, last night's blowout win was only against lowly Washington State. We could have looked lot better than we did against Paul Wulff's demoralized bunch. Yet, I still think there is something little encouraging about that performance because it was one of those games we have seen UCLA football team either choke away or make it unnecessarily hard on themselves to win over the years. We now hope our team can keep it going by locking in on the next opponent which is capable of ruining senior day at the Rose Bowl.

Let's start with something CRN did to get his players in the right mindset to deal with the elements. From the LA Times:

Neuheisel's cold-weather preparation included holding Friday night's team meeting outside in a snow storm.

"I was amazed how many of our guys had never been in snow before," Neuheisel said. "It gave us the right mind-set."

Still, it was cold.

He also made his players get a little taste of snowball fights so that they could "get used to the weather":

UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel had his players throw snowballs, while his kid threw touchdown passes.

UCLA players hardly seemed uptight heading into today’s game at Washington State. A snowstorm Friday night had a handful of Bruins outside throwing snowballs at each other for a half hour.

The frolicking was the result of Neuheisel’s instructions to go outside and get used to the weather.

Yeah, his son - Jerry Neuheisel - threw a 45-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-11 play with 31 seconds left to give Loyola a 41-37 victory over Crespi (which I guess was a good omen for the weekend). Anyway, going back to the game, what I liked about iur guys was how they looked confident. They weren't cocky as team leaders like Reggie Carter struck all the right notes before the game as he was gracious towards a struggling team. Our guys had the look of a locked in football team that knew exactly what was at stake and what they needed to hold on to the momentum Rahim Moore and co grabbed to end the Washington game on our home coming weekend. It is going to be a challenge for us to hold on to that momentum next weekend against a very good defensive team. However, if we can continue to build on the successes of last 9 quarters, this will truly turn out to be a Novermbet to remember.

As noted in the post game thread, Kevin Prince was the head line grabber. He had a great game by all accounts. Yet CRN (as he mentioned during half time) though Prince could have played even better:

"When you're enjoying this kind of success, it's almost like going down the cafeteria line and trying to grab everything," Neuheisel said. "You have to maintain your patience. I thought Kevin tried to make throws down the field instead of taking what they were giving him underneath."

Prince completed 27 of 40 passes, as Neuheisel, said, "I thought he did a nice job getting back to the scheme." Practice-like corrections made possible by the scout-team-like defense Washington State offered.

I thought we saw that in Prince during the second half, especially after the Cougars scored a TD. Prince drove the team down for our own TD drive during when he was methodically looking of his primary and secondary targets. He also did a great job during the two min drill to end the first half when he was finding Moline for little check downs:

Prince hit Moline four times on the ensuing drive for 35 yards, meticulously going through his reads until settling short, and the Bruins chopped their way down the field to set up a 38-yard field goal by junior kicker Kai Forbath.

"All week in practice we knew the check-downs were going to be a big factor in the game," said Moline, who finished with three carries for 25 yards and seven catches for 60 yards. "We check-released, we checked down from linebackers, and especially in that two-minute drive when I got all those catches, Prince was checking down the field and no one was there."

Moline had himself a great game which you can read more about here and here.

However, the fact that Moline was our most productive running back is a cause for concern. Derrick Coleman had a decent game yesterday rushing for 50 yards in 12 carries. Our entire team (thanks largely due to Prince's 68 yard rumble down the sidelines) rushed for 232 yards which is not too bad against a bad Washington State defense. However, Coleman to me appears more as a servicable full back than a feature tailback. He did a better job of falling forward yesterday though which is a positive but I think he will have tougher times against team with average or better defensive speed (like the one we are going to face next weekend at home).

JetSki's fumbling issue is a real problem now. Not sure what else the coaches can do. They have sent every message they possibly can. It's a matter of him playing with focus and concentration on every down. Milton Knox picked up some decent chunk of yardage during garbage time. Yet he looked unsure in the fact of Coguar blitzes and failed to hit the hole with authority on a key 3rd and 1 in third quarters. Thigpen has a lot of promise but he doesn't have the frame to be a every down back. Christian Ramirez is just too brittle and inconsistent to have a discernible impact. So, you can see why getting both Malcolm Jones and Jordon James were big deal for this year's recruiting class. It looks like we have a QB of the future slowly emerging in Chow's offense. We now need a back or two, who can costar with the Prince.

Our OL did a decent job of providing pass protection. However, there were moments of sloppiness that needs to be cleaned up. Darius Savage didn't look totally comfortable at RG stepping for Ryan Taylor. I thought our OL's overall run blocking performance was pretty mediocre against an atrocious defensive line. Also, our OL looked somewhat unprepared for WSU blitzes when it seemed like opposing LBers was getting to Prince untouched. Again, it's something we really have to work on this game week to prepare for a solid Arizona State defense.

Moving on to the other side Akeem and Brian Price were the two big stars in last night's defense. From Jon Gold in the Daily News here are Kyle Bosworth's comments on what BP did to the Cougars' offense:

"BP has always had his name out on the leaderboard, but with Akeem, it's really good to see him kind of shine today," Bosworth said. "Two picks is huge for anybody, and it's good to see him with those two sacks.

"I'm happier for him, but BP did great - I know he'll be in the league one of these days, and this is one of the games that's going to help him do that."

Price racked up three tackles for loss, which makes him Pacific-10 leader with 16.5 for the season. He also has 5 sacks to go along with those stats. There is not much I can add to make him sound more incredible than he already is. I cherish watching this kid play just like I enjoyed recent great Ben Ball warriors such as KL, RW, LRMAM, AA, and DC. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he can add to his legend on a week by week basis (because I won't blame him if he decides to jump provided he gets positive feedback from NFL draft whizes during the off season).

In addition to Price, Akeem had a great game as he benefited from a new look Bullough through at the Cougs:

For the first time this year, UCLA defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough lined up Ayers on the defensive line in a three-point stance, allowing Ayers to burst off the ball at the point of contact. He said both of his sacks were from the formation.

That is sure to catch the eye of those in the NFL, as well, as hybrid pass-rushers - those who can play both in coverage and on the line of scrimmage - have become in vogue in 3-4 defenses.

"It wasn't anything really new to me," said Ayers, who played his sophomore and junior seasons in high school at defensive end. "I'm used to being in a three-point and getting a pass rush. I definitely can see myself doing something like that - I'm athletic enough to stand up and drop into coverage, but I'm also able to rush the passer."

Hope Akeem can build on this weekend's performance to put together another consistent outing next against Arizona State.

While Akeem and BP had great games, I am getting worried about Reggie Carter's contribution to our defense. Reggie Carter is a great Bruin and solid leader for this football team. He is definitely the emotional heart and soul of our defense. However, the more I have watched him in recent weeks, the more its becoming clear to me that he is not the same Reggie we have seen over the years. It looks like his injury is really bothering him. He doesn't have the same ability to move around from MLB spot and he routined finds himself away from the action. Just look at the game tape from Tennessee and compare it what we saw yesterday. It's not even close.

Apparently Reggie is trying to will himself through these last few games of his Bruin career. The coaches tried to take him out during early in the fourth quarter but he wouldn't come out. So per the LA Times the coaches had to take a time out to get Reggie out of the game:

"That was the first time since I have been at UCLA that we have been ahead by so much that they were taking me out of the game," Carter said. "I told them, 'No, let me stay.' Then coach told me he didn't want me to get hurt. So I apologize, but I just wanted to enjoy the moment."

I think Reggie needs to rest up a bit. I think it could potentialy be worth it to use him as sparingly as possible next weekend against Arizona State and perhaps use Steve Sloan at the MLB spot, who did a servicable job last year when he took over for Christian Taylor. Guess, this is an issue we will have to defer to the coaches who have shown pretty good judgment wrt to injury issues this season (See the cautioun they showed with Aaron Hester).

Our punt return performance continues to be a concern. Terrence Austin had another fumble yesterday, which luckily for us went out bounce. He also had a fumble against Washington State during kick return the previous weekend. Terrence has to clean this up. He is running out of time in his last few games as a Bruin.

On the flip side, Sean Westgate came out with a huge punt block. It's not the first time he has made big plays a special teamer (remember the punt block he had against Tennessee last season at the Rose Bowl). I also liked the intensity Damien Thigpen showed during punt coverage even when we were up by a huge margin late in second half. Damien sprinted down the field during Locke punt and dove to down the ball at 2 yard line even when we were up by a score of 43-7. That kind of little details tells us something about the character of the team under its head coach.

Going back to big picture as good as we feel this Sunday, it is important that we don't get carried away. Tracy Pierson from Bruin Report Online had a solid breakdown of the game, in which he rightfully warns UCLA fans to not get too carried away. However, Tracy ended with the following encouraging notes (not behind a subscription firewall at the time of this post):

UCLA’s 556 total offensive yards were better than Arizona (471), Arizona State (410), and Stanford (481).

In fact, it was better than what USC did in the Coliseum against WSU (403), or even Oregon in Eugene (514).

UCLA’s defense held WSU to 180 yards, compared to the 185 yards WSU gained against Arizona, 206 against Notre Dame, 440 against Cal (what the heck?), 181 against Arizona State, 229 against USC, and 351 against Stanford.

Yeah, WSU was without its starting quarterback when it played UCLA, but Jeff Tuel didn’t even play in some of those other games.

So let’s overlook the actual play on the field and go with that. It’s so much more fun to look at it that way, huh?

Regardless if you’re the type who watched that game and came away satisfied (Blue), or came away thinking there wasn’t much you could take away from it and it didn’t give you great expectations for facing ASU and USC (Crank) – or a little bit of both (most of us) – it was good to see UCLA have an easy, blow-out win for the first time in a while. It clearly kept Prince and Co. in the same productive, offensive rhythm established in the OSU 4th quarter and against Washington last week, which is a good thing. It’s also good that the defense maintained its bottom-line successful M.O. – looking vulnerable but doing enough to put UCLA in a position to win.

In other words, at this late stage of this season the team under CRN's leadership continues to move forward. We now have 5 wins which on paper at least is clear step forward from last season. We now need our boys to take lock in and focus for another game week to get that much talked about 6th win next weekend at the Rose Bowl. That's all we should be thinking and talking about till next Saturday. If we can accomplish the objective of getting our 6th win, we will have our program in a pretty decent spot heading into last regular game of 2009 season. So, let's just all focus on Arizona State just like we have been taking it game by game since Oregon State.

GO BRUINS.

BN Gameday Roundup: Getting & Staying Warm In Pullman

Nestor — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:42:46 -0000

Let's start with the weather broadcast today since we have heard all week it could be a potential factor in this afternoon in Pullman. Per weather.com right now it is about 25 degrees in Pullman (which is not too shabby to start the morning). At least on weather.com, they are not really expecting snow and projecting temperature to get up to around mid 30s this afternoon:

Partly cloudy. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

Oh and there is about 20 percent chance of precipitation. So it's really cold for someone who is from Southern California but it could be lot worse. It shouldn't be an excuse for a team that is looking to go all out in these last remaining games to scratch and claw their way into a bowl game. Thankfully the guys on our team are not making weather an excuse:

UCLA defensive end Korey Bosworth, who played at Plano (Texas) West High, said: "I've played in it all, thunderstorms, rain, freezing rain, ice. I don't know about everyone else here, but I'm looking forward to it."

And Korey's team-mate Reggie at least on paper is striking the right notes heading into a matchup against a struggling football team:

"It's not like we've been winning all year," Carter said of the Bruins (4-5, 1-5). "We are just coming off a five-game losing streak. Regardless of what people think, we have to go in and fight. Everyone knows that if we lose this game, it will really hurt our year, not that it isn't already hurting."

Carter is also well aware how Pullman is probably the toughest road trip in the conference:

Carter is among a handful of UCLA seniors making their last collegiate trip to Pullman. The prospect does not bring tears to his eyes.

"I don't like that place," Carter said. "It is the worst trip. There is nothing there. It is 1 1/2 hours from the airport. It's cold and even the hotel is bad. Everything is rough out there, man. You have to be a strong person to go there. Hopefully, we'll go there, get the victory and run home as fast as we can."

For the Bruins to get out there with a victory means they will have to start the game in a good rhythm. More on that after the jump.

So about the ryhthm thing, Logan Paulsen and co. have been feeling it since that fourth quarter against Oregon State. He now wants to hold on to it:

Although it's great to not be at the bottom anymore, kinda be on our way up, it's more important that we're improving every week," Bruins senior tight end Logan Paulsen said. "We kind of got that rhythm, and the hardest thing for a young offense is to find that rhythm. Early in the season we had it in moments, but we lost it a little bit for five games.

"Oregon State, we got it back. We felt it."

Well, Logan can do his part by showing senior leadership. That means minimizing mistakes, which Logan has made a lot of (despite that 50+ catch and rumble last weekend) in recent weeks. Logan and rest of his team mates must minimize mistakes if they want to seize the momentum early on and hold on to it. This means eliminating stupid penalties and holdoing on to the ball no matter what the weather conditions are up in Pullman (and it looks like we might not have to deal with snow - fingers crossed).

Logan's QB - Kevin Prince - has been having good practices this week despite getting banged up last weekend against Washington. Kevin has been enjoying the feeling of clicking with his receivers:

"This whole season has been about developing a whole trust with the offense, and I think it's finally clicked," said Prince, who showed no ill effects this week after the concussion and has been fully cleared to play. "I don't know if it's what coach Neuheisel said to me, or just kind of what our game plan was. We were going into the (Oregon State) game saying we were going to throw fade balls. We were going to make our receivers work for it. Executing that game plan showed us, 'Wow, we can do this."'

Hope he can keep doing the same right off the bat up in Pullman.

Meanwhile, speaking of doing the same, our defense will try to maintain and build on their second half showing against the Huskies from last weekend:

[T]he Bruins looked somewhat like their old defensive selves in the second half, limiting the Huskies to 146 yards and getting another interception from Rahim Moore -- the national co-leader with eight -- to wrap things up.

Call it an improvement after giving up 463, 456 and 494 yards in their previous three games.

"There were a lot of fundamental issues we weren't addressing," Bosworth said. "We weren't tackling. We weren't pursuing the ball as we should. I feel we have addressed those. If you don't do the fundamentals, bad things happen."

Well, I think it has to do more with fundamentals. It has lot to do with scheming. Right now the problem with our defense is we are simply not generation enough pressure on the QB with our front 4. If that dynamics doesn't look any different in the first few snaps against the Cougs, I hope Bullough is not waiting till the second half to mix it up with his blitzes. The Washington State offense will probably not enter this game with a lot of confidence on offense. They are going to work in a QB who even though started earlier this season, has been on the bench. We are going to need to bring pressure early on to bottle them up, while making sure Tardy and co do not gash up with their rushing attack.

Our defense is going to be very interesting to watch today. This is a golden opportunity for them to really get back some momentum they had earlier in the season. They can't blow it by going passive early on and giving a struggling football team any hint of life. In other words, they can't wait till the second half to get "warmed up" in Pullman. The D along with their offensive team-mates should be ready to go in full speed and clicking on all cylinders from early on keeping them heated and warmed up for entire 60 game minutes in Pullman.

The kickoff is around 2 pm PST. We will put up a pre-game thread around 12:30 pm PST and our game thread will go up about half an hour before our kickoff. Enjoy your Saturday.

GO BRUINS.