SB Nation - Kevin Prince

Spaulding Roundup: Offensive Issues Piling Up For Bruins

Nestor — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:45:22 -0000

How healthy is Prince's shoulder? Per the LA Times Prince is "cleared by trainers" but "[c]old weather's effect on injury is a concern"

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I don't recall so much drama around a UCLA "bowl team" like the one from this year. We have had players suspended due to academic issues. We have had a guy sent back home due to off field issues (which we hope will get resolved some time in the near future). We have had senior captain LB getting into it with defensive coordinator because he didn't want to take part in tackling drills. We have also had players ditching practices in the name of a pathetic tradition emblematic of mediocrity and classic under achievements dating back to Donahue era.

In the middle of all this our team is trying to prepare for a tough football team from Philadelphia which is coached by a protege of Joe Paterno with issues at center and a QB who is still trying to heal from a shoulder separation. Concerns remain about effectiveness of Kevin Prince and the rhythm he is developing with back up center Jake Dean, who now finds himself at the center of action due to suspension of Kai Maivava. Let's start with the latest on Prince, who per the LAT is making "progress":

One concern Coach Rick Neuheisel has is how Prince's shoulder will be affected by the cold weather in Washington. Highs are expected to be about 40 degrees during the game, according to forecasts.

"When we get there spinning around in the cold weather, you never know what it will do," said Neuheisel, who added that Prince wasn't "100% sharp" in practice Tuesday.

Still, barring unforeseen complications, Prince is set to start for the Bruins, though backup Kevin Craft could get playing time as well.

While saying the decision wasn't his to make, Prince said he was ready to play.

"I think the only thing holding me back is from a physical standpoint," Prince said. "There are still a couple throws that really bother me. I played hurt before and I have never had an issue getting over injuries."

Neuheisel is looking more than day to day progress. He is looking for sharp practices and per the Daily News our offense hasn't been as sharp as CRN wants it to be:

"We still have to have sharper days," Neuheisel said. "Kevin is better, but he's not 100 percent yet. That may be why I'm not willing to say it was a great practice. We're still not sharp yet. He's not complaining of pain, he's just not sharp yet. He's got to improve between now and game-time."

And if he doesn't?

"Well then we have another Kevin, who is dying to play again, and he has been sharp," said Neuheisel, referring to senior quarterback Kevin Craft. "I think there's reason for optimism. I just want to make sure we've got healthy, consistent players out there.

Well, I still think Neuheisel needs to make sure Craft is ready to go. Craft has shown this year than he can step in any time like he did during the Washington game without a lot of practices. However, that took place in Southern California weather conditions at the Rose Bowl. I hope when the team gets to DC later this week, Neuheisel makes sure Craft gets enough reps so that he is ready to go if needed. More on our offense after the jump.

While Prince is working to get healthy and work his way through his injury, he (and Craft) are also adjusting to a new center (Jake Dean) during these practices:

"It'll be a little different," Prince said. "You adjust to the way they snap the ball. Everybody snaps a little differently. Jake happens to snap it a little further back so you do little adjustments. (It's) nothing too big of a deal."

Everyone knows that one of the most important parts of any offensive play is the exchange between the center and the quarterback. Dean was used sparingly in games against Washington State and USC but has enough familiarity with Prince and Kevin Craft, who could see action in the bowl game.

"Kevin Craft and I took snaps together all year, last year, and Kevin Prince was working with the second team a lot last year so I was taking snaps with him," Dean said. "Spring and fall camp and all that stuff, I took snaps with all of them. Every day before practice we all rotate, taking snaps together. It's not going to be anything new. I've taken plenty of snaps with Kevin Prince. I've taken plenty of snaps with him during seven-on-sevens and in the offseason. We're fine."

Not just Prince, it sounds like rest of the offense is not "worried" about losing Kai and his leadership for this game:

"I don't feel like I need to replace that (Maiava's leadership)," Dean said. "We're a really close group this year, and we don't need to be out there yelling and doing all that stuff. We know what to do, we know what our assignments are. That intensity is going to be there every time I step on the field, but I'm not going to try to do what Kai does."

Dean's offensive teammates are not worried about the switch, particularly as this starting unit is no stranger to each other.

Dean, Ekbatani, left guard Jeff Baca and right tackle Mike Harris started against Oregon State last season.

"Our line is a pretty close-knit group," sophomore wide receiver Nelson Rosario said. "They'll pick it up without Kai. We're just going to miss someone to lead our little chant before the game. We'll find somebody."

Dean has one idea: to stand in for Maiava's pre-game rendition of the haka, a Maori tribal dance.

"(Sophomore linebacker) Steve Sloan does a pretty good impression in the locker room," Dean said with a laugh. "I'm sure he can go out there and get us going."

They will need to get it going from the kick off against a Temple team, that will be ready and is not going through anywhere close to the off field soap opera surrounding our football team.

Right now I am hoping all the drama that has gone on last few days will have a reverse effect of firing up our team. UCLA is still a 5 point favorite over the Owls. However, given the coverage we have read in recent days it sure appears the Owls are lot more prepared and focused (at least according to the news reports we have been blogging about in recent days), while the Bruins have their mind somewhere else. After it's all said and done, I hope it will be the Bruins who will come out with a chip on their shoulder and prove to a national TV audience that they were as deserving as any other team to appear in this year's bowl season. Well that's the best case scenario I am hoping for as I am getting ready for a freezing cold afternoon at RFK. :-)

GO BRUINS.

Two Bruins Fail To Climb Academic Wall Becoming Ineligibile For EagleBank Bowl

Nestor — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:36:33 -0000

Wow. This sounds like so much fun:

UCLA sophomore center Kai Maiava and freshman wide receiver Morrell Presley are academically ineligible for the EagleBank Bowl. Jake Dean will start at center for the Bruins, with Nick Ekbatani sliding to right guard. [...]

"It's tough - I don't think anybody's taking it harder than he is," redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Prince said. "He apologized to the team on Saturday, and it's a blow to not only the offense but the whole team. He's the leader of that offensive line - he brings that fire and passion that I think helped the line play a lot better this year. I know he'll be punching himself for not being in the game."

That was from Jon Gold. Remember it was just days ago we read about Reggie Carter barely being eligible to practice after having to sit out couple of practices for not taking care his schoolwork.

Losing Kai is a huge blow to our patchwork OL which was already having to make do without a hobble Ryan Taylor at RG. With Kai at C our OL made marginal improvement this season and now he is out (will not even make the trip to DC or participate in any bowl related activities). While Kai and others have a responsibility, the blame for this falls on the UCLA academic advisers and coaching staff including of course Rick Neuheisel.

We now have had three players with academic issues this quarter during bowl preparation season and it's inexcusable that these guys didn't see it coming. To add to that they have been projecting the image (not us) of just goofing off the field for the sake of team-building.

Again at this point we will see how this team shows up next Tuesday. While Temple Owls are preparing as if we are getting ready for the Super Bowl, I am not exactly sure what we is going on with Rick Neuheisel's UCLA Bruins. Last week, I wrote Neuheisel was following Pete Carroll's model of discipline. Unfortunately right now Neuheisel's football team is starting to resemble a little bit like Carroll's Trojans off the field. Not a pretty picture.

Let's hope the Bruins actually learn from this and come out with a sense of purpose on December 29th and for rest of the offseason both on and off the field. This kind of shenanigans may be acceptable somewhere else but not at UCLA. Hope Rick Neuheisel is listening. The heat is on him to win in D.C.

GO BRUINS.

Spaulding Roundup: Owl Preparations

Nestor — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:00:28 -0000

Well I am on my way to LA this morning (provided that we can get out of a snow covered Washington DC in time). So I will not be around much most of the day today. I wanted to get in some practice notes from Friday and yesterday as it now looks like the Bruins are in full game preparation mode (which includes the diving stunts from Friday).

Al Balderas from the OC Register wrote about Rick Neuheisel's over all philosophy to keep his team entertained, motivated and getting them ready for the bowl game:

"Make sure it's a reward but find a way to get them to practice hard. Get ready to enjoy the game, and talk about what winning the game means so that there is a real carrot at the end of the stick."

Neuheisel does not want the Temple game plan to get stale, so he's installing the plays gradually while leaving enough room for fun.

The Bruins have three days to prepare for an opponent during the regular season but, counting Friday they have seven days to work on Temple.

"We put an install day, then we polish," Neuheisel said. "An install day, then we polish. And then an install day, and we get back there and then it's all polish.

"I also want to make sure there's also time for fun, which is the reason we're doing the bowling and high dives and Magic Mountain and all the different stuff.

"You've got to make sure there's a lot of laughing. College campuses, this time of year are ghost towns, so you have to find ways to make this a good deal."

More on Rick Neuheisel's thoughts on bowl preparations in the Daily News:

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel waited a bit to incorporate the Temple game plan earlier this week as the coaches have taken a good, hard look at the team's up-and-coming players.

Part of it was to get an invaluable jump on next year's lineup. The other was to deliver the Temple message at the right time so that it wasn't lost.

"You don't want to do it early," Neuheisel said. "You don't want it to get stale. You want it to be where you're thinking, you're getting into it and you get it up to full speed and then perform it.

"It's like preparing for a play. You can get tired of rehearsals. You want to get with the live audience."

CRN also mentioned that he had gotten his "formula" on bowl preparation from Terry Donahue. That makes me slightly uncomfortable because the memories of the last two bowl games we collectively experienced from Donahue were not pretty. They included a listless loss against the Jayhawks in the Aloha Bowl (1996) and an unprepared and sloppy one against Wisconsin in 1994. While I definitely understand the need for our guys to have fun and engage in team-bonding, I just hope Neuheisel and his staff have the guys locked in for Temple because Golden's guys are going to be fired up.

Al Golden gave the LA Times a little glimpse on how fired up his Owls are going to be face off against a team from a BCS conference:

"No. 1, any bowl victory is a great bowl victory," Coach Al Golden said. "But when you play a team with the tradition, notoriety and brand like UCLA, it is sure to add significance in terms of perception and in terms of being accepted nationally. Don't think we don't understand for a second the magnitude of playing someone like UCLA."

Again, let's hope our guys are ready to match their intensity and passion on the 29th. More after the jump.

It looks like Kevin Prince had a decent practice on Saturday per Jon Gold's notes:

* Kevin Prince had an effective practice, throwing a couple passes with perfect zip on them. I expect him to play against Temple.

* At this point in preparation, reps are still being divided, particularly at running back.

CRN thinks he will have a "better feel" re. Prince's start by Monday. Meanwhile, more on the running back situation from the LA Times:

"Obviously, we have to create a more efficient running game," Coach Rick Neuheisel said. "We don't want to have to lean on the passing game too much and lean on our protection too much."

Moline had a plow-horse-like day against Arizona State, gaining 84 yards. He was less effective against USC, with 15 yards in seven carries.

Franklin leads the team with 597 yards and has shown the breakaway speed to get quick scores. But the fumbles have reduced his playing time. He has only 36 carries in the six games since rushing for 101 yards against California.

"I'm definitely trying to earn some trust back from the coaches," said Franklin, a redshirt freshman.

"This is the longest season I have ever had, the longest time I have ever been on the football field. I'm getting used to it, slowly but surely, but it's a long time."

Running backs coach Wayne Moses has used the week to "get back to the fundamentals and getting it back in perspective to see who needs to work on what."

Apparently Moline is expected to start per the LA Times. However, I think this could be a game where the coaches should probably also put in Coleman, Knox and Thigpen with a decent amount of reps.

Coleman's physical running style could be a good match for the Temple's tough running defense. This should also be a game where the coaches will need to mix things up and hopefully take advantage of some of the speed and athleticism we have in guys like Franklin, Knox and Thigpen. I don't think it is going to help us a lot if we keep throwing out the same looks we have shown in our last two games (ASU and Southern Cal) for a well prepared Temple Owls team.

GO BRUINS.

Spaulding Roundup: QB Uncertainty For UCLA, Owls Practicing In Double Sessions & Other Notes

Nestor — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:48:35 -0000

Looks like Bruins are gradually getting back to regular game week rhythm with usual suspects taking over the reps with first team. Obviously the spot everyone is keeping an eye on is at QB. Kevin Prince increased his reps to further test out his injured shoulder, while Kevin Craft not surprisingly is back in the mix (getting more reps than Brehaut with the first team).

Meanwhile, over in Philadelphia a fired up Temple Owls program continue to prepare for its first bowl game in something like 3 decades and are getting ready to play a game that would suit their style of fundamental and physical football. Of course the weather just might play into this. Here in DC we are getting ready for a foot of snow this weekend (possibly screwing my plans to fly home to LA), and it will not be a surprise if we continue to get more of the same type of weather when the Bruins get here after X-mas.

So with those toplines out of the way here is the latest on Prince. Apparently he "increased his workout" yesterday taking more reps with the first team. From the LA Times:

"We'll watch, not just to see his velocity, but more the confidence," Neuheisel said. "We'll watch the willingness to let one go, knowing that's on the other side of that throw. Does he grimace?"

Prince has undergone extra treatments to loosen up his shoulder since being injured against USC on Nov. 28. He said he felt comfortable throwing the ball Thursday, except on one play.

"One throw I made today on the run absolutely killed it," Prince said. "But I just have to make every throw, not necessarily pain free, but with manageable pain. I need to do everything -- hand the ball off, going on the run, throwing deep balls, trying to put velocity on the ball without it hurting too much. Once I can do it without too much discomfort, I can play."

Neuheisel sounds "optimistic" in his comments in the Daily News report, which detailed the type of difficulty Prince is having to date:

Holding Prince back is the more difficult throws, those that test the inside of his shoulder.

He feels fine chucking the ball straight down the field, but throwing on the run and throwing across his body is giving him fits.

"He had another good day; it got sore on him when he made a throw across his body," UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. "That's to be expected. He's just kind of breaking down some scar tissue now. I'm optimistic after the last two days."

Hmm. I still think after it is all said and done we should go with Kevin Craft. If the weather continues to remain the same here in DC (freezing with mix of snow and rain) in the coming days, I don't think it makes sense to throw Prince out there with a recovering shoulder injury. We know what we will get from Craft at this point. Even though rest of the country (and many of us) have the memories from last year burned into our brains, this year's Craft actually did a serviceable job of managing the game, minimizing mistakes, which included getting two important wins against Kansas State and Washington. More including notes on Temple after the jump.

So speaking of the Owls they didn't get to practice this week. No they were not appearing on TV shows or lounging around the City of Brotherly Love. They were taking finals and Golden is making up for lost time due to finals:

The Temple players, who did not practice earlier this week as they took final exams, will watch film of UCLA for the first time today and then hit the practice field.

"We're calling it a four-day minicamp," Golden said. "We'll have some double sessions in there. We'll break by 1 p.m. Monday, and the kids will get two days off. And we'll leave here on Thursday."

Golden has also quashed all the coaching rumors swirling around him (at least for now) to focus on the game:

"I think there's relief," Golden said about no longer having his name mentioned in the media in connection with other jobs. "But we really don't live in that world.

"There were reports coming out, and my wife was saying there was this report and that report, and 'You better know that this is out there.' My wife has my back. But these reports are breaking, and I'm supposed to be in Cincinnati, and I'm not. I'm out recruiting and in kids' homes. I was in Connecticut. I was in New York City. I was here all [last] weekend, and we had 20 recruits and their families in. But I'm glad that it's over, and we're moving forward."

And here is the style of game Owl are looking to play in DC:

"I think the key for us is just to play our style of game," said senior linebacker John Haley. "We've got to play physical, play fast and show the type of team that we are and have been all season."

Added senior offensive lineman Devin Tyler: "We have to believe we can win."

Well interestingly these guys are coming into this game with a loss (just like the Bruins) which kept them out of the MAC championship game. The Sporting News has a preview on our bowl game which gives the following report on Golden's team:

Temple ran for more than 200 yards (in 17-35 loss against Ohio) for the sixth straight game even though it was without Bernard Pierce, sidelined by a left shoulder injury. The MAC freshman of the year should return for this matchup after leading the conference with 1,308 yards rushing and finishing second with 15 touchdowns.

Matt Brown, another Owls freshman, is second on the team with 455 rushing yards, 328 over his last two games. Temple is ranked 23rd in the nation in rushing, averaging 192.3 yards a contest.

The Owls' defense, meanwhile, is ranked 19th against the run, giving up an average of 108.8 yards.

Sophomore Adrian Robinson, who had 12 sacks and was picked as the conference's defensive player of the year, is one of a school-record eight players named to the all-MAC first team.

It is going to be interesting to see how our defense responds to these guys in their very first series. Honestly, I am not really getting the sense right now that our team is in the right, focused mindset to take on these guys. I really hope I am proven wrong. But the feeling I get is that I sense a team on our side which might not be ready (at least from the outset) to take on the determined ferocity of an underdog team which will be looking to a make huge statement on national TV.

Add to that it sounds like our QB situation is uncertain and our coaches are taking their time to make their decision. Perhaps Neuheisel and his staff are playing a little coy by projecting a relaxed, "fun," Southern California vibe around the program. That is fine as long as we can pull out a win in a well played football game (without sloppiness and silly mistakes indicating a lack of focus and concentration).

For the Bruins to win this game on 29th they will have to make a statement early on by taking control of the trenches on both sides. Otherwise, if they come into this game and get caught flatfooted by a well prepared, drilled, and inspired underdog football team, it is going to be long and bitter cold afternoon at RFK.

GO BRUINS.

Who Were the Worst Performers in the Pac-10 in 2009?

Avinash — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:30:02 -0000

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

Meet the Pac-10 MVP of interceptions!

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It's always hard to measure the value of good teams in football. It almost always starts with a good quarterback, followed closely behind by an offensive line and a running back. Then you want a strong front seven, with receivers and secondary coming somewhere after that. You can build a good team around the front four, a great one with everything else coming together

So in determining a football MVP (or I guess for college football, Heisman), we're looking at people from the first three or four categories strongly. In the next two days we'll start counting down the best players and o-line/defensive units in the conference to try and figure out who deserves to be the Pac-10's most valuable player

That's right, instead of doing a national college football consensus (which would be tedious and terrifying), let's go with what we know well. This is all Pac-10.

Because most of us are sick inside, we'll start with the worst Pac-10 performers. What player or unit (offensive line, particular aspect of defense, coach, other thing, etc.) do you feel played the worst this season? Did I leave anyone off that requires mention? Discuss in the comments!

USC--Matt Barkley

Wait a second. Didn't Barkley just beat Ohio State in the Horseshoe? Nothing can stop him now! He's on his way to college football greatness!

Anyway, it seems like Carroll's petty anger at Mark Sanchez was a bad sign of things to come. I'm not saying that Sanchez could've saved USC from the avalanche at Autzen, but he should've outdueled Luck and Foles with essentially the same offense from last year. It would've been a B- version of the 2005 team, all offense and average defense. And they'd probably have ended up in Tempe.

If Sanchez was like an ice cream sundae at Fenton's (a little bad here and there, but still a tasty ride the whole way), Barkley was like a strawberry cream pie shake at Sonic's (tantalizing at first taste, but man would it make you sick down the road). He threw the most interceptions in the Pac-10, more than Sullivan, Prince, and any of the Wazzu troupe. His four turnovers in the Cardinal romp led to 28 Furd points, and he threw another killer pick against Arizona that led to what turned out to be a crucial seven points for the Wildcats. His 4th quarter stats were abominable--50% completion rate, one touchdown, SEVEN interceptions, 83 passer rating, which is good for 117th in the country, only about a drop of about a hundred in the rankings from the season before. His most memorable touchdown throw of the year was only meaningful in the sense that UCLA's defense will be headhunting him in eleven months.

Add in these continuing rumors from Thoroughbred that many of his teammates despise him, and all is not well at Heritage Hall for the first time in...well, a decade. The rest of the Pac-10 couldn't be more delighted.

Note: Thought about the Trojan run defense here, but come on, those guys got DECIMATED (entire front seven gone, plus another four or five guys injured). They had no chance against the Quack Attack or the power run game of the Furd.

UCLA--The entire Bruin offense

via cache.daylife.com

Man, it was brutal watching these guys this year.

Some more fun stats:

There were four teams in the Pac-10 (Oregon, Arizona, USC, Cal) who had two rushers that ran for more than UCLA's leading rusher (Johnathan Franklin)
The Bruins leading man in yards for scrimmage was Nelson Rosario, who finished 19th overall. There were seven teams in the Pac-10 with two or more players with more yards from scrimmage, and four (Furd, Oregon State, Arizona St., Oregon) with three.
Navy threw the ball 96 times this year, Army 161 (http://www.cfbstats.com/2009/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category02/sort06.html), Kevin Prince 267. Navy and Army scored 5 touchdowns apiece on those passes. Prince scored 6. Somewhere Norm Chow is wringing his neck (could be either Prince's neck or his own).
The USC game perfectly encapsulates UCLA's offensive abilities: To prevent from being shutout by their crosstown rivals, the Bruins needed a 13 play, 65 yard, five and a half minute drive that included two fourth down conversions, and two forced fumbles.
Bruins fans are actually calling on Kevin Craft for the bowl game. Yes, THAT Kevin Craft. (Okay, they only want him to start because he wasn't happy at playing hookie, but still). You know your offense is in desperate straits when your fans are ACTIVELY CALLING for Kevin Craft.

Furd--The ENTIRE CARDINAL DEFENSE

via www2.pictures.zimbio.com

Exactly the same thing we did for UCLA. Let's just rattle off the numbers...

A few examples of their defensive fails:

Their defense never forced a fourth down in the first half at Corvallis; five times Oregon State got the ball, five times they marched down the field and put points on the board, 31 in all.
The Cardinal surrendered not one, but two 40+ yard rushing touchdowns to Arizona to blow a two score lead in the 4th quarter, the last one on a 50+ yard scamper by Nwoko on THIRD AND SEVENTEEN.
The Cardinal took a 14-0 lead on the Bears with 6 minutes left in the first quarter; Cal responded by holding onto the ball for 35 of the final 50 minutes, including ripping off 24 unanswered points and scoring on five of their next six drives.

Perfect example of their horrid season came against Notre Dame. Toby Gerhart rushed in the go-ahead touchdown with a minute left in a tied game against an awful Irish defense, and Harbaugh looks about as pleased as Michael Corleone finding out Kay had an abortion. Why? The Cardinal could have kneeled down three times and kicked a chip shot extra point-type field goal at the buzzer to win. The touchdown put the Cardinal defense back on the field against Jimmy Clausen. Sure enough, after getting pinned at their own ten, in TWENTY SECONDS the Irish are at the Cardinal 24 and nearly pull a win out of their asses. All thanks to the Cardinal's hideous defense.

Yeesh. Maybe Gerhart did deserve the Heisman. But we'll get to the MVP candidates soon enough.

Oregon State's September swoon

via blog.oregonlive.com

This isn't really a unit fail as opposed to a team fail; the Beavers suck in September EVERY SINGLE YEAR. They could never get going against Cincinnati even though they were at home. They allowed Nick Foles in his starting debut in Corvallis to complete 74% of his passes at 7.5 YPA with 3 touchdowns and no picks. And they needed a last second Kahut field goal to beat a 5-7 UNLV squad. And these guys plan to play TCU in Dallas and Boise in the Smurf Turf next September?

Cal's pass defense not named Syd'Quan Thompson

via cdn2.sbnation.com

108th in passing yards given up; 103rd in completion percentage; 81st in passer rating. The Bears dropped from 3rd in the country in INTs to 71st, from 1st in the country in passes defended to 47th. So let's say they regressed a little.

(You might say the offensive line deserves this...but Cal still ranked top 40 in rushing yards per game and top 25 in yards per attempt. You might even say the special teams, but they didn't have as much impact as our defense, plus their general incompetence over the past half-decade deserves its own post. A lot of that had to do with Best and Vereen, but that's still only a mediocre unit, not an awful one. Nothing hurt the Bears more in 2009 than their pass defense...the offensive line just exacerbated the situation.)

Washington--Nick Holt

This one's hard to say. Holt's defense was much improved from last year, especially in the run game. USC, Cal, Wazzu, Arizona all fell. On the other hand...his defense still got ripped apart by the Oregon schools and the Furd. They weren't that bad, but they weren't that good either, so it's hard to call them the worst. So I'll go with the easy to hate Holt here.

Ultimately though, Holt's defense still provided us with the most comical college football moment of 2009, which could've been the difference between Locker and his first bowl game...

Arizona State

Only four games into the season, Pitchfork Nation wrote an open letter to his beleaguered starting QB withdrawing his support.

I retract anything positive I said about Danny Sullivan. Not only are you not physically talented enough to start for a Pac-10 team, but as you proved last night, you’re what we call in my family a "mental midget."

..

Instead, you exhibited the same physical problems we saw in each of the Sun Devils first three games. You sailed balls, you completely missed wide open receivers and left your pass catchers out to dry with several horribly thrown balls. Your most accurate pass was one you threw away in the 3rd quarter that perfectly nailed the "C" on the Muscle Milk sign on the side of the east bleachers.

Well, that sucks.

The numbers don't get much better for Sullivan: He never threw better than 56% in any quarter, he threw well on 1st down but didn't make much of a dent otherwise, and he generally struggled with everything. He hit 60% completions in only three of his games, all against bad pass Ds (Cal, Furd, Oregon State). For God's sake, he struggled against Wazzu. Shouldn't there be a shaming list for athletes who struggle against Wazzu?

And it wasn't like he was throwing to turds out there; both Kyle Williams and Chris McGaha notched 57 catches, and Dmitri Nance was a capable runner. No, it looks like most of the wounds were self-inflicted.

Wazzu--Everyone?

via cache.daylife.com

I'll save those poor Cougar fans an explanation; I really don't want to go over this hundred car pile-up, and they've suffered enough. At least they have Klay Thompson.

Oregon: LeGarrette Blount?

via www1.pictures.zimbio.com

He's probably the Ducks Least Valuable Player. I'm not happy stating it since the dude got a huge punishment for a totally surreal moment, but he redeemed himself, so that's always good.

But I put a question mark there...because for not-so-obvious reasons, you could make the case that he's the unintentional Pac-10 MVP. Why?

1) The Punch changed the whole Oregon running dynamic. For nearly a month Oregon struggled to get past the rust, but slowly things started to click and their offense got back in sync for the Utah game; once James and Masoli started operating in tandem the Quack Attack began rolling.

So...does Oregon win close games versus Purdue and Utah if Blount is in the backfield? Do the Ducks slow the pace down against Cal, USC, UCLA, Arizona State, Arizona and Oregon State instead of attacking, attacking, attacking? Does James get going at all? Does Barner break out as a pure speed demon? Would Oregon have gone 10-2 without the Punch? I doubt it. In a strange way, Blount's actions made his team BETTER in the long run--the Ducks were able to play that fast up-tempo offense that Kelly relished, and they blew through the Pac-10 relatively unscathed.

(I will always believe that if the Bears had played Blount and Masoli that we could've snuck that game out--not necessarily won, but the opportunity would've been there. We could've bottled up Blount the way we held Gerhart in check, play deliberate 3-4 football and wait for Blount to find the hole before matching him at the line of scrimmage. Of course, we still wouldn't have been able to defend Ed Dickson, but at least it's a step up from defending no one.)

2) The media hatefest gave the Ducks an 'us against the world' mentality. You can't underestimate the power of ESPN and the Internet on these guys--when Oregon became the dominant storyline of the opening college football weekend, when they heard about how they stunk and that their coach should be fired...it's not implausible they didn't rally around the hate and use it to fuel their overall mission. It's hard for me to say that Chip Kelly didn't use that to motivate the Ducks to play better, execute better, keep the pace going; they only let down once (the Cardinal), rolled everyone else and delivered in what amounted to Rose Bowl quarter and semifinals against Arizona and Oregon State.

If it had just been an awful loss the Ducks would've been forgotten by the national media--the Punch gave it the attention, gave Oregon the fire they needed to run through the rest of the season. It was the perfect black swan event. Everything went wrong on the first day of the season, and the Ducks spent the next three months trying to prove that it was an aberration. Didn't do too shabby, did they?

Of course, you could say he would've been theoretically least valuable; were the Ducks a better team if Blount wasn't playing? We'll never totally know, but the fact they barely missed a beat without him says a lot. They probably beat the Furd with him, but do they blow out USC, Cal, Arizona State, Washington and UCLA? I'm not so sure about that.

So Blount gets his team's LVP...only because the rest of the Ducks played like MVPs the rest of the year. For some reason, I feel he won't mind it that much.

Tomorrow: Pac-10 MVP honorable mentions

Spaulding Roundup: Practice For Youngsters, QB Updates, Golden's Wandering Eyes & Other Bowl Prep Notes

Nestor — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:43:15 -0000

Let's start the Monday with a football roundup. We have lots of bits and pieces of news coming out of Spaulding (and out of Philadelphia) as the Bruins get ready for their first bowl game under Rick Neuheisel in Westwood. We all desperately wanted this bowl game because it would provide a big opportunity for coaches to get the underclassmen in this program additional practice time. Well from the first reports, it looks like the coaches are doing just that. Meanwhile, out in Philadelphia, an interesting subplot is shaping up around the Temple Owls, as it appears that they will have to deal with constant chatter of Al Golden exploring other head coaching opportunities (just like he did when the UCLA position opened up little more than two years ago).

So, speaking of youngsters getting more practice time here is Jon Gold from the Daily News:

With a still-young offensive unit that can use every second of the team's nine practices before it leaves for Washington on Christmas Day, the evaluation period has once again resumed.

"These first four days are about getting these young guys some reps," junior defensive tackle Brian Price said. "It's just about getting back rolling. We had two weeks off, we worked out, but nothing more. We had a chance to focus on school, which is good. I'm glad it's over with, though; two weeks of nothing is painful."

Richard Brehaut is one of the young guys who is getting to take advantage of additional practice time. He is trying to take advantage of the opportunity as Prince is still recovering from his injury. From the LA Times:

Freshman Richard Brehaut took the majority of the reps Sunday during a light workout that seemed more a chance to stretch out.

"This is a chance to get a better look at him," offensive coordinator Norm Chow said. "We can look at how he manages the team in practice. He looked good today."

Chow said there is no alternative plan at the moment in case Prince is sidelined for the game.

"We can wait and see how Kevin is later this week," Chow said. "We haven't really worked on anything about Temple yet."

Guess we will have to keep a close eye on the QB situation because late last week we thought Prince might have been ready by middle of this week. Now it looks a little uncertain. More on that after the jump.

From Gold's report (and from the LA Times) it looks like there is uncertainty as to whether Prince will be ready by middle of this week:

Redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Prince (right shoulder) did not throw any passes Sunday and said he still feels sharp pain when he does. Though Neuheisel said UCLA's medical staff expected Prince to return Wednesday, that status is in question.

"It's been better," Prince said. "It's not full-go yet. I wasn't able to throw today. It's just a nagging pain. I've been getting treatment every day; it's starting to get better, it's kind of just lingering right now at the same point of pain. It's a little disappointing."

Guess we will have to keep a close eye on this.BTW there is another little note in the LAT about quarterbacks. Apparently Nick Crissman underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder keeping him out from any action for at least 8 weeks. Feel bad for the poor guy because he has been dealing with one injury after another since coming to Westwood.

Meanwhile, going back to Prince, I think if he is not ready by middle of this week, I would prefer that coaches go with Kevin Craft to start the bowl game (and mix in Brehaut if necessary). Considering the circumstances, I think Craft did a great job his senior year and it would be the perfect closure and bridge to the next step in Neuheisel's tenure at UCLA, if Craft led the seniors in finshing up their career with a memorable win in DC. Anyway, we will find out more on this later this week.

In terms of practice energy, ever quotable Reggie Carter gave a little peak into players' mindset heading into this bowl game:

"I get one more shot to go out there and hit somebody," Carter said. "I hear Temple runs the ball a lot. That happens to be what I like to do the most, hit people with the ball. Hopefully they'll come visit me a couple times before the game is over.

"They're like 23rd in the country in rushing, I hope they run the ball every play. I'll be waiting."

I think it is going to be very interesting to see how Carter performs in this game. There was no question he was banged up during the last few games of the regular season. He had a solid game against Southern Cal, however, he was not as effective as he had been in the past in games leading up to that due to his injury. It looked like he was just gutting it out. I am hoping the time off will enabled us to see a fresh and rejuvenated Cater, who will be able to make an impression on national TV.

Shifting our attention across the country, Temple is dealing with Golden coaching rumor/chatter:

Golden, of course, interviwed for the UCLA job when Neuheisel, a former Bruins quarterback, got it. Now Golden's name is coming up with the Cincinnati vacancy, as it did with the Virginia opening (which has been filled). Or even Notre Dame, which interviewed Golden (in New York) before going with Cincy coach Brian Kelly.

"I just haven't had any contact with anybody [from Cincy]," Golden said. "Right now I'm just going about my business. I don't know what the future brings, but I'm just trying to get ready to play UCLA."

Several sources have indicated that Cincinnati has asked for permission to talk with Golden. Understandably, neither Golden nor athletic director Bill Bradshaw, the man who hired him, will talk about ongoing searches. But Bradshaw in the past usually has given Golden permission to at least explore the interest level.

So, would Golden talk to Cincy?

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know."

That was from the Philadelphia Daily News, which has a report on how Golden is working hard to get Temple to focus on UCLA. I doubt this chatter will linger on for a long time. I have to guess Golden will shut it down throughly in the coming days and get his team locked on to UCLA. This game is basically going to be the Superbowl for Temple program (and an career defining game for Al Golden).

Last time, we were in a bowl game situation like this, we laid egg in Las Vegas against Wyoming Cowboys. We need this win just as badly as the Temple Owls. A win in this game will not only excite our alumni/fan base, I think it will inject even more energy into an already jump charged recruiting effort by Neuheisel and his coaching staff. So, I really hope our coaches and players can match the sense of urgency that will be felt from the Temple program.

GO BRUINS.

Spaulding Roundup: Eye On Philadelphia & Other Team Notes

Nestor — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:42:13 -0000

Our coaches and players are going to be glued to their TV sets this morning. The Army-Navy game is going to tip off around 11:30 am PST on CBS. We all know what CRN and his players will be doing during that time. Interestingly though CRN had practices scheduled for yesterday and today but canceled it due to weather. From the Daily News:

After originally scheduling practices for Friday afternoon and this morning, UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel took a look outside and changed his mind.

Both practices were cancelled, and while the team will meet for lunch today and to watch the Navy-Army battle that will determine their bowl scenario - a Midshipmen win puts the Bruins in the EagleBank Bowl against Temple on Dec. 29 in Washington; a Black Knights win means no UCLA bowl. If the Bruins are indeed bowl-bound, they'll practice on Sunday afternoon for the first time in more than two weeks.

"The weather was the primary reason (for cancelling practice)," Neuheisel said. "What we were going to get done today didn't match the risk of somebody getting hurt. I thought it wise to go ahead and see how the game plays out tomorrow."

I kind of understand that. However, if Navy gets by Army today, I hope CRN doesn't cancel any more practices because of a little weather condition in Westwood. After all it was in the teens here in DC last night. We are expecting cold rain tomorrow morning (possibly turning into sleet/snow). So uhm yeah, if we do get into this bowl game, we can't afford cancel practices because our players might not be tough enough for the legendary winter weather storms we are so used to in Westwood. ;-) Couple of quick extra notes after the jump.

Looks like Kevin Prince might be ready to go by the bowl game after all:

"He's getting better, and these days will help him," Neuheisel said. "I'm told that he should be at full strength somewhere at midweek. There's reason for optimism with regard to that."

Oh and remember all the nonsense about Chow possibily being interested in San Jose State or about his relationship with CRN. Here is a little snipet on what Chow has been up to in recent days (emphasis added):

Neuheisel and most of the coaching staff was on recruiting trips last week, before returning Friday, and now they might have to adjust to refocusing on 2009 once again. Offensive coordinator Norm Chow had a particularly important in-home visit with coveted defensive tackle Ricky Heimuli out of Salt Lake City, rated the No. 6 defensive tackle by Scout.com "This is the pinnacle of wearing multiple hats," Neuheisel said. "This is multi-tasking in an advanced way. The only thing that takes a backseat is Christmas shopping. That's the one thing I haven't got mastered."

Boy, Chow must really hate working with CRN. That is why he is busting his rear end on the recruiting trail. rofl.

Anyway, the Army-Navy game will kickoff around 11:30 am PST. We will have an open thread taking in that action leading up to the game thread for our basketball game. A busy day on BN. Enjou your Sat.

GO BRUINS.

Spaulding Roundup: Latest Non-Drama Around Chow & Malcolm Jones Excitement

Nestor — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:46:09 -0000

Well let's see what we have here. So the San Jose State Spartans are on the market for a new head football coach. Jon Wiliner from the San Jose Mercury News wrote up a post couple of nights ago speculating who the Spartans might be interviewing for the gig and throwing out names in the mix. Well he threw in Coach Norm Chow's into the mix upon the suggestion of San Jose State alum Steve Clarkson:

Yep, the quarterback guru is interested in SJSU, according to former Spartans quarterback Steve Clarkson, who has known Chow for years.

"The one thing he hasn’t been, is a head coach,’’ said Clarkson, one of the top quarterback tutors in the game. "When you’re that creative, you want to give it a shot.’’

Whether Chow would accept the job if offered and whether SJSU would offer are differently matters entirely.

"You have to build with a quarterback, so you need somebody with a proven track record of developing quarterbacks,’’ Clarkson said, "and that’s Norm."

Yeah, okay. Sure. As CAJason80 noted Clarkson is hardly an unbiased source. So, when one read this story, he or she should have taken with grain of salt before running with it. Well, that didn't stop Adam Maya, the Trojan shill from the OC Register (who was earlier exposed this season for pimping a BS facebook attack on Rick Neuheisel) from running a breathless blogpost with the headline "Chow To San Jose State?"

All that excitement among Maya and his fellow Trojies were quashed by the end of the day yesterday with the following post from Chris Foster in the LA Times (emphasis added throughout):

UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow said he has no interest in the San Jose State head coach job.

Spartans Coach Dick Tomey retired, and the San Jose Mercury News reported that Chow is on the preliminary list of candidates. But Chow said he has not been contacted by San Jose State officials and intends to remain at UCLA.

But wait! There is more!! "Just to clarify" Jon Gold from the Daily News got in touch with his UCLA contacts and got the following response:

When asked about filling the coaching vacancy at San Jose State, I'm told Norm Chow just laughed. He's not interested.

Looks like Maya and his Trojie cohorts will have to look for another angle to hit Neuheisel to push for that "Neuheisels program is falling apart" narrative. Idiots. More on Chow and some other thoughts/notes after the jump.

Why would Chow leave his current gig with a Pac-10 program for a HCing job at WAC? Does anyone really think at this stage of his career when he has one of more highly visible coordinator position in BCS conferences and living with his family in Southern California, he would leave all that for a non BCS conference job? I'd understand if it was a position involving University of Hawaii (where he could truly go home) or a high profile head coaching position at another BCS program.

At this point of his career, my gut tells me that Chow will finish out next two years at UCLA before moving on.Yeah, lot was made this year out of the drama around Prince and Brehaut. Yet, as CRN noted to Ted Miller little more than a week ago, he has an "outstanding" relationship with Chow:

I think our relationship before and after is outstanding. We didn't agree on that. Norm has been up-front with me all along that he thinks that Kevin Prince is our quarterback and that Richard shouldn't be forced in there before he is ready and so forth. I was of the mind that Kevin needed to have a different perspective and see it from the sidelines and realize that when you're in there, you have to be ready to be in there, and that Richard, because we were playing him his freshman year, needed more chances to mature. I think both philosophies are right. I really do. I think you can make arguments for both. Since I had my hand over the top of the handle of the bat at the end, I got my way. But I certainly respect Norm Chow's opinion on quarterbacking. I think he is as advertised as an offensive coordinator. I love working with him on a daily basis.

I still LOL at all the people who were pushing that "OMG! Chow and Neuheisel disagree!!" storyline fully expecting Chow to be a bobbing offensive-coordinator robot (like the lapdogs roaming around Petey's sidelines). Given the experience both Chow and Neheisel have, of course it is totally reasonable to expect they will have disagreements from time to time. It happens all the time when intelligent individuals work together on issues where they have similar background experiences. From what I see is two coaches working together and finding common ground despite occasional differences, and then get behind it. From what I have seen, so far so good.

Given that our offense took encouraging steps forward this season, I think it's a good bet that he feels encouraged about the on going developments in our football program and wants to follow through with the rebuilding project he undertook with CRN two years. Oh and CRN is working to bring more offensive toys for Chow in Westwood. Case in point we have Malcolm Jones, the Oaks Christian running back, who was just named California Gatorade Player Of the Year. Jon Gold wrote up the story:

Now that Jones was named Gatorade state Player of the Year after a 1,989-yard, 34-touchdown season, Redell (Bill Redell, Head Coach of Oaks Christian High School, BN Ed.) knows he was right about that first glimpse.

"I couldn't have said he'd be state player of the year, but you recognize it right away," Redell said. "The first scrimmage his freshman year, I remember telling a college scout, "You better offer this kid a scholarship right away if you're smart. You could just tell early."

Redell saw in the UCLA-bound running back/linebacker a seriousness, a non-nonsense dedication to football that has served Jones well. Jones has become a force on both sides of the ball for the Lions (12-0), who face Cathedral of Los Angeles in a Northwest Division semifinal game Saturday.

As I said, why would Chow leave Westwood to toil at some WAC school when he will have opportunities to coach kids like Jones, James and other talents Neuheisel and his staff are working so hard to reel into into UCLA.

Only Trojan shills and Neuheisel/UCLA haters anxious to see Chow move on from UCLA, will push that kind of laughable storyline whenever any faint or remote possibility of it appears in the traditional media. I am sure this will not be the last time we see it. Expect Maya and his ilk to grind away and churn out more nonsense in the future.

GO BRUINS.

Inside The Numbers: Washington Edition!

TwistNHook — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:17:50 -0000

More photos » by Elaine Thompson - AP

Can the Washington Husky defense get to Kevin Riley after shutting out Washington State in the Apple Cup?

Browse more photos »

Here we go. Last regular season game. Last regular season Inside The Numbers. Gonna be a hard fought battle against UW tomorrow. Can Cal pull it out? After the fold, we take a look at the Washington numbers on both offense and defense. We all know they nearly beat LSU and did beat USC early in the year. But its been months since then. How is UW doing and what can we expect from them tomorrow? GO BEARS!

After the jump, Avi and I breakdown the numbers, pass and rushing O and D.

TwistNHook: First up, the University of Jake Lockers:

Situation	G	Att	Comp	Pct.	Yards	Int	TD	Rating	Long	1st	15+	25+
All Plays	11	373	211	56.6	2552	11	18	124.07	51	111	56	23
1st Half	11	187	109	58.3	1372	6	9	129.38	51	61	32	12
2nd Half/OT	11	186	102	54.8	1180	5	9	118.72	47	50	24	11
1st Quarter	11	83	50	60.2	612	4	3	124.46	51	28	12	4
2nd Quarter	11	104	59	56.7	760	2	6	133.31	50	33	20	8
3rd Quarter	11	84	48	57.1	579	3	4	123.61	47	22	12	6
4th Quarter	11	99	54	54.5	601	2	5	118.18	39	28	12	5

Well, let's see here. This is OK, but not great. 56% completion rate is not good, it's actually roughly what Riley is doing. 124 Rating is again, not that good. Hes averaging about 232 yards a game in the air, which again is not terrible, but not great. What I see here is a passing attack that could prove dangerous, but also could be pedestrian. And that's the advanced analysis you've come to expect from the California Golden Blogs!

Avinash: At first glance, Jake doesn't look like someone we should worry about. Locker is 81st in the country in completion percentage, T-70th in YPA, and 73rd in passer rating. It makes it sound like we're going up against Carl Bonnell.

However, there is one particular stat that should concern Cal fans: 3rd down. Locker has the fifth best passer rating of any QB in the country on 3rd down (17th in the country in passer rating), and he's converted over 50% of his 3rd down passing plays, putting him right up there with Canfield as one of the best passers in passing situations. He converts 64% of his 3rd and 4-6 situations, nearly 40% of his 3rd and 7-9 situations, and (the most impressive number of all) over 40% of his 3rd and 10+ situations.

A lot of this I think also has to do with Locker's running ability--he's picked up 15 of 39 first downs on 3rd down runs. Although his numbers are a far cry from his fantastic 2007 numbers on the ground, defenses have to respect that ability, so it probably gives him better looks down the field. Sarkisian seems to have made sure he runs with the ball less than expected and trust his arm to throw, and it's paid off. Considering Cal struggled with Luck last week scrambling for yardage, we can expect similar issues with Locker.

Bears fans should not feel safe in any situation. Cal's defense has played very well the past two weeks, but they're going to have to kick it up a notch to prevent getting burned by Locker on 3rd down (the Bears gave up nearly a 46% conversion rate on 3rd down in the month of November). There's a reason NFL GMs are drooling over Locker right now. His ability to complete passes on obvious passing down, his ability to scramble and create plays, a strong ability to throw deep...all of those things are very tantalizing.

TwistNHook: Now, let's look at the rushing stats:

Situation	G	Att	Yards	Avg.	TD	Long	1st	10+	20+
All Plays	11	351	1491	4.25	10	56	87	57	13
1st Half	11	173	698	4.03	4	56	41	24	8
2nd Half/OT	11	178	793	4.46	6	41	46	33	5
1st Quarter	11	89	387	4.35	4	56	22	12	4
2nd Quarter	11	84	311	3.70	0	34	19	12	4
3rd Quarter	11	78	324	4.15	3	41	19	17	2
4th Quarter	11	99	478	4.83	3	24	27	16	3

Well, their rushing offense seems pretty good. Not amazingly great, but 4.25 yards isn't that bad. Kind of like their passing offense, it's not great, but it's not terrible.

Of course, they do have a great rushing QB, but that number is dragged down, because a lot of his runs don't always end so well. Here are the individual stats:

	Name	Yr	Pos	G	Att	Yards	Avg.	TD	Att/G	Yards/G
1	Chris Polk	FR	RB	11	204	1019	5.00	4	18.55	92.64
2	Jake Locker	JR	QB	11	98	311	3.17	5	8.91	28.27

Chris Polk is their main RB and is looking pretty good there. Not a lot of TDs, but he does average almost 100 yards a game. 5 yards a carry, flat, is pretty impressive. Locker averages about 30 yards a game running. I feel like our Run D can do fairly well against this team. It has shut down some pretty impressive RBs, like Quizz. And was able to somewhat contain Gerhart. Their Rush O seems fairly good, but, even on the road, I like our Run D in this situation.

Date	Opponent	Surface	Result	Att	Yards	Avg.	TD
09/05/09	15 LSU	Turf	L 23-31	21	90	4.29	0
09/12/09	Idaho	Turf	W 42-23	19	80	4.21	1
09/19/09	20 Southern California	Turf	W 16-13	25	71	2.84	0
09/26/09	@ 23 Stanford	Grass	L 14-34	19	75	3.95	0
10/03/09	@ Notre Dame	Grass	L 30-37	22	136	6.18	0
10/10/09	Arizona	Turf	W 36-33	9	34	3.78	0
10/17/09	@ Arizona St.	Grass	L 17-24	12	51	4.25	1
10/24/09	7 Oregon	Turf	L 19-43	18	104	5.78	1
11/07/09	@ UCLA	Grass	L 23-24	15	132	8.80	0
11/14/09	@ 13 Oregon St.	Turf	L 21-48	19	116	6.11	0
11/28/09	Washington St.	Turf	W 30-0	25	130	5.20	1

Avinash: Not to mention he's peaking. Four straight hundred yard games, including three against quality defenses (okay, Oregon and UCLA aren't really stout against the run anymore, but still, 116 yards on Oregon State, 8.8 ypc in the Rose Bowl? Might be something to look out for). Not to mention his running style reminds you a lot of the type of backs that could give our sloppy tacklers problems.

"He’s got plenty of upside. He’s a guy who is still learning," UW head coach Steve Sarkisian said. "But the one thing he has is physical and mental toughness. The ability that when things aren’t always blocked great, he fights through it. He continues to fight."

We’ve seen that from Polk all season: the way he puts his head down and pushes his small-but-explosive frame forward; the way he manages to get those extra couple of yards, even with a mass of defenders blocking his way. Heck, on one play Saturday it looked like Polk tripped and fell over a WSU lineman, but he still managed three yards.

"He hasn’t had a bunch of runs where it’s just big gaping holes and he’s running for yards," Sarkisian said. "He’s earning his yards. I think the next step for him is his ability to play at the second level, in the open field once he clears the line of scrimmage, and his creativity with his running style."

Really, Polk shouldn't be underestimated. It seems he has that ability like Vereen to slip off of tacklers and keep on going. Him, Quizz, James, Vereen...boy, talk about running backs it'll be hard for defenses to bring down next season.

TwistNHook: Well, you've made me look like an idiot yet again Avi. Let's move on from the rushing attack and take a moment to glance askew at the Passing D:

Situation	G	Att	Comp	Pct.	Yards	Int	TD	Rating	Long	1st	15+	25+
All Plays	11	331	214	64.7	2673	8	15	142.62	77	116	65	24
1st Half	11	182	116	63.7	1437	3	7	139.46	67	62	32	13
2nd Half/OT	11	149	98	65.8	1236	5	8	146.46	77	54	33	11
1st Quarter	11	82	60	73.2	650	1	2	145.37	56	29	13	6
2nd Quarter	11	100	56	56.0	787	2	5	134.61	67	33	19	7
3rd Quarter	11	73	50	68.5	664	3	4	154.76	77	26	18	5
4th Quarter	10	75	47	62.7	550	2	4	136.54	50	27	14	6

Me likee. You might remember that the Stanford D, which was fairly generous for Riley, was giving up roughly 63% of the pass attempts against it. UW is even worse at nearly 65% of the pass attempts. Riley is completing roughly 56% of his attempts, so if he is at 65% during this game, it should end VERY well for Cal. They actually allow 73% completion rating in the first quarter, so I think it is imperative for Cal to jump out to a big lead, hopefully using the reinvigorated pass attack.

142 QB rating against, again, is a very positive number for Cal. Looking at this, I feel like Riley can build on the momentum from the Big Game where he seemed to be playing with a lot of confidence. Notice also that they only have 8 interceptions to 15 TDs given up.

By comparison, note Cal's passing D:

Situation	G	Att	Comp	Pct.	Yards	Int	TD	Rating	Long	1st	15+	25+
All Plays	11	393	243	61.8	2835	10	14	129.09	80	121	65	27

This is a pass D that has been MUCH maligned this year. People have complained endlessly about its ineffectiveness. And, let's be honest, it has not be at the level many Cal fans anticipated it would be at the start of the year. The numbers are admittedly not great in some situations, but, save for the yards given up (surprise!), it is better across the board than this UW passing D.

Avinash:

Date	Opponent	Surface	Result	Att	Comp	Pct.	Yards	Yards/Att	Int	TD	Rating
09/05/09	15 LSU	Turf	L 23-31	19	11	57.9	172	9.1	0	3	186.05
09/12/09	Idaho	Turf	W 42-23	40	26	65.0	349	8.7	1	0	133.29
09/19/09	20 Southern California	Turf	W 16-13	22	13	59.1	110	5.0	1	0	92.00
09/26/09	@ 23 Stanford	Grass	L 14-34	14	7	50.0	103	7.4	0	0	111.80
10/03/09	@ Notre Dame	Grass	L 30-37	31	23	74.2	422	13.6	1	2	203.38
10/10/09	Arizona	Turf	W 36-33	53	39	73.6	384	7.2	2	1	133.13
10/17/09	@ Arizona St.	Grass	L 17-24	36	22	61.1	295	8.2	0	2	148.27
10/24/09	7 Oregon	Turf	L 19-43	22	14	63.6	157	7.1	0	1	138.58
11/07/09	@ UCLA	Grass	L 23-24	31	23	74.2	371	12.0	2	2	183.11
11/14/09	@ 13 Oregon St.	Turf	L 21-48	31	22	71.0	194	6.3	0	4	166.12
11/28/09	Washington St.	Turf	W 30-0	32	14	43.8	116	3.6	1	0	67.95
	Totals			331	214	64.7	2673	8.1	8	15	142.62

No sugarcoating this--these are really bad numbers. Allowing 70% completion rate to four quarterbacks is kind of excusable, considering Foles, Canfield and Clausen are three of the most accurate in the country...but Kevin Prince? Really? Other than knocking around Wazzu's quarterbacks around, they haven't had a great performance since the Furd game...the one where Gerhart rolled over them like the marvelous white stallion he is.

Based on the tenor of their defensive coordinator, Nick Holt likes his players to play aggressive. However, they lack the personnel to play in attack mode the entire way; they just don't have the ability to handle good quarterbacks or even semi-competent quarterbacks and it leads to big big plays. They eventually lead to lapses, ending up with situations like this.

Kevin Riley has had good games this year, had clutch performances this year. A good performance against the Huskies could go a long way towards getting ready for the bowl game against Oklahoma or BYU/Utah (our likely bowl opponents). Consistency is all we want from him now as he wraps up his junior year.

TwistNHook: And now, finally, let's take a look at the UW Rushing D. What does that look like?

Situation	G	Att	Yards	Avg.	TD	Long	1st	10+	20+
All Plays	11	367	1705	4.65	17	75	87	56	20
1st Half	11	177	835	4.72	7	60	41	29	11
2nd Half/OT	11	190	870	4.58	10	75	46	27	9
1st Quarter	11	80	438	5.48	5	60	18	13	8
2nd Quarter	11	97	397	4.09	2	42	23	16	3
3rd Quarter	11	102	463	4.54	6	75	25	15	4
4th Quarter	11	87	406	4.67	3	56	21	12	5

It looks OK. Not great, like ASU's 2.5 a carry against. But not redick bad. Of course, notice that the worst section is in the first quarter, so hopefully we can jump out to a large lead based on the solid running game. Cal is coming off of its best running game in a long long time (and that's saying a lot considering how amazing our running game has been). However, it appears that stud OLineman Matt Summers-Gavin is not going to play. This is unfortunate, because he appeared to be a catalyst for the running game when he returned against Arizona and Stanford. So, it is a mixture of bad and good news. UW seems to have a rush D that Cal could handle. However, we said the same thing against OSU and had major trouble without MSG.

Avinash: Let's not underrate these guys here. Mason Foster and Donald Butler are both great tacklers, can definitely cause the Bears problems if they struggle blocking.

Date	Opponent	Surface	Result	Att	Yards	Avg.	TD
09/05/09	15 LSU	Turf	L 23-31	29	149	5.14	0
09/12/09	Idaho	Turf	W 42-23	23	63	2.74	2
09/19/09	20 Southern California	Turf	W 16-13	33	250	7.58	1
09/26/09	@ 23 Stanford	Grass	L 14-34	51	321	6.29	3
10/03/09	@ Notre Dame	Grass	L 30-37	29	108	3.72	1
10/10/09	Arizona	Turf	W 36-33	30	77	2.57	2
10/17/09	@ Arizona St.	Grass	L 17-24	27	169	6.26	1
10/24/09	7 Oregon	Turf	L 19-43	40	259	6.48	4
11/07/09	@ UCLA	Grass	L 23-24	40	84	2.10	1
11/14/09	@ 13 Oregon St.	Turf	L 21-48	37	178	4.81	2
11/28/09	Washington St.	Turf	W 30-0	28	47	1.68	0
	Totals			367	1705	4.65	17

You can see the performance of this defense depends heavily on the running games they face. Toby Gerhart apparently obliterated them, as did the USC running corps, as did the James/Masoli/Barner trio, and so did...Arizona State? Other than that though, these guys have done alright shutting running games down.

With Best, I'd feel a lot more confident in establishing our run game--in open space he'd just outrun half these guys. Without him though, it becomes a little bit more interesting. Although I like Vereen a lot, it's still asking a lot for a guy who ran the ball 43 times two weeks ago to replicate that performance. I don't want him slugging in the trenches--we need the offensive line and our fullbacks/tight ends to block and open space for him to outrun this defense.

Also there's a few interesting numbers that stand out, like who's leading the conference in forced fumbles...

	Name	Team	Yr	Pos	G	Fumbles Forced	Fumbles Forced/G
1	Mason Foster	Washington	JR	LB	11	5	0.45
2	Daniel Te'o-Nesheim	Washington	SR	DL	11	3	0.27
2	Donald Butler	Washington	SR	LB	11	3	0.27

The Huskies have forced 15 fumbles (2nd in the conference to the Trojans) and have the three leaders in the conference in Foster, Te'o and Butler. And they got only ONE of those against Wazzu (4 against USC and UCLA, 3 against Oregon State, 2 against Arizona State). Vereen will hopefully be able to protect the ball, but what about the youthful Deboskie-Johnson (who will almost certainly see more carries)? Ball control will be key for our running backs in keeping the offense going.

There's a lot to worry about. We're far away from punching our tickets to El Paso. We've got a tough ball game Saturday and no Jahvid Best to break it open.

Poll

How is Cal going to do against UW?

Big victory

73 votes

Close victory

105 votes

Close loss

5 votes

Big loss

4 votes

187 votes | Poll has closed

Update On Kevin Prince

Nestor — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:16:45 -0000

Chris Foster from the LA Times is reporting that Kevin Prince has a "mild shoulder separation":

Prince was injured while scrambling; he was tackled by USC’s Everson Griffen and landed on his right shoulder. An MRI Monday revealed the extent of the injury.

The usual recovery time from a Grade 1 AC sprain is three to six weeks.

This is Prince’s third injury this season. He suffered a fractured jaw against Tennessee the second week of the season and missed three games. He also missed the second half against Washington because of a concussion.

The Bruins sill have hopes of reaching a bowl game, which may have been enhanced by Notre Dame players voting against playing in a game. Prince's availability for a game would be questionable.

Obviously, lot of folks are wondering why did he go back into the game after he was initially hurt. Here is what Jon Gold reported on that front:

UCLA redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Prince begged Neuheisel to re-enter the game after a big third-quarter hit on a 5-yard run resulted in a slight shoulder sprain.

Neuheisel acquiesced, Prince went back in the game for the next drive and he threw an interception.

"He just told me he didn't mean to hurt the team," Neuheisel said of his postgame conversation with his quarterback. "He's a great kid and he's had a great learning experience, and he's going to be a big-time player."

Well, it is going to be interesting if we do get invited to a bowl game. Few weeks ago I would be firmly in the camp of coaches making sure Richard Brehaut gets enough "meaningful" snaps in the game. However, after what I have seen from Brehaut this season (specifically in the Washington game when he had his best shot), I am not exactly sure and actually more leaning to argument Ryan and ucla13_usc9 have been making all along about how Brehaut has simply not been ready this season.

Perhaps Chow and Neuheisel will give Brehaut a shot to compete for time in the bowl game during practices lead up to it. However, I am comfortable if they go with the decision of giving Kevin Craft the first shot and then see what happens from thereon out. I know it's not the optimum scenario we are dealing with but I trust Chow and Neuheisel's collective judgment when it comes to deciding our starting QB.

GO BRUINS.