SB Nation - Joseph Fauria

Gameday Buff Bites - Colorado Buffaloes vs. Missouri Tigers

irish1611 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:07:02 -0000

Woelk: Time for Buffs to play with chip on shoulders - Buffzone
Couldn't have said it any better:

The Buffs need to play with a chip on their shoulders. Play like they care. Play like someone is trying to steal their lunch instead of acting like they`re willing to share. That`s what`s been missing far too often this season.

Paige: Dan Hawkins has to deliver wins at CU - The Denver Post
Woody Paige changes his tune a little bit, saying Dan Hawkins should get his fifth year with the agreement that he must step away after the 2010 season if he has another losing season. I didn't realize that if Dan Hawkins' team loses today, he would be the first coach in Colorado history without a winning season in his first four years on the job.

He should be given one more season, a fifth, because of an attitude adjustment around the program and the chance to play his first full recruiting class (including redshirted players) so there won't be "we're- too-young" excuses. It'll also give him another year to recruit more skill-position players (including, please, a quarterback), to decide on one offensive philosophy, not the current two unstable and ineffective schemes, and because CU can't afford to settle his contract. Yet, if Colorado agrees to retain Hawkins, he must agree to step away after the 2010 season, if he has another losing season.

Chancellor DiStefano backs Hawk - The Denver Post
Chancellor DiStefano doesn't believe it is a good idea to make any coaching changes at this point and believes Hawkins needs more time. I wouldn't expect anything less from the Chancellor, of course he isn't going to say that Dan Hawkins will be fired after the season.

If Colorado football coach Dan Hawkins is looking for support, he's found it in the right place. CU chancellor Phil DiStefano said Hawkins "needs more time" to be successful. DiStefano, in a phone interview with The Denver Post, said he does not foresee making a coaching change anytime soon. "You would never say never, because things happen," DiStefano said. "But right now, Dan and the other coaches (within the athletic department) are recruiting good kids, recruiting the kind of kids that are going to be successful in college, that will get a degree, that will be competitive. That's what I'm looking for." Hawkins, in his fourth season, has come under fire from fans disappointed in CU's 2-5 start. Fans posting comments online are railing against athletic director Mike Bohn, who hired Hawkins, and would like to see him fired too. DiStefano said he has received several of those pleas but he wants Buff fans to exhibit patience. "I just think we need to give Dan and the other coaches, and Mike Bohn, as well, more time to pull things together. In my mind, it's not a good idea to make changes at this point."

Quick chat with FB Josh Smith - Inside UCLA with Jon Gold
Former Buff WR Josh Smith answers five questions from Jon Gold about the situation at UCLA. Gold seems pretty excited about Smith:

I finally caught up with Colorado transfer Josh Smih, and really, I think UCLA is in store for big things. The kid has looked fantastic on the scout team, and along with Joseph Fauria, he adds to true targets in the passing game next season. With the lack of explosiveness at wideout this season, Smith could become the Bruins' top target next year.

What has impressed you most about UCLA so far? "First of all, man, the defense. The defense is really impressive. At Colorado, I was always that guy just hoping that we'd get a turnover so I could get back on the field. I'd dare them to throw the ball to me after a turnover. To continue to see these guys go out there and get two or three picks a game by one person, another two by another. I have never really been a guy to witness that over at Colorado."

CU coach Hawkins tells QB Hansen he's the full-time starter - The Denver Post

"Tyler is our quarterback. He's making plays," McKnight said. "One of the things that has impressed me about Tyler is his leadership abilities. When he gets in the huddle, everyone is listening. People respond very well to him.

Buffs look to improve...now - The Longmont Times-Call

The Tigers might be even younger than the Buffs. They list 36 freshmen and sophomores on their two-deep roster.

CU reported 8,000 tickets remained Friday for today’s homecoming game, which, if that many remain unsold, would leave quite a few empty seats and signal lagging interest in a losing program. Maybe angry fans have chosen to stay away to vent their frustration. If so, CU’s administration undoubtedly will take note. The smallest crowd at Folsom Field this season was 50,535 for the Wyoming game Sept. 19. CU lists Folsom’s capacity as 53,750.

More game related links after the jump...

Matchup: Missouri Tigers vs. Colorado Buffaloes - STLtoday.com
Good news for Buff fans and for the secondary:

In three Big 12 games, the clearly hobbled Blaine Gabbert has hit just 47 of 104 passes for two touchdowns with five interceptions. He threw for only 84 yards against Texas before being pulled after aggravating his ankle injury in the third quarter.

Interesting that Dan Hawkins d… | The Buffzone Blog

Interesting that Dan Hawkins described his team as fragile in postgame comments at Missouri in 2008. He used the same word again this week.

Mizzou faces must-win at Colorado - KansasCity.com

The keys to a must win for Mizzou appear to be these:
•Early devotion to a running game that seemed to work against Texas before two late Texas TDs at the end of the first half forced Missouri to the air in a vain attempt to catch up in the final 30 minutes.
•A return to a defense that had made steady improvement on a disastrous 2008 before reprising those bad old days in a chicken-with-its-head-cut-off runaround against Texas.

MU-Colorado football preview - KansasCity.com

Key matchup Missouri’s pass rush against a porous Colorado pass protection scheme. MU defensive end Aldon Smith is coming on. He had two sacks against Texas and nearly another. Disrupt Colorado’s offense, and Missouri doesn’t have to score a lot to win.

CU seeking redemption vs. Missouri - The Longmont Times-Call

Hawkins feels game with Tigers is "monumental" - The Denver Post

Both have young rosters, each with just six senior starters. Both have a sophomore quarterback still finding his way. Both start three sophomores along the offensive line. And both have found it difficult to establish the running game. Colorado coach Dan Hawkins has called today's game "monumental" in importance. Missouri's Gary Pinkel all but said the same thing.

CU faces 'monumental` game - Buffzone

Team trying to stay in Big 12 North race, become bowl eligible

COMMENT: 10 Things you didn't know about Colorado - Columbia Missourian

After making its first primetime television appearance last week, "10 Things" is going back to its roots. From Robin Williams to Ralphie the Buffalo to city-wide animal regulations, here are 10 things you didn't know about Colorado.

Vikings grab first place - San Jose Mercury News
Buff commit Nick Hirschman who is supposed to be in Boulder this weekend for his official visit did not play in his high school game last night due to a leg injury that occurred in last week's game. His Los Gatos team lost last night.

Spaulding Roundup: Managing The Game

Nestor — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:04:20 -0000

Let's start with good news. hicalliber fanshotted yesterday that Jayson Allmond was cleared to join the team after some hiccup with NCAA clearing house issues. Both Allmond and Joseph Fauria joined the team in practice yesterday. Fauria will of course be sitting out this year as a transfer but will see a lot of action with the scout team. As for Allmond per Al Balderas in the OC Register he didn't sound too concerned about missing a day and half of practice.

Since we are on the topic of Allmond let's focus in on the running game today. Al from the OC Register got Norm Chow and Derrick Coleman to lay out the main goal for our running backs this season: average four yards per carry:

"Our goal basically is to get four yards per carry, and move the chains," he said after Tuesday’s practice at Spaulding Field. "If we get four yards per carry, we’ll be good.

"Basically we just want to get the running game going. When the running game gets going, it opens up the passing game."

As easy as Coleman made it sound, that kind of goal was too tough for last year’s squad. Injuries didn’t help. Neither did an offensive line that struggled.

Last year’s running attack averaged 2.4 yards per carry. Three yards would have been a reasonable goal for this year’s squad but four yards will most likely keep the players a little more focused.

Bruins’ offensive coordinator Norm Chow set the bar at four yards but "at the same time we all agreed to it," Coleman added.

"We’re a long ways away," Chow said. "We’re awfully young still, but if the guys are willing to work hard, and hard work can get you somewhere, we’re going to be fine."

One of the guys Bruins are going to heavily depend on to achieve that goal is redshirt junior Christian Ramirez. More on how he is approaching the season after the jump.

Per Jon Gold from the Daily News (who BTW is off to a great start as Dohn's interim replacement on the Daily News blog) Ramirez is modeling himself after a recent Bruin superstar:

Ramirez knows Jones-Drew can run and he can jump and he can catch. Knows he can run over guys twice his size. Knows he can run away from guys exactly his size.

Ramirez knows because he's seen him, and he knows because he wants to be like him.

After two days of UCLA's preseason practice schedule, Ramirez, a redshirt junior halfback, has made it plainly clear he will be used as a dual threat - running and receiving - and even throwing if offensive coordinator Norm Chow lets him.

What Ramirez's exact role will morph into is not going to be known after two practices, particularly two practices without pads. But he knows he'll be all over the field.

"I have to find that out, right here, right now," Ramirez said. "I need to see how coach Chow feels I can be the most effective. But to be honest, after being (111th in total offense) in the nation, just taking a handoff for 80 yards would feel the best. Not just for me, but for the team. Give us some life, some type of life that lets us know we can run the ball."

Well I can't really get into Chow's mind. But if I were speculating I think Chow will reiterate to Christian what he has been saying all season: to give everything he has but at the same time try not to do too much to the point of trying to win the game all by himself. That is why I like the mantra of trying to get 4 yards or more per carry. Because if we can achieve that that will put Prince in much better position to manage the game:

There is little doubt of that at this point -- Chow picks a quarterback and sticks with him. But the plan is to make life as easy as possible for Prince, a redshirt freshman who has not played in a game in nearly two years, which led to the "run the ball or die trying" philosophy.

"All he has to do is manage the game," Chow said. "I don't want him to think he has to make spectacular plays or feel like he has to win the game."

This remains a work in progress. Prince looked sharp Monday, the first day of training camp, but struggled with throws some Tuesday.

"Everybody goes from a place where they are trying to execute a play to where they are playing the game," Coach Rick Neuheisel said. "When you are trying to make plays, you look a little robotic. When you're playing the game at full speed, the natural ability comes to the forefront."

Again I am sure that approach should be applied not just by Kevin Prince but the entire team on offense.

On the defensive side though, Brian Price and co. are going to let it lose. Price was named to the 2009 Outland Trophy Watch List yesterday. It looks like he is going to use that as a source of motivation:

"That was my goal coming to UCLA, to win the award," Price said. "When camp first started, coach (Rick Neuheisel) was talking about how we need to get back to black-tie events, and those are the kinds of black-tie events we need to get back to.

"That was an award I wanted to win coming out of (Crenshaw) high school. That’s the most prestigious award a lineman can win. It’s still my highest goal to achieve at the college level so it gives me something to work for, and the motivation to keep coming out here."

Well we are looking forward to Price and co. dressed up and ready to go ... and LOL at Jackson's jokes next season.

GO BRUINS>

Spaulding Roundup: Josh Smith Coming To UCLA & Other Football Notes

Nestor — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:12:38 -0000

Of course we are talking about football (not that Josh Smith). And it looks like big news for Coach Neuheisel and UCLA football program as the Bruins per Dohn are about to nab one of the better playmakers in college football. Former Colorado WR is heading to UCLA:

UCLA is getting a deep-threat receiver and a proven kick returner in former Moorpark High star Josh Smith, who will complete a transfer from Colorado to UCLA by the end of the summer, according to sources.

Smith left Colorado in the spring, in part because he wanted to pursue a degree in music, and Colorado does not offer one. Under NCAA transfer rules, Smith will sit out the 2009 season and be eligible for the 2010 season.

According to sources, Smith will enroll at UCLA in September and redshirt. He will have two years of eligibility remaining when he returns to the field. The only hang- up would be an unforeseen issue with his transcripts, sources said.

Fauria leaves Notre Dame for ucla

Paragon SC — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:04:00 -0000

We don't often get to write stories that involve our two main rivals but I thought this was interesting.

Sophomore TE Joseph Fauria has left Notre Dame and will enroll at ucla. Fauria is from Encino so this is a bit of a homecoming for him. Fauria was suspended by ND for the boiler plate reason of "violation of team rules" (rumors I have read are sexual misconduct...but nothing is confirmed). Instead of sticking it out like he originally said he would he decided to move on.

Our friends at Blue Gray Sky give us some insight...

Fauria also claims he was forbidden to appeal the decision. Unlike the rest of you diligent and pious alums, I cannot quote chapter and verse from DuLac, so I paged through it this morning looking for the "appeals" guidelines. I was surprised to find that ND's disciplinary process only allows for "case reviews", not appeals, and even then only in situations where procedural defect is alleged or new information has come to light. Appealing simply on the grounds of "severity of punishment" is never considered. While this may be a crummy policy, what this tells us is that Fauria's lack of access to appeal probably wasn't out of the ordinary in the draconian world of ResLife.

I have no idea what Fauria did, and you probably don't, either. Fauria claims it was something minor (you'd laugh if you knew, he said in another interview). I will say that there seems to be a lot of rumors flying around, ranging from the merely prankish to more serious allegations. Unless Fauria himself divulges the details -- the school certainly won't -- we'll likely never know the facts in the case. Given that we don't know the details, and given the fact that ResLife has no reservoir of credibility to draw from, it's hard to know if justice was served in Fauria's suspension.

Who knows...who cares. But if it is significant enough for ND to suspend him (even if it is minor in nature as some are alluding to) then it is a little surprising to see ucla take a player with a bit of a discipline problem. I mean ucla is pristine right? They would never take a player with a discipline issue would they?

More irony...

It is interesting that Fauria chose ucla.

Slick Rick adds a decent player to an average stable of TE's if they can 1) stay healthy or 2) contribute immediately. What they don't have a lot of is offensive lineman. Fauria is listed at 6'7" - 245lbs but he is not a speed guy and he is too light to play OL (even though he did play OL occasionally). Just briefly looking at ucla's roster they have 5 TE's listed and that is before before Morrell Presley comes to school. I am not seeing how this is a good move for ucla. Sure you can throw Fauria in at OL in a pinch but that is limited. He isn't going to bulk up and if he is used in a pinch it once again shows how dire the situation is on the ucla OL.

To his credit it wasn't like Fauria was utilized effectively by Charlie "we'll have a decided schematic advantage" Weis as Her Loyal Sons points out...

And BGS did an analysis on what drove a lot of that vanilla-ness, and frankly I can never top that (and why would I try - it answers the question beautifully). The answer? Well, no TE’s. Okay, not none. One awesomely talented Frosh, and a fill-in Olineman, and for a few minutes Joe Fauria. That’s what we had at Tight End last year. Despite becoming TE U in terms of recruiting, we had 1.5 (Fauria was the half) last year, and both were true Freshmen. Ragone was out hurt, Yeatman was out drinking, and so that left Rudolph and Fauria. Rudolph, despite being a TRUE frosh, was somewhat ready. Fauria really wasn’t. So what does that leave as options? 1 TE and 2 TE sets, with the 2nd either being an unready Fauria or a fill-in like Trevor Robinson. And that GREATLY limited Weis’ offense. His pro style offense depends on, and thrives from, inclusion of 2 and even 3 TE sets, giving the coach calling the plays and the QB lots of options to pick apart a defense. Take away the TEs and those options get more and more limited. Easier to predict and to defend against.

We all know Norm Chow likes using TE's but you still need an O line to protect the QB so he can get the TE the ball.

Should be interesting to watch...

Spaulding Roundup: Roster Management & Other Football News/Notes

Nestor — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:00:35 -0000

I am still slowly working my way back from a long vacation. Looks like during last few days a number of football related notes (besides Fauria's transfer and E.J.'s desire to be a Trojie) trickled out of Westwood. So let's try to rest and try to put them all together in one place.

In addition to E.J.s departure, UCLA also said goodbye to Shannon Tevaga(HT to thisismitchell). Tevaga had to leave the program due to academic issues:

On a day former UCLA safety E.J. Woods said he finalized plans to transfer to Santa Monica College, the attrition continued with offensive lineman Sonny Tevaga leaving the program for what sources said were academic issues.

Tevaga, who started three games last season, is enrolled in UCLA's summer school, but he will not return to the Bruins even if his academic troubles are resolved, sources added.

Instead, Tevaga will explore a transfer to another school. He is the sixth UCLA player to leave the program since spring ball concluded.

Well the problem with Tevaga was that there has always been questions regarding his total commitment to play football at UCLA. This is something he has had issues with dating back to last November and he was still struggling to get into the right midset this past spring. So it's not a total surprise that it never worked out for him him. Hopefully wherever he ends up he finds a right fit that will fit his abilities both in the classroom and on the football field.

As Dohn noted Tevaga became the 6th player to leave the progam since spring ball (following Dean, Carter, Forcier, Johnson and Woods). This kind of attrition however is not really something negative for the program. Remember at the end of the spring UCLA was about 5 or 6 players over the allotted 85 scholarship limit. Because of their departures room opened up for a kid like Joseph Fauria and it looks like coaches will also try to hold a spot open for Josh Smith from Colorado.

Note that we still have some ways to go before our personnel issues are all sorted out. From the incoming class three players - Taniela Maka, Nike Abele and Eddie Williams - still have some work to do to become academically eligible for UCLA (remember unlike U$C* those issues don't get magically "resolved" at UCLA). So after all is said and done UCLA could be around the 81/82 mark in terms of total scholarship players, which would give the coaches lot more room to maneuver with regards to the class of 2010.

Moving on to other football related notes, congrats to Christian Yount for being named to the Playboy All America team. He became the first ever long-snapper to get selected for that team:

Meanwhile, Christian's teammate ATV has put up his second blogpost from this summer:

This past week has been a bit slower than the week before. My Romanian class has gotten a bit harder. We are now getting into conjugations of verbs, definite articles, and masculine/feminine forms of nouns, all of which can be very tricky! I scored another 10 on a quiz so I am starting to get the hang of it. The hours are long, but we are making a lot of progress in the class. However, speaking the language is a totally different challenge. It's hard for me to get that "r" sound just right, but the teacher is working with me.

Football workouts have been stepped up this week. The intensity in the weight room has been pushed way up and the conditioning drills are also at a high level. The defensive backs and every other position have been competing to be the best at each of the drills. A special "shout out" goes to fellow defensive back Courtney Viney, who works out with me at six o'clock each morning. He has been trying to make me better by challenging me in every obstacle, but I do the same to him. We had a couple of people plateau already this summer and that gets me fired up to get there as well.

Learning Romanian sounds just a tad bit more difficult than cruising through Senora Ross's class. No?

Lastly, ATV is not the only UCLA football player who is having fun writing this summer. Tobi Umodu has his own writeup of Bruin football players' summer workouts in his weekly "Keeping it Bruin":

Last season the offense took a lot of criticism for most of the problems the Bruins had, but this summer the offense has worked as hard as they can to change that. Recently named starting quarterback Kevin Prince has taken a strong leadership role among the offensive players and seems to be handling his new responsibilities with a lot of poise and capability.

There is nothing easy about getting up early morning to workout and run until your legs just will not carry you anymore, and then have to head off to class right after, but the members of the UCLA football team do not feel that way. They know how much work it will take to change the Bruin football program around and they are not afraid to do it.

You can read rest of Tobi's writeup here.

I always love reading this kind of reports on off season workouts. My issue with them though is its something we read every off season from every team. So you have to take them with a grain of salt. Still though I think for the first time in years, there is certain amount of optimism around our program given the way our coaches have been managing the program. As we had said over and over again, if they can build on the recruiting successes of past two years and put together a bowl season (6 or 7 regular season wins), that will make all all the hard work these kids are putting through this off-season worth it. It will allow the program to continue to move towards the right direction for the first time since December 5, 1998 (Melsby was down).

GO BRUINS.

Notre Dame's Joseph Fauria Comes Home (to UCLA)

Nestor — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:13:40 -0000

Wanted to break in during this Independence Day with some good news.

Looks like the UCLA football team has a new transfer to welcome from Notre Dame. Josepha Fauria, a former four star TE recruit from Crespi High School, who picked Notre Dame over UCLA (couple of recruiting seasons ago) is coming home. Brian Dohn reported in the Daily News:

Fauria said Friday he is transferring to UCLA from Notre Dame, where he was not going to play this season after being suspended by the school's Office of Residence Life for a non-athletic issue.
"I'm going to end up at UCLA," he said. "I'm verbally committed."

The 6-foot-7, 250-pounder played in three games last season without catching a pass. He will have three years of eligibility remaining once he sits out the NCAA-mandated one year for transferring between Football Bowl Subdivision schools.

It also is a reunion for Bruins starting quarterback Kevin Prince and Fauria, who played together in high school. Fauria had 35 receptions for 516 yards and eight touchdowns as a Crespi senior.

Fauria, the nephew of former NFL tight end Christian Fauria, said he recently visited UCLA's campus and spoke to head coach Rick Neuheisel. He will join the Bruins for training camp in August.

"It's a great atmosphere," Fauria said. "It was my second choice coming out of high school, got a good coaching staff and the arrow is pointing up for the direction of the program."

As mentioned previously the cirumstances around why he left Notre Dame stemming from a suspension by the university's Office of Residence Life for "undisclosed disciplinary reasons" seems rather odd. Dohn called the exit "controversial, and cryptic." However, after looking into this over last few days, I don't think UCLA football fans don't have too worry too much.

The rumor that has been going around re. Fauria is that apparently he was suspended for this:

old school streaking scene (via ttgarcia0)

Uh yeah. There are references to this at Irish fan sites such as theDailyShillelagh, uhnd.com, and GoldHelmet.com. Well again these are rumors and we don't have all the facts regarding whether it was just one incident or one of multiple incidents for which Notre Dame's ResLife suspended him for an entire semester. What is clear though that a huge number of Irish fans were not happy with Notre Dame's administration and were taking Fauria's side on this.

Moreover, the widely linked Fauria post (referenced above) mentioned that Notre Dame's ResLife "has no reservoir of credibility to draw from." Note our colleagues at SBN has referred to the Blue Gray Sky as "the class of the Notre Dame internet." At this point of time we haven't flagged anything concerning Fauria that stood out as a red flag (certainly nothing even close to the kind of allegations we have seen concerning E.J. Woods or the boilerplate stuff we see coming out of the scandal ridden athletic program from cross town).

So given the fact that Coach Neuheisel's program handled the E.J. Woods situation pretty well (not giving him any kind of break), I feel comfortable about his coaches (and Morgan Center administration) doing their due diligence regarding Fauria before accepting his commitment to UCLA. Besides if Fauria was indeed suspended for doing a Will Ferrell, one would think he would fit in just fine at UCLA!

All kidding aside, Fauria left the Notre Dame football program on a classy note:

"My experience was positive, except toward the end," Fauria said. "The program was great to me. My teammates were great to me. I'm going to miss all of them.

So with that welcome to Westwood Joe. BTW, IIRC the last transfer from Notre Dame didn't work out so bad. It was Arnold Ale who was instumental in starting that unforgettable 8 game winning streak against U$C*.

He will now sit out for one season. When gets back UCLA's TE depth chart is going to look good with Fauria, (Cory) Harkey and of course Morrel Presley.

Fauria will most likely will not be the last personnel move in this busy off season. We will also wait on the news on Colorado's Josh Smith and it looks like coaches' will hold a scholarship for him (if he wants it). After it all shakes out UCLA should be right around the 85 scholarship mark at the beginning of this August Fall camp with more talent on balance compared to what was left when CRN took over in January of 2008. I call that moving in the right direction.

GO BRUINS.

Spaulding Roundup: Transfer & Recruiting Notes

Nestor — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:15:13 -0000

While we were wrapped up with draft related news stories, some notes have been trickling in over at the football fronts. It looks like UCLA might be looking at considering two possible transfer options this summer. Colorado WR Josh Smith is considering a transfer to UCLA. From the Daily Camera (Boulder newspaper):

CU compliance director Julie Manning confirmed Friday that the former Buffs wide receiver also has been given a release to UCLA.

CU athletic director Mike Bohn and coach Dan Hawkins had originally limited Smith's release to Southern Cal. He informed them last month that he intended to transfer closer to home near Los Angeles to a school where he could pursue a specific music degree not offered at CU.

When CU limited his transfer option to just USC, he appealed the decision to a committee made up of three professors. They ruled on the side of Bohn and Hawkins, but Manning said a deal was worked out between Smith and Hawkins allowing the release and possible transfer to UCLA.

If Smith eventually ends up with the Bruins, he will be the second Buff in the past two offseasons to leave Boulder for Westwood, Calif. Former offensive lineman Kai Maiava left CU after the 2007 season for UCLA, where he is expected to be a heavy contributor this season for former CU coach Rick Neuheisel.

Per Dohn our coaches are "very interested" and if a scholarship becomes "available" there is a "very good chance" of this transfer "happening" in Westwood. Wanting to transfer to UCLA to pursue a degree in music (and a perhaps a career in that area after football) makes a lot of sense. Again if you need a reminder why it makes sense just check out the latest commencement speech at UCLA.

I mentioned there are two transfer possibilities this season. Besides Josh, UCLA also might be looking into Notre Dame sophomore tight end Joseph Fauria. Fauria apparently looked pretty impressive during spring practice and is still has some nice words for the ND program. From the South Bend Tribune:

"Coach Weis did so much for me. He'll always feel like a part of my family. I'm going to follow ND this fall. They're going to be very good."

Fauria was one of the biggest pleasant surprises of spring practice, jumping to No. 2 on the tight end depth chart behind incumbent starter Kyle Rudolph.

He played in three games in 2008, logging roughly 21 minutes of playing time with one special teams appearance. He caught two passes for 17 yards in the April Blue-Gold Game.

However, the cirumstances around why he is leaving the program stemming from a suspension by the university's Office of Residence Life for "undisclosed disciplinary reasons" seems rather odd. From Jay at the excellent ND blog Blue Gray Sky:

Fauria also claims he was forbidden to appeal the decision. Unlike the rest of you diligent and pious alums, I cannot quote chapter and verse from DuLac, so I paged through it this morning looking for the "appeals" guidelines. I was surprised to find that ND's disciplinary process only allows for "case reviews", not appeals, and even then only in situations where procedural defect is alleged or new information has come to light. Appealing simply on the grounds of "severity of punishment" is never considered. While this may be a crummy policy, what this tells us is that Fauria's lack of access to appeal probably wasn't out of the ordinary in the draconian world of ResLife.

I have no idea what Fauria did, and you probably don't, either. Fauria claims it was something minor (you'd laugh if you knew, he said in another interview). I will say that there seems to be a lot of rumors flying around, ranging from the merely prankish to more serious allegations. Unless Fauria himself divulges the details -- the school certainly won't -- we'll likely never know the facts in the case. Given that we don't know the details, and given the fact that ResLife has no reservoir of credibility to draw from, it's hard to know if justice was served in Fauria's suspension. (The decision to permanently transfer, of course, remains his.)

Per Dohn UCLA will "look at him." I sure hope the coaches and the UCLA's administrators do their due diligence and perform all the background check (including getting all the information from Notre Dame's "ResLife") before making their decision. It's not like we are hurting for depth at TEs.

Lastly, looking way ahead in recruiting UCLA just might have the early lead on a young QB from Los Angeles:

With thick blond hair and an instinct to lead, junior quarterback Jerry Neuheisel might provide some balance to blue-chip running back Anthony Barr in Los Angeles Loyola's offense this fall.

Neuheisel arrived from Baltimore last year after his father, Rick, was hired as UCLA's football coach. He helped the Cubs' sophomore team win a Serra League championship, and appears ready to make an impact at the varsity level.

He's 6 feet 1 and has some of the same qualities his father exhibited during his years as a quarterback at UCLA.

"He's got a little bit of the gunslinger attitude that his dad had," Coach Jeff Kearin said.

It hasn't hurt that Neuheisel has grown up with a football always nearby. He travels to UCLA and receives lessons from his father. And he has been looking forward to becoming a varsity quarterback for a long time.

"I'm ready," he said. "I've got to get used to the speed, and you have to get used to scenarios. You have to officially step up your game."

Kearin won a Southern Section title in his rookie season at Loyola in 2005 but since then has been unable to develop consistency at quarterback. Neuheisel can help change that. He had to beat out another junior, Brett Nelson, during spring practice, and he has to perform this summer to keep his job.

But that's Neuheisel's strength -- embracing pressure and expectations. He has a quick release and makes good decisions. His father has told him: "Just be ready and accept the challenge."

Sounds just like his Dad. Besides Jerry, Jack Neuheisel is also going to be enrolling at Loyola this Fall. He plays linebacker. Read rest of Eric Sondheimer's story here.

I am sure we are going to hear a lot about how the season unfolds for both of them this coming year. Also, I am sure they are going to do everything they can to talk up UCLA to their fellow classmates including Anthony Barr who is UCLA recruiting heavily for next season.

GO BRUINS.