SB Nation - Akeem Ayers

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

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

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

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

The LAT writeup provides the eye popping numbers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GO BRUINS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can read more from the official press release here.

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

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

GO BRUINS.

Early Defensive Reflections On 2009 Regular Season

Nestor — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:58:27 -0000

Shifting attention back to football, I want to pick up our discussion from the team's performance in the last game. We talked about offense earlier in the week, let's focus a little on our defense. I went ahead and looked up the numbers of our defense from 2009 season and compared it numbers from 2008 when Dewayne Walker was in charge. Here is how they shape up:

Got the numbers from NCAA's website (2009 and 2008).

When you look at those numbers keep few factors in mind:

We faced an Oregon team that came into Rose Bowl without Masoli (Ugh).
The game against Stanford our defense at least on scoreboard looked all right, but if you delve into boxscore a bit and watched the game, you will remember Stanford dominated the time of possession the entire game. Our defense got thoroughly manhandled in the first half and they looked a little better in the second due to a combination of Stanford letting off the gas pedal a bit and also due to some adjustments on our part
On the positive side this year the defense didn't have annual Dewayne Walker special meltdowns like the 0-59 disaster we had in Provo.

Still looking at those numbers, it appears Chuck Bullough despite all the criticisms (and I believe many of them are on point) did a servicable job of replacing Dewayne Walker. He can actually make credible arguments that his defense actually performed better under him this year than it did under Walker the previous year. Given those numbers, I would have to think he will come back for next season, when he will truly have to prove his coaching mettle without veterans such as ATV, Price, Jerzy, and Reggie Carter. That said, despite the solid performance against Southern Cal, I have some lingering concerns about our defense. More after the jump.

The performance against Southern Cal to me was essentially a replay of the performance against Oregon State. Remember we actually played pretty solid defense against an explosive Beavers offense up in Corvallis. Except for the TD we gave up in Wild-Beaver formation (which I don't understand why we weren't prepared for), our D had the Rodgers brothers bottled up for most of the day. It just all fell apart in that last drive. Yes, if ATV had executed that pick-6, the season would turn out to be even better. However, what happened to our defense after that dropped interception is disconcerting to me.

Same thing happened to our defense during that last TD drive (of course I am not referring to the cheap shot) Trojans put together a 9 play drive, when they sliced and diced right through our secondary in 4:11 long minutes, marching 73 yards for the game clinching TD. What was the common theme here which we saw in the Oregon State (and few other games this season)? It was the cushion our DBs were giving to opponent WRs. Matt Barkley had no problem completing those short, medium range passes, carving up our secondary. It's the same thing Sean Canfield did to our guys in that last drive. We saw in horror Kevin Riley beating ATV number of times at the Rose Bowl, when he was giving up 8-9 yard cushion to Cal receivers.

I didn't get what Bullough was thinking in all those instances. Particularly against the Trojans and Beavers, when our defense had solid outing through most of the game, bringing in pressure from different directions, and generally stuffing the run. I didn't understand the urge to play vanilla, conservative defensive schemes with games on the line, going away from strategy that had been working all day. I am assuming that's a question Bullough and our coaches including CRN have been reflecting on during these past few days.

Watching our defense this season, I also got the sense that Bullough's scheme as heavily crticized as they were by us and others throughout the season, could turn out to be more effective if he gets few more explosive athletes in his disposal in next couple of years, and get the current corp of underclassmen to physically develop in next two years. Sheldon Price had a rough first year (although he showed some signs of improvement). He needs to get stronger so he can provide better run support. Hopefully we will get a healthy year out of Aaron Hester next season. I think our secondary under Moore and Dye's leadership is going to be all right.

The real question right now is at our front-7. Coaches are going to count on Datone Jones to anchor a line that will deeply miss the presence of Price and Jerzy. Joining Jones will be David Carter, Luta Tepa, and Keenan Graham. Those who have been going to practices this year are very high on Graham. Coaches are also hitting the recruiting trail hard to pick up few more DLs as observers are speculating Bruins can bring in as many as 8 DLs in this LBs. As for LB, anxious to see what kids like Isiah Bowens and Todd Golper can bring to the table next year. In terms of experience, I think it will be players like Westgate and Sloane joining Ayers in the front-7, but no doubt the recruits from this past two years are going to get their shots.

My main wish next year though is for Bullough to grow some more confidence so that he has the courage to try out different things in different games. I was encoraged towards the end of the season when the tried different looks with Akeem Ayers in Washington and Arizona State games, discovering how effective he can be as a hybrid DE/LB. He needs to experiment like that a little more, doing his best to make sure we get the best possible combination of force/athleticism on the field.

Anyway, we will have more to discuss on this topic in both short and long term here on BN after we figure out our bowl prospects. If we have a bowl game that will give us an opportunity to discuss it in the context of preparation for next opponent. If not then focus will shift towards recruiting. I really hope we get to see these guys one more time on the field this year though. I get the sense that our defense is itching to get out there for one more game this season to close it out on even better note.

GO BRUINS.

Not Our Night: Bruins Come Up Short Against (SPTR Blessed) Classless Trojans

Nestor — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:53:02 -0000

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

25 days ago: USC running back Allen Bradford, left, dives just short of the end zone as UCLA safety Tony Dye knocks him out of bounds during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009, in Los Angeles. Bradford scored one play later. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

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The final score was ~~21-7~~ 28-7 in favor of the bad guys tonight. Not surprisingly Chetey Petey being the hypocritical, SCumbag that he is poured it on when the game was already decided with a long bomb to the endzone (I wonder if Pom Pom's lapdogs - Bill Splashme or the TJ Slimers - will be crying about sportsmanship tomorrow). There is not much to say about that TD at this point because we know Chetey's true colors and what a classless jerk throughout his stained, corruption tainted career in South Central. What goes around, comes around and we will leave it that

Anway, as for the game, here is the box score from tonight's ball game in which the Bruins got killed by two crushing turnover that turned out to be the difference makers. The Bruin defense came out inspired playing their best half of the season and then continued it throughout the game gutting out a performance in which they held the Trojan offense to 14 points. I am not going to count the last 7 given at that point our defense didn't think the Trojies would be that classless even by their standards.

Mad props to Brian Price, Reggie Carter, Akeem Ayers, ATV, Kevin Craft, Chane Moline who gave everything they had today. The defense held the Trojies to less than 300 yards (not going to count that BS 48 yard bomb) and kept us in the game. While Kevin Craft came in and gave it everything he had to give us a legit chance when we closed it within 7. More after the jump.

The difference tonight was turnovers and mistakes. Bruins turned over the ball 4 times leading to 14 Trojan points and also killing a promising drive at the end of the first half. Prince came out looking erratic, overthrowing his receivers and then throwing a pick-6. Then in the second half he was undone by costly mistakes by his senior team-mate - Logan Paulsen (who has been making those mistakes all year) - that completely killed any sense of offensive momentum early on. He then got banged up by the Trojan defense, which led to his second pick (throwing with a bad shoulder).

Of course Bruins also got hosed (which seems to be a tradition against us in this particular game) by clueless refs that missed Mays' late hit, managed to get lobbied by Pom Pom to turn over a Rosario catch, and then completely blow a call on lateral which Jet Ski advanced for 26 yards. Depsite all the TOs and the surreal SPTRing, somehow the Bruins kept gutting it out thanks to gutsy peformance by the Bruin offense which under Kevin Craft closed it with 7 (7-14) with about 5 mins left in the game.

Still it just wasn't enough at the end. Our defense played prevent in the drive that really mattered and the Trojans used the cushion our DBs gave them to drive it down for a TD and put the game out of reach. As I mentioned up top, the Trojies went on to probably make the most classless move in this series, and a hypocrtical one given all the crying they did with Harbaugh's 2 point coversion just 2 weeks.

Obviously, there are strateiges on our coaches' part we can question. Off the top of my head, I don't get why we keep seeing Moline in Cheetah formation, and why we didn't see more speed from our side in the form of Jet Ski, Knox and Thigpen (although JetSki's fumble kined of answer that question).

Anyway, at the end this wasn't our night. As for the immediate future, I am not losing sleep tonight over whether we will make a bowl game. I hope we will but will let it all playout. However, I can definitely sense tonight how the team has taken a legit step forward, improving upon the season from last year. That much was clear otherwise the Trojies wouldn't have felt compelled to make that classless move at the end. They are clearly a little worried. The way those SCumbags behaved at the end of the game, you've got to believe karma will have a way of evening up the scores in the long run.

That said ... I will leave it to you to thread the night away. Post your quick fire takes in the comment threads. If you have extensive reflections to share, fire them up in the FanPosts. Thanks again for a great regular season. Let's do it again.

GO BRUINS.

BN Gameday: Southern Cal Second Half Thread

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

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

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

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

BEAT $C. GO BRUINS.

Spaulding Roundup: Trojans Open As 13 Point Favorites, Team Stats And Other Beat $C* Notes

Nestor — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:46:06 -0000

More photos » by Jae C. Hong - AP

Bruin defense has been pretty opportunistic last two games (+9 in TO margin). Here is to them staying on that torrid pace on Sat.

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We will not link to any kind of online sports betting websites here. However, for those who are wondering the opening line for Saturday's game has the Trojans has 13 points favorites. It will be interesting to see which way the line moves this week. Our side has the momentum heading in with a 3 game win streak but I kind of agree with this line because we are still taking on (at least on paper) the most talented team in the conference (and one of the best in college football). The Bruins might be feeling good about themselves right now. Before they get a little to carried away though, they just need to think back to how they are feeling and had theirs chests all puffed up heading into Stanford game with a record of 3-0.

I expect UCLA to win every time we take on Southern Cal no matter what the circumstances are and who is coaching or quarterbacking the team. That's the lesson I took after watching that Barnes2JJ magic (I will not call it miracle because this kind of stuff seems to happen a lot in this game) in person. If folks want to go back through BN archives they can read up the posts leading up to the games last four years. No matter what the situation were we always expected our team to win. This year more of us have a little confidence because it seems like our defense is getting a little stronger and our offense is showing signs of maturity. For the first time in four years we are going into a game with a team which has a little something on both sides of the ball. In prior years we would have one or the other (we had strong defenses in 08, 07, and 06, while went in with a strong offense in 05). We will see what transpires on the field on Saturday. I think if we can put together the best practice of the entire season and translate that into an amazing effort of smart football, we are going to have a great shot.

Here are the numbers at quick glance between the two teams:

NCAA Stats	UCLA	U$C*
Offense Pts Scored	22.6	27.5
Defense Pts Allowed	20.6	21.7
Total Offense Yds PG	341	400
Rush Yds/G	115	181
Pass Yds/G	226	219
Rush Yds Allowed/G	146	136
Pass Yds Allowed/G	193	212
Turover Margin	0.73	-0.31

So what's the deal? Let's talk some more about it with other football notes after the jump.

I think the biggest worry I have heading into Saturday is how the heck will our defense contain Allen Bradford and Joe McKnight. All season our defense has taken a while to get it going in every game. We saw just last weekend how our defensive front 7 made the ASU RB look like an All Pac-10 back in the early going before settling down and making adjustments. I am not sure if we are going to have that luxury aganst Bradford and especially Knight.

I am already having nightmares thinking about McKnight coming around that edge and exploding through our LBs and DBs. CRN is saying that UCLA will try to take a balanced approach in facing U$C*'s defense (despite Heisman Barkley's recent slump):

USC freshman quarterback Matt Barkley's recent struggles — he had thrown three interceptions in the Trojans' loss to Stanford — will not change UCLA's game plan, Neuheisel said.

The Bruins will not become blitz-happy, but attempt to maintain a balanced attack.

"I don't think you can be ever just one thing," Neuheisel said. "You have to be diversified and give different looks. Barkley is obviously a huge talent, but they can't manufacture more experience for them. We can't give them one look that allows them to be comfortable."

That sounds right. However, I'd like to see our defense bring the pressure early from different directions and mix up our looks. Obviously everyone is excited about Ayers lining up at the end deviating from his base 4-3 look he has been using most of the season. I also liked having Brian Price coming off the edge last weekend (which led to the fumble recover for TD late in the first half). I think against this Trojan offense we will have to do some of the same things to rattle the freshman QB. What we cannot afford do is what we did against Cal when we let Kevin Riley getting in rhythm early. If we let Barkely get in same kind of rhythm early on like we allowed Riley to get in, it might be a long night at the Mosoleum.

Keep an eye out on the injury report for the Trojans this week. Damien Williams has been nursing an ankle injury. He didn't play against Stanford and per Gary Klein of the LAT he is scheduled to do some "running" today. He is obviously a huge weapon for them adding more balance to the explosive threats out of the backfield.

There wasn't much news coming out of Spauling yesterday. Sounds like the coaches (very prudently) are keeping a very low profile. So the reporters were resorted to asking boring questions about whether Brehaut is going to see any more action and latest of Hester's injury status. If you care about reading them you can check out the beat reports here and here. I am honestly not all that worried about Brehaut. His situation will work out. I know his red shirt season got burned this year. I am honestly not all that worried about it and we have another great QB recruit coming in next year. Given how CRN has handle situations such as Hasiak, kept Craft completely committed to the program, I have no doubt he and Chow will sit down with Brehaut to figure out the best course for his development (which might include the option of redshirting his sophomore or junior season).

Going back to Kevin Prince, I am excited for him on Saturday. I think Saturday presents a big opportunity for him. While he has gained some obvious confidence in his throws downfield, I think he has also added another dimension to his game in terms of sharpening his pocket presence. His decisions in terms of when to throw away the ball or when to take off for a scramble has been great. That 68 yard run against Washington State didn't look like all that much of an aberration given how he picked two huge first downs with his feet against a defense like ASU. It will be fun to see what kind of package Chow schemes up for him on Saturday.

With that, I'd love to hear your early thoughts on Saturday in terms of game planning and strategery. What do you think we should be looking for? Let's use this thread to get that discussion going this Monday. Of course if you have detailed thought you want to throw up put them in FanPost. It is going to be a loooooong week to wait for this kickoff. Might as well enjoy it.

GO BRUINS.

Plus 2: Bruin Defense Throttles ASU To Deliver UCLA's 6th Win In Neuheisel's 2nd Season in Westwood

Nestor — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:52:45 -0000

More photos » by Jae C. Hong - AP

Akeem - the Missile - Ayers celebrates his TD. He had another spectacular weekend in UCLA blue.

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Flashback to October 25 of this season when following a deflating loss against Arizona, we put up the following laying out how Rick Neuheisel had to deliver 6 wins this season:

All I can say at this point, I am going to wait and see whether the coaches can deliver 6 wins. I still think we have a shot of getting to 6 wins by taking care of business against Washington and Arizona State at home, and then executing our game play against (what I think will be an inspired Cougar bunch) Washington State in Pullman. If Rick Neuheisel wants to make a tangible case that UCLA football is headed towards right direction under his leadership, he needs to get us those three wins in 2009 and then build on it with at least 7 wins (and a victory over Southern Cal) in 2010. He has to get it done.

Well heading into that special game of the regular season (no reason to calling that game against the Trojies big, we will just call it special), it looks like Rick Neuheisel has gotten it done. His team delivered that 6th win (becoming bowl eligble), by slugging out Arizona State Sun Devils by a score of 23-13. Here is the box score. Well here is our official thank you coach for getting that done.

In his second season in Westwood, Neuheisel has now established tangible signs of improvement by winning 2 more games, and showing progress in number of different aspects of the team (not including his fantastic recruit effort to date). In other words Neuehisel now has "plus 2 factor" to pitch to more recruits and fire up the alumni/student base in Bruin Naiton. Not only that. During the three game win streak this November, Rick Neuheisel's program proved to rest of the world, despite the constant negativity and hit jobs from the traditional media, his players and coaches never gave up on each other.

Bruins kept fighting, scratching and clawing away, showing the relentless optimism and tenacity of their head coach in the face of skepticism from most of outside world not bleeding Bruin blue and gold. That is something everyone in this community and the greater Bruin family should be proud of towards the waning weeks of Neheisel's second season in Westwood. More on the game and thoughts on "Beat $C*" game week after the jump.

So the Bruins get it done on senior day riding the efforts of ATV, Akeem Ayers, Chane Moline, Reggie Carter and Brian Price. 17 of our 23 points came courtesy of explosive efforts of our inspired defense. Here is our box score. As mentioned in the second half thread, it was ATV setting the tone with his pick 6 and fumble recovery. Then it was Akeem Ayers and Brian Price teaming up to blow up the Sun Devil offense. Price and Ayers were nothing short of spectacular. What Price did was even more special made by the fact that it was probably his last game at the Rose Bowl.

On the offensive side, Bruins were able to move the ball against Arizona State's vaunted defense. However, just when it looked like they were getting in rhythm they kept coming just a little short because of self inflicted mistakes and penalties (as a team today we were penalized a whooping 11 times for 100 yards). Still we got a decent effort from Kevin Prince who did manage the game well, by picking up some tough and gutty yards on the ground. And it was Chane - the Train - Moline, who helped us eat the clocking by grinding out 84 yards in 25 carries. Not bad for his last game in the Rose Bowl.

Bruins now of course get ready for Petey's bunch who has had a week to lick their wounds after getting embarrassed and humiliated by the Trees a the Mosoleum. There is no doubt Chetey is going to have his boys fired up as he knows that if he somehow chokes against UCLA as the underdogs, his illegal (allegedly) empire officially crumble in the City of Angels.

This week is going to be fun getting ready to play the most scandalous and (allegedly) corrupt program in college athletics (and an underachieving bunch in recent seasons). There is no doubt the Bruins will have a great week practice building on the positive vibes from today and a 3-0 record in November. We still have a lot to work on. We have to clean up our mistakes on offense. We still can be more polished with our special teams and we will continue to come up with ways of being creative on defense (as we have seen some hints of it in last couple of weeks).

Of course will we have lot more on this in game as we get ready for an amazing game week. It is going to be fun. It is going to be emotional and it is going to blow up this place with anticipation. With that let's get the post game senior day victory party started. If you have quick thoughts, takes fire them up here. If you have detailed observations and reflections you want to share, please put them in fanposts. I will leave with this quick thought... BEAT $C*.

GO BRUINS.

BN Gameday: Arizona State Second Half Thread

Nestor — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:46:28 -0000

Bruins are up by a score of 20-7 (boxscore) thanks to a reversal of last year's game against ASU. Last year it was ASU's defense scoring 4 TDs to win the game. So far in the first half today it's the Bruin defense (despite having some rough moments against the run) that has come up big in the first half by scoring 2 huge defensive TDs giving us the lead.

ATV is having a memorable senior day so far with a pick 6 setting the tone for the game and then recovering a fumble. Akeem Ayers is on fire wreaking havoc from the edge and then scoring an incredible TD in a fumble recovery. Still think our defense needs to sharpen up more especially against the rushing attack.

As for on offense we have had some good moments. We put together a nice drive, however it ended with a FG. Kevin Prince has been in rhythm at times and given how he is scrambling for tough yards, it looks like he is slowly emerging as the heart and soul of this offense. Still we need to really cut down on penalties (killed at least couple of our drives) in the second half. There is still a long way to go in this game.

Let's hope we can play with the same fire and emotion but play smarter on both sides of the field in second half. Time for the second half thread.

GO BRUINS.

Ranking the top 25 draft-eligible sophomores

Mocking Dan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:12 -0000

by Mike Fuentes - AP

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With a possible record number of redshirt sophomores entering the 2010 NFL Draft, it might be a good idea to start thinking about some of the best.

The clear-cut top third-year sophomores are Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett and Texas strong safety Earl Thomas. After them there is a moderate drop in talent, but the top six in the list could all go in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft.

Bruins BLAST Washington State, Gaining Confidence Down The Stretch

Nestor — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:19:31 -0000

More photos » by Dean Hare - AP

Kevin Prince becomes the only second freshman UCLA QB to pass for 3 300+ yard game (following Tommy Maddox)

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What an amazing Saturday. Bruins get a confidence building blow out win on the road, while the Trojies across town get humiliated and see their "empire" come crumbling down.

So the Bruins are now 2-0 in November (which could potentially become a month to remember) keeping their post-season hopes alive heading into a crucial last home game of the season. The final score was 43-7. Here is the box score. The Bruins went up by a score of 29-0 at half time but they could have been up by higher margin if not for some sloppy penalties and couple of fumbles.

The MVP of this evening's game was none other than Kevin Prince. He had a spectacular day throwing for 330 yards and 1 TD, completing 26 of his 39 attempts. Oh he also had 68 yard TD run in the first half making him the leading rusher for the team. Kevin Prince's third 300-yard game, made him the only other Bruin freshman QB besides Tommy Maddox with three 300-yard games. If he hadn't gotten knocked out by Donald Butler last weekend, he would have probably done that last weekend. So, suffice to say he might be entering some kind of "zone." Let's keep our fingers crossed. While Prince gets the game ball and was the topline performer for this game, there were many other spectacular Bruin performances today.

Akeem Ayers helped set the tone on defense with 2 interceptions and a sack early. That helped them squash the Wazzu offense from the getgo, grabbing a chokhold of the momentum and not letting it go. Taylor Embree and Nelso Rosario had solid games each piling up over 70 yards in reception. Chane Moline did his part running for 3 TDs, and also leading the team with 7 receptions and 101 yards. Bruins racked up over 550 yards in total offense while holding the Cougars to 180 yards of total offense. So I'd say they did what they had to hold on to the momentum and setting them up for a huge game against Arizona State next weekend with a bowl eligibility on the line.

Now we know Washington State has been struggling mightily this season. Nothing has gone right for them in a tough season for Cougars up in Palouse. You have to give props to their fans who are sticking with their team in such incredibly difficult circumstances. So a UCLA victory over them was pretty much expected heading into this game. That said however, Washington State has been one of those football teams that have given us repeated nightmares up in Palouse. So, you can understand why many of us were a little worried about how the Bruins were going to respond today. Well our guys made a pretty emphatic statement today by blasting them out early. Right now our team - specifically our starting QB - is playing with a lot of confidence and it's a big deal.

All that said we have to remember Washington State is a struggling football program. This was expected. We still have lot of cleaning up to do. We racked up a lot of penalties and had some problems holding on to the ball. JetSki needs to get it together. He has a great future ahead of him but he can't fumble. Period. Same with Terrence Austin who is giving a hard effort but can't fumble on his returns. Despite the dominating numbers by our defense, I think Reggie Carter's health continues to be a concern because he seemed to be missing from most of the action. So we still have lot of work to do and remain a hungry team heading into next weekend.

With that out of the way, let's celebrate a little tonight. As I said up top, this has been a perfect Saturday. Fire away.

GO BRUINS.