As Rams fans, we all know that Steven Jackson is one of the best running backs in the NFL. When the national media will start to take notice of the fact that SJ is tied with Adrian Peterson for the third-most rushing yards in the league this season with 784, I don't know. Cameron Hallway of CBS Sports is off to a good start with a great piece on SJ up, and it's certainly worth a read. 

What I found most interesting in the piece are some statistics that point to just how good SJ is: 

Jackson, 26, has started 57 games in his career (he has missed nine games to injury and was a backup to Marshall Faulk most of his rookie season). In the history of the NFL, among players who have started 57 or fewer games before turning 27, Jackson is No. 1 in career rushing yards, with 6,075 -- and he has eight more games before turning 27 in July.

Take out the games-started criteria, and Jackson is 18th all-time in rushing yards through his age-26 season, again with eight games to go.

If he were to match his first half of 784 yards in the second half, he would climb to 10th on that list, bumping Faulk. The top 10 is a who's who of NFL backs: Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis, Jim Brown, Jerome Bettis, LaDainian Tomlinson, Eric Dickerson and Faulk.

If that doesn't impress you, I don't know what will. The rise of Steven Jackson as a top-tier running back has certainly been fun to watch. To me, he has become the most complete running back in the league, with the ability to do virtually whatever he wants on the field.

SJ's performance so far this season should tell you all need to know about the kind of running back he is. Every defense he faces knows what is coming, and they still can't stop him. Against Detroit in the fourth quarter, for example, he single-handedly won the football game: 

With the outcome in the balance in the fourth quarter at Detroit, Jackson had nine carries for 82 yards, including a 25-yard TD burst that was the winning score. Big chunks: 7 yards, 11, 10, 5, 17, 25 ... only two of the nine carries gained less than 5 yards.

What's been most satisfying about his success this season is the fact that he has finally emerged as a true team leader, something he did not show in previous seasons:

As the Rams have loaded up around Jackson, he has reciprocated by becoming accountable as a leader, a trait the team didn't know he had before this season. Jackson has been quick to praise teammates, unwilling to gauge his success in light of the team's struggles, is a full-fledged believer in first-year coach Steve Spagnuolo's system and has become one of the harder-working players on the team.

That last sentence is what makes me smile the most. In the past, we had never heard stories about Steven being one of the hardest-working guys on the team. This offseason, however, that changed. Steven worked harder than ever, and the work is paying off -- he's on pace to rush for a career-high 1,568 yards this season.

Now that the Rams have a competent offensive line, SJ's numbers could get even better in the next two-to-three years. With SJ, the possibilities seem endless.

Bumped. I am changing the title of this post to wish Dohn good luck from all of us here on Bruins Nation. We have had our share of disagreement with Dohn. They are well documented and archived here on BN. There are issues when it comes to culture of UCLA athletics and community, Dohn was never in sync with us here on BN and we also had concerns with number of his reports. That said we always appreciated his hard work and he has always been very cordial in our exchanges with him off this blog. We wish him luck. Plus its always nice for a kid to go home. Good luck Brian. GO BRUINS. -N

In a shocking development, UCLA beat writer Brian Dohn is leaving the Daily News. He and his family are moving back to New Jersey:

I began covering UCLA in the summer of 2003, and in the last six years I made some great friends, ticked off some folks and had a bevy of wonderful experiences.
With a lot of excitement looking ahead and some sadness, for what I am leaving behind, I wanted to let everyone know I am leaving the Daily News. My family and I are moving back to New Jersey.
Within the next week and for those interested, I will get word out a about my new gig, which is not UCLA related. Right now is not the correct timing for me to say what it is.
I want to thank everyone for all the great times I had covering UCLA, and the incredible success of this blog. The experiences I had covering UCLA are things I will always remember.

Obviously, all of us who frequent BN had our problems with Dohn. At times he appeared to poorly research the history of UCLA football and had ridiculous expectations for the program. Moreover, he would tease fans about certain recruiting stories, and never would expand on topics that he clearly had more info about. He sometimes came off as a chicken. Many of his opinions were off-base, and it showed during his (in)famous question and answer posts.

But as strictly a beat writer, I always thought Dohn was excellent. His 'Inside UCLA' blog constantly updated us on the latest news and gave us the perspectives of players and coaches. His articles in the newspaper were solidly written and insightful. I for one will miss him. I certainly won't miss some of his opinions, but I will miss his reporting and dedication to covering UCLA. He gave it his all. 

Good luck in your future endeavors, Dohn. 

Sidenote: I will be very interested to see who the Daily News chooses to replace Dohn. I think it would almost be unfair to select Jill Painter because of some of the abuse she has taken while filling in for Dohn on the blog. She deserves better than having to deal with those fools. I am of the opinion that the choice should be someone who is a UCLA alum. What do you guys think?

From Steve Wyche of NFL.com:

The Rams, who hold the No. 2 overall pick in the draft, have purchased a plane ticket for USC quarterback Mark Sanchez to fly from Los Angeles to St. Louis on Sunday, when the team plans to introduce its top selection.

This is interesting, to say the least. We've heard rumors about Sanchez going to the Rams all day long, and this would appear to add validation to those rumors. If it were to come down to Sanchez, Jason Smith or Eugene Monroe, who would everyone here pick?

If this pick is about need, then the Rams should flip a coin between Smith and Monroe and choose one of them. If it is about selecting the best player of the three, then Sanchez is the way to go. I personally think he will have a better pro career than Matthew Stafford, and I actually think he would be a very good fit for the Rams in a year or two. While he doesn't have the arm strenght of Stafford, he is much more accurate and an excellent decision-maker. He's also more mobile then Stafford, and I think he will prove to be an outstanding leader and face of the franchise for years to come.

 

 

While I would love to see Blake Griffin absolutely destroy Tyler Hansbrough and the Sooners advance to Detroit, I don't think it is going to happen. 

This game is being billed as Hansbrough vs. Griffin, but much-hyped games like this one tend to come down to each team's role players and not its stars, though Carolina does have another star that Oklahoma will have a tough time dealing with in Ty Lawson. Lawson now looks 100 percent healthy, and I wish Austin Johnson the best of luck in keeping up with him. When Lawson is rolling, so are the Heels, and boy are they rolling right now. 

Wayne Ellington has emerged for the Tar Heels as a go-to shooter, and his production seems to improve every game. Against Gonzaga, for instance, he was 7-13 from the field with 19 points and seven rebounds -- solid numbers. 

Danny Green, Ed Davis and Larry Drew II have also stepped up as of late. 

Oklahoma, meanwhile, saw Tony Crocker go off for 28 points against Syracuse, but that's because the Orange devoted all of its attention to Griffin, leaving Crocker wide open to shoot threes. Johnson and freshman Willie Warren are good, but are not the same caliber of players as Green and Ellington. 

The Tar Heels are more have better players,  are more athletic across the board and have role players that will lead Carolina to Detroit. 

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Today’s Saturday's loss was tough, to say the least. This team clearly hasn’t developed the heart of previous Ben Ball Warrior teams.

Imagine JF and AA letting Arizona beat them by playing physical, all-out basketball. It wouldn’t happen, because they wouldn’t LET it happen. DG was and still is correct when he said that this team lacks heart.

The four game winning streak was absolutely incredible, but all of the wins came at home. Championship teams need to know how to win on the road. They need to learn how to take a punch and get back up and continue to fight. Today, our Ben Ball Warriors didn’t do that.

Our Warriors let Arizona thoroughly beat them down by playing with fire. The Bruins didn’t have the fire to fight back. We did see glimpses of fight when the Bruins cut the lead down to 9 late in the game, but they didn’t have enough to finish the deal.

But you know what? It’s OK. Everyone who is bashing CBH right now is not a true Bruins fan. CBH has led this team to 3 straight Final Four’s, and I am completely confident that he will instill in this team a toughness that is unmatched across the nation. The season is a marathon, not a sprint. CBH still has the rest of this month and the Pac-10 tournament to prepare this team for March Madness.

I was at the game today, and a U of A fan sitting next to me asked me I wasn’t absolutely furious with the end result of the game.

My response? “I will always be a Bruins fan, no matter what. Just because we lost doesn’t mean that we still don’t have a good basketball team. Being completely furious with this team is irresponsible, considering how young they are.”

Hours later, I stand by what I said. This team is still developing, and I am completely fine with that. In the postgame thread, Tydides said that he is still having fun watching this team. So am I. It’s fun to watch a team start out so young and inexperienced, and watch them grow game-by-game. There have been numerous games this season where afterwards, I have sat back and said: “Now that was FUN!”

I am confident that our Warriors will learn from this game. Hopefully they will be extremely disappointed with themselves, and vow to never let something like this happen again. If that happens, then we will know this team has grown up.

In the end, I love this team. Despite ridiculous attacks from bandwagon fans, I love CBH. I love UCLA, and one loss is NOT going to change that.

The Rams finished up their joint practices with the Titans on Thursday, and some interesting notes on the wide receivers -- easily one of the most intriguing positions to keep an eye on this fall -- came out of the sessions, via Bill Coats of the Around the Horns blog. First off, Drew Bennett had a less-than-impressive showing in the presence of his former team:

WR Drew Bennett had a rough day, with two outright drops and another ball that he should’ve caught in the end zone.

Bennett will be an important piece to the receiving corps this season, taking over for Bruce at the No.2 spot. We all know he was very uncomfortable in the slot last year, so hopefully he will feel more at home being the No.2. But it's not good to hear that he was dropping passes in camp. His numbers have dropped dramatically since he had his career year in 2004, and in order for him to come anywhere near that 1, 247 yard season, he certainly can't be dropping passes. It should be interesting to monitor his progress in the preseason.

Moving on, VanRam noted yesterday that Avery has been out since July 29. It appears that he may be returning to the field soon:

Rookie Donnie Avery, who has been out nearly two weeks with a small fracture in his pelvic bone, ran routes with the other WRs and appears close to getting back onto the field.

Good news.

VanRam also noted in the post that it could be Keenan Burton emerging as the No.3 if Avery isn't ready to go by September 7. Well, Burton is making a strong case, highlighted by a great catch yesterday :

Rookie WR Keenan Burton made a terrific grab, outbattling two defenders for the ball, on a pass from Trent Green that netted about 30 yards.

Should be interesting to watch this battle develop and see if Avery can come back strong. If he can play a few games in the preseason and look sharp doing so, the spot is his. Burton would then become a serviceable backup and nice option in 4-wide sets.

Go Rams.

The Rams are in Nashville for joint practices with the Titans, and things got heated quickly. From Bill Coats at the PD:

Cheap shots by Tennessee defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch (shown below, with shaved head) and defensive tackle Antonio Johnson set the tone early in what amounted to a full-scale scrimmage. When safety Calvin Lowry hit Torry Holt high, knocking off Holt’s helmet after a 15-yard catch, the intensity picked up even more.

And sure enough, skirmishes soon began breaking out. Rams wideout Reche Caldwell tangled with cornerback Cortland Finnegan and Rams tackle Mark LeVoir squared off with defensive end Sean Conover.

In the main event, Rams offensive lineman Adam Goldberg, having seen enough of Vanden Bosch’s tactics, decided to take action after Vanden Bosch clubbed Rams rookie guard Roy Schuening on the back of the head. They went to the ground, but no damage was done, and the battle was ruled a draw.

Good to hear that the Rams have their competitive juices flowing and are ready to hit anything and everything. I doubt anything will spill over to the preseason game on Saturday, but it certainly add a little more intrigue to the game against the Titans.

 

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Jill Painter of the Daily News is reporting that incoming QB Kevin Prince has told CRN that he plans to enroll at UCLA early, if there are enough scholarships available. From the Daily News:

Prince, recovering from reconstructive knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament, said he could start taking classes in June, but UCLA needs to check its scholarship situation to make sure one is available.

"That's definitely what I want to do now," Prince said. "I don't want to wait anymore. Whether I do (enroll early) or not, I'm preparing to. I talked to coach Neuheisel about it. He was the one who brought it up. He just wants to make sure they have the right amount of scholarships."

Football programs are allowed a maximum of 85 scholarships, and it's unclear how many UCLA still has available. A UCLA official said the school is not over the maximum 25 new scholarships per year.

The school is in the process of figuring out its scholarship allotment for next season. It reportedly offered a junior college offensive lineman a scholarship.

Considering that Cowan will be out for the year and that we don't know how Olson will recover from surgery, I'd say this is a good idea. Prince was slated to enroll in 2009, but I think he'll get a lot out of competing with Crissman, Craft and Rashaan and learning the system from Coach Chow right now.

I know we're all focusing on basketball right now, but a little football can never hurt right?

There's been a lot of talk about the 2009 commitment list, which is almost empty. Today, though, the Bruins got a non-binding oral commitment from a solid cornerback. From Dohn:

Mission Viejo cornerback Alex Mascarenas, a 5-foot-11, 180-pounder, gave a non-binding oral commitment to UCLA today.
"He's quite an athlete," Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson said. "He's probably one of the best athletes in Orange County. He's the best player on the baseball team, if he would have played basketball he would have been the best point guard but he decided not to go out, and he's best sport is football."

I am a student at Mission Viejo High School, so I have a lot to say about this. First of all, Bob Johnson tends to exaggerate things. Mascarenas isn't the best player on the baseball team, nor is he a great basketball player. I know more than half of the players on the varsity basketball team, and they all tell me that he's not a great BBall player. But that doesn't matter, since his best sport is football -- without question.

Mascarenas is an athletic and talented CB. At 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, he's a finesse corner that doesn't get out-run by many receivers. I've seen nearly all of his games, and he seems to improve week-by-week. Last season he began playing WR as well, which helped him immensely at better understanding the CB position. Also, I saw him this morning and it looks like he's spent extensive team in the weight room this offseason. Mission has one of the best coaching staffs in Orange County, and I know that they will prepare him to be a college CB in 2009.

Lastly, it's good to see Mission players going to UCLA. Bob Johnson doesn't like the Bruins because of what happened with his son Bret. It's good to see that he's put that aside and let his players have the chance to be recruited by UCLA. Currently, Chane and Chase Moline, Jeff Baca(incoming freshmen), and Garret Rubio are former Mission players on the Bruins roster.

Now back to the basketball talk. GO BRUINS

Coach Wooden is continuing to recover from the hairline fracture of the left wrist and fractured left collar bone that he suffered a few weeks ago. According to his daughter, he could be out of the hospital by tomorrow. From the UCLA Official Site:

'The condition of UCLA legendary former  basketball coach John Wooden is much improved on Monday, according to his daughter, Nan Muehlhausen.

"Dad had a good day today," she said at 5:45 pm PDT. "His heart rate is stable and everything is good. He's having a nice turkey dinner right now.

"If everything stays stable, we are optimistic that he will leave the hospital tomorrow.."

Coach Wooden, 97, was hospitalized on February 29 with a hairline fracture of his left wrist and a fractured left collarbone he sustained in a fall in his condo the previous night. His wrist is in a cast and his arm will have to be in a sling when he leaves the hospital. The name of the hospital is being withheld at the request of the Wooden family.'

This is great news, and we can't wait to see you behind the Bruins bench at Pauley next winter, Coach. Get well soon.

Coming into the weekend, UCLA was considered to be a No.2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, right behind Texas. That will all change on Monday.

Texas lost to Texas Tech on Saturday, 83-80. click here for the box score if you are interested.

Texas trailed for most of the game and did a great job of fighting back to come within three points, but in the end it wasn't enough.

Bracketologists and analysts were giving Texas the upperhand in the race for No.1 due to the head-to-head victory over the Bruins. Now though, the Bruins have the better record, presumably giving them the No.1 seed. Our Ben Ball warriors need to play well tomorrow and hopefully come into McKale center with the same intesity as the first time they played Arizona, an 82-60 romping.
Stanford defeated Washington St. today, setting up a collasal meeting at Pauley next Thursday. Bruins win and they're regular season Pac 10 champs. Should everything go according to plan (defeating Cal, the Cardinal, and winning the Pac 10 tournament) our Ben Ball warriors will be a No.1 seed come tournament time.

18 days until March Madness; who's excited for the quest for banner No.12?  

Go Bruins!

Bumped with edits. Coach is doing fine. GO BRUINS. -N

Harry How/Getty Images

Coach Wooden was hospitalized today after falling. Here is the official release from UCLA: Coach is 'doing fine':

John Wooden, UCLA's legendary former basketball coach, is resting comfortably this evening in an area hospital. The name of the hospital is being withheld at the request of the family.

Coach Wooden, 97, is doing fine and has visited with family throughout the day, according to his daughter, Nan Muehlhausen.

Coach Wooden was hospitalized earlier today. He has a hairline fracture of his left wrist and a fractured left collarbone from a fall in his condo last night. He also hit his head, but a CT-scan of his head and neck were negative.

"Dad's spirits are good," Muehlhausen said. "He is up and joking around with the family. He will probably be in the hospital for a couple of more days before he goes home."

"We appreciate everyone's concern, but we are requesting that people do not call the hospital and do not try to visit Dad at this time."

"The entire UCLA community wishes Coach Wooden a speedy recovery," said UCLA head coach Ben Howland, who is in Tucson for Sunday's game versus Arizona. "We are glad that his injuries are not more serious, and we look forward to seeing him when we return to Los Angeles."

Get well soon, Coach.

UPDATE -N:We have another update from the official site. Not only Coach is recovering rapidly, he is making jokes:

Nan Muehlhausen, Coach Wooden's daughter, said her father was in good spirits and doing well on Saturday afternoon. He has had visits from numerous family members, including son Jim, who saw his father this morning.

"Dad is doing well. He had a good night, his vital signs are good and his spirits are good. He has been joking around with the family," said Muehlhausen.

"We anticipate he will in the hospital until Monday. Dad has had a couple of blood transfusions because the doctors found he was anemic, but the transfusions will take care of that and Dad will be fine. We expect him to make a full recovery." Take it easy Coach. GO BRUINS.

According to Tom Dienhart of the Sporting News, DeWayne Walker has accepted Washington's offer to become its new defensive coordinator.

Here's what Dienhart has to say about it:

"Not only does losing him to Washington hurt UCLA's defense, it also will be a blow to the Bruins' recruiting efforts. Walker was one of the school's best recruiters, and there could be fallout with regard to UCLA's strong 2008 class."

I think that Walker is making a huge mistake by going to a program in which he is only guaranteed a job for a year since Willingham's status will come into question. The big issue that will come up now that Walker is gone is the incoming recruits. It's well known that Walker is instrumental in the recruiting game. Can RN convince these kids to come to Westwood? You know he'll be trying as hard as he can the minute he's allowed to do so. Even though RN stated that Walker was his No.1 recruit, I don't think he'll find this to be a terrible loss.

So what do you guys think? Will the Bruins lose multiple recruits if this report is true and Walker is out? Are you disappointed that he is leaving? And if he is indeed gone, who will RN look at to become our new DC?