Recently, in my cruising of the enemy's blogs, websites, and responses to MSM articles, I have noticed that, besides the usual "we didn't do it" or "woe is me" line of BS, the Trogans are decrying Bruin fans' "obsession" with u$c*. While I was completely amused at this latest round of complete obfuscation of the facts that they have been caught cheating, have admitted cheating, and will be punished by the NCAA, I decided to look into exactly who is obsessed with whom.

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I have an admission to make: I'm sick to death of Trogans and Trogan apologists making excuses for their crooked program. They consistently raise the following arguments:

1. Lloyd Lake and Lewis Johnson are criminals

2. The allegations against SUC concern sports agents not boosters

3. Reggie Bu$t's parents received the money, not Reggie himself

4. An agent works at counter purposes to the "university" by getting the player to leave for the pros early

As ridiculous as these "arguments" are, they are irrelevant when viewed in the larger context of the goals of higher education and college athletics.

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I had the recent displeasure of visiting your store in the Antelope Valley Mall (Palmdale, CA). This store is located in Los Angeles County. As an alumni of UCLA. I was shocked to see that there were no UCLA hats--one of which I would have bought if it had been there. To my surprise UCLA hats are not offered for purchase.

UCLA has the greatest tradition in college basketball. No other school can lay claim to this or is even in the running. It is an undisputable fact. UCLA has 104 National Championships and leads the nation in overall total. Such pioneers as Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went to UCLA. UCLA represent the pinnacle, both in excellence and character, of college athletics.

In place of even one UCLA hat, you have a multitude of U$C* hats. This school has a decent  football team but has not won a National Championship in football in a number of years. Even that title is tainted by scandal.

I have bought UCLA hats from this location before. I will no longer patronize your store and will pass the word along to other Bruins.

After this incident, I marched out of the store and told my wife, "I'm going to the embroidery kiosk to get a powder blue "FU$C" hat made. She initially said "okay." When I started asking the person at the kiosk if they could do it, my wife said "I was only messing around." I, doing my best Doc Holliday from the movie Tombstone said "I wasn't."

Looks like Cheatie Petey will be disciplining starting cornerback Shareece Wright after all. As you know, Wright was arrested last week for FELONY resisting arrest. Of course, the police were out to get this fine scholar athlete or alternately, he was set-up by some undesirable "agent" and tricked into violating the law, or the FELONY resisting arrest was too stern a charge.

Petey, the Humanitarian, the Lawgiver, Caeser, has, nevertheless, decided to punish Wright. One shutters to ponder the shear deprivation that Petey will inflict upon this unsuspecting young man. Not doing anything without zeal, Petey has crafted something that only one with devilish wit and a sense of justice to use it for good, could craft.

Let us attempt to ponder the wisdom of the Peter. The first part of the punishment will henceforth serve as an example to all other $C players who find themselves in such situations. Wright will play against Oregon State this weekend unless prevented from doing so due to injury.

The second part of the punishment has been fashioned by the Mighty Petey into an even greater torture. Petey has accomplished this by not revealing what stern--but just--tribulation this child will have to endure. All that we mere mortals are left to understand is that:

Carroll declined to specify the nature of the disciplinary action

Who knows what this poor child is in store for.

I decided to check what BYU Cougar football fans think about the upcoming game with UCLA and what better place to find out is the Salt Lake City’s Deseret News. There the BYU fans can air their comments. Besides defending the officiating by PAC-10 referees in the Washington game with one side of their mouth while complaining about them in general out of the other, most BYU fans are feeling quite randy about their chances against UCLA.

Coming out of a very close game with a controversial call going their way, BYU Fan thinks that BYU was the far superior team to Washington,

You people are pathetic. You’re right maybe BYU’s defense didn’t play all that well, but look at the stats. BYU doubled almost everything Washington did. So maybe it was a bad call, but either way BYU was by far the better team. They had some stupid mistakes like a fumble in the endzone and a interception when they were driving. They will get those mistakes fixed, and the defense will make adjustments. They are gonna be just fine. And although they are in a lot of close games, they are pretty good at pulling out a win. I am not worried at all. Cougars rock! Rip UCLA apart!

Shawn thinks the call didn’t matter and a BYU win was inevitable as is a victory over UCLA,

The penalty does not matter. BYU outplayed Washington and the kick would have been blocked at any angle because the defense was on top of the kicker. ALL THESE PREDICTIONS ABOUT UCLA BEATING BYU ARE SILLY. Let’s just wait and see.

Finding the officiating in the Washington game to have been biased against BYU, Danno thinks that things will improve because,

UCLA will not have a PAC10 crew officiating the BYU game next week. BYU 3-0. Go Cougars.

There’s still time for change finds encouragement by beating Washington on the road and goes on:

You’ve got to give it up to BYU, they had never beaten Washington on the road! Yes, they’re defense looked ugly, esp on the last drive, but BYU gave up a couple touchdowns that could have changed the game. BYU’s offense was potent. UCLA is not going to stop BYU’s offense.

and CTMac counts his chickens before they hatch,

What are all the BYU haters going to say after BYU beats UCLA. There is ALWAYS an excuse for them. BYU didn’t play like they hoped, but a win is a win. I have no idea why Utha fans want BYU to be going into the BYU / Utah game any less than undefeated, becasue I think most BYU fans want Utah to be undefeated before the matchup. What better way to represent the MWC to have 2 BCS bowl contenders before the rivalry!

Besides Anonymous finds our Quarterback is lacking,

Also, when you play against a quarterback like Washington has, It is tough. You always have to be watching for his run. Against UCLA, it won’t be as difficult, because UCLA doesn’t have the Quarterback that Washington does. Good job BYU.

As does Next Week,

Bronco makes all the right adjustments to stop UCLA’s third string QB who doesn’t have half the talent of Locker…BYU keeps living right and wins again!

Lastly, Bob in line and Anonymous find the talent of BYU is too difficult to overcome for a overrated PAC-10 school,

We could also see Washington as a great run-up to UCLA. Same PAC10 speed, strength and athelticism. Our guys should be adjusted now.

Defense will figure it out by next week at home for sure. We have the talent and just need to begin to jell together. BYU will beat UCLA.

So, I suppose we have no hope dealing with the flat-out talent of BYU. Furthermore, the officiating crew will not be against BYU this time. BYU have too much talent to deal with on their quest to beat every BCS team they face.

However, I like our chances

<Nestor: Sorry I didn't do this earlier but I have a nasty ADR project due tomorrow. The good news is that I passed the MPRE by a bunch of points. Feels good even though the test is easy.>

Bumped. The thoughts and prayers of the entire Bruin Nation go out to the Bachmans. GO BRUINS. -N

Sad new:  The parents of former UCLA volleyball player Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman were attacked while visiting a point of interest in Beijing.

According to Tony Pierce at the L.A. Times

In a stunning and tragic event, Todd and Barbara Bachman, parents of a former Bruin volleyball player and the in-laws of the current U.S. men's volleyball coach, were attacked Saturday in Beijing. Todd Bachman died of stab wounds, and his wife remains hospitalized in serious condition.

This is a deeply saddening turn of events. Our hearts go out the Bachman family and we hope that Barbara Bachman recovers fully from her injuries.

Schadenfreude indeed.

According to the OCR:

Starting quarterback Mark Sanchez injured his left knee during warm-ups at the start of USC’s third training-camp practice today.

Furthermore,

Onlookers said Sanchez was throwing the ball to teammate Clay Matthews, hopped after completing the toss, landed awkwardly on his foot and twisted his knee.

“He was all by himself,” USC coach Pete Carroll said. “It was a silly thing that happened.”

I don't wish harm on this kid and I hope he recovers soon. Furthermore, I don't think that the Southern Cal football team is in much jeopardy because Mitch Mustain, the sophomore transfer QB, will be able to jump right in. Like I said, personally, I hope this kid gets well soon.

I was down at UCLA today so I thought I would take a walk over to the football practice to see how things are going. It was a bright sunny day but luckily there was shade by the bleachers. I showed up to take a look at the offense but had to leave after about an hour.

This is the offense taking their side of the field with Norm Chow

This is Olson and Prince running short route pass plays

This is tailback/fullback practice

This was the initial huddle at the start of practice. Here's some video of that moment

(Please someone teach me how to embed video)

The defense

Offensive line practice

Craft and Crissman. For the first hour, they didn't get many snaps. Olson and Prince were getting them. Olson had better accuracy but Prince had more zing on the ball. Prince is going to be good once he is developed. Video 1 Video 2 Video 3

QB Rasshan

WRs Moutra and Johnson

Warm-up drills

All and all a great day. The offensive line were off by themselves practicing (I hope well). One thing I did notice: Chow seems like a real player's coach. As he imparted what seemed to be very practical wisdom (demonstrating how the players should hold their hands and such), the players were very intent of listening to what he said. I hope it is sinking in.