Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

First off, I am incredibly pumped about this victory. I think this is the sort of victory that defines coaches and programs. I don't mean that to say that we are going to go win the PAC-10 right now; rather, this shows us what we are capable of. This young team is very talented, and as we grow more experienced we can only get better. But we are young, and I fully expect some hiccups.

Back to this incredibly entertaining game. How did we go about winning this game? Well, there are a few broad things to say first. Yes, this Texas team was overrated; they were certainly not the number 7 team in the nation. They hadn't particularly earned it to this point, beyond being great last year and returning a number of people, plus bringing in a lot of talent. That is not to say, however, that UCLA did not go out and win this game, or that Texas handed it to us; the Bruins made a lot of their own luck today. Not all of it, but a lot. I'll break down what I saw after the jump, and then you can add your own commentary (or tell me I'm a crackpot).

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Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Went out to practice yesterday to catch a look at how our young gentlemen have developed, and how their well documented physical improvements translated to the field. First thing I noticed: there was a palpable aura of excitement around these guys. Everyone was jumping around, yelling, dancing during warm ups, just generally being pumped up about the start of football. This carried over into drills, as well. Nobody was slacking or taking drills off, and that includes the coaches. There were no lags in practice; it moved from one drill to the next in rapid succession. Everything I saw was indicative of the effort and planning our team is putting into it's success.

During the course of practice, I managed to watch a few different groups up close: the linebackers, the defensive backs, and the qb's/receivers. I didn't manage to get a look at either offensive or defensive line, as they spent most of the day at the far end of Spaulding out of the sight of mere fans. I'll dive into specific observations after the jump.

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I know there have been varying responses to the de-commitment of Brett Nottingham here on BN. Some have been okay with it, hoping we fill the spot with some D-Lineman or another need position like linebacker; others have been upset (like myself) because Nottingham looked like a good prospect with the chance to be a great college QB, as well as having a great nickname. Who wouldn't want to call our QB "the Sheriff"?

In either case, I haven't seen anyone post this yet, but Greg Biggins did a write up of some comments from Brett Nottingham about his switch from UCLA to Stanford. He gives a fair number of reasons, and seems fairly torn up about the decision. I won't summarize the article here, if you have ESPN Insider you can take a look at what he says.

In my opinion, we should lay off Brett Nottingham. I understand people who say he lied to us, used us, etc., but I don't think that was ever the intent. I met him once last year in Danville; I was getting some food, commented to a kid that he had a nice jersey (UCLA basketball, #0). He responded that he had just committed there, I asked if he was Brett Nottingham, and we had a nice discussion about UCLA athletics. He was legitimately excited about his future here, not just using us as a backup plan. I think in these sorts of situations it's a good idea for us to remember that this is about a kid's future, not just UCLA football.

GO BRUINS.

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GO BRUINS. -N

With all the speculation over CNC's potentially leaving for $C, one of the questions has been how this would affect recruiting. Greg Biggins at tWWL gives us a little insight into some players' heads and some more evidence of the dirty game recruiting is. From Jordon James, one of our two highly-regarded running back prospects:

"I hope coach Chow stays but either way, I'm still solid with UCLA," James said. "That's where I've always wanted to go and I'm definitely a Bruin all the way."

That's good news, to say the least. It also seems as if he is a strong enough commit to try and pull other guys in, specifically guys considering/committed to $C:

"Right now, I've been talking to a few players like George Uko and Dietrich Riley and it would be great to play with them in college. We'll just see how things work out."

The words from Paul Richardson aren't as reassuring at first, showing what sort of instability all this rumor mongering has caused even without any fact based information. I believe in CRN as a recruiter, though, and with Paul coming in this weekend for a visit I have no doubts he ends up here. The last thing he said is the most interesting:

 "I'm hearing so much stuff and a lot of other schools are even telling me that Coach Neuheisal is going to lose his job, it has been crazy. Just a lot of negative recruiting but I like UCLA a lot and that's where I want to be in the end."

CRN lose his job? That is just outright ridiculous. I probably shouldn't be surprised, considering some of the things other coaches are reported to have said, but come on, really? That takes negative recruiting to a whole new level. Again, though, I know CRN will get the job done and squash any of this refuse that gets floated around, and in the end everything is going to be just fine. GO BRUINS.

[UPDATE - 2:10PM - Captain Leebeard]

Greg Biggins spoke to another of our major recruits, our other star running back recruit Malcolm Jones. The quotations from Jones are pretty reassuring, considering he is one of our biggest recruits and is the kind of player we need at UCLA:

"I'm solid on UCLA," said Jones [...] I committed to UCLA because of the location, how comfortable I was with the school and players and the direction the program is going. I like coach Chow but I'm staying at UCLA no matter what."

He goes on to mention (I'd quote but it's behind the subscription wall) that he has been doing some recruiting for us, specifically with guys who were with him at the US Army All-American game. Knowing the players who were there, that can only mean some of the higher profile guys left on the board (Heimuli, Odighizuwa, etc.). He'll be here this weekend, too, talking us up.

It is good to see that he's not a Norm Chow commit but rather a UCLA commit. In all honesty, Malcolm's comments reflect the sort of attitude all of us should be taking (irrelevant, I guess, since NC is staying) around all the rumor-mongering that has been done and I'm sure will continue to be done by those $Cumbags across town. GO BRUINS.

I am absolutely loving the growing strength our recruiting has gained over the weekend, between all the official visits, the freefall across town and the wavering of some of their commits, etc. News of guys like Grimble and Riley taking officials, Zumwalt apparently now favoring us, and some of our leans closing in on decisions are all big things for us.

The question I would like to pose is this: where are we going to get scholarships for all of these guys? I have heard that our number for the year is 20; we have 17 commits. If some of these guys start coming to us, where is the room? Would we rescind scholarship offers, ask guys to grayshirt or walk-on... I know it would be great to get guys like Riley or Woods or whoever else, but wouldn't that prevent us from signing the guys in positions of need (Heimuli, Odighizuwa, Epenesa, Pullard, Barr)? Or do we have way more scholarships available? I do recall Jon Gold saying we had 26 at one point, but multiple posters here readily disagreed with that number. What gives?

For those who don't make a habit of following UCLA Rugby, the Bruins played U$C's Rugby squad last night. Both A-side and B-side beat up the $C squads, A-side winning by a score 0f 37-3 and B-side winning by an equally lopsided number. Once the official scores are posted I'll update that, but thought I'd let everyone know.

I'm one of the A-side players, and the club was really psyched up to go out and hand the South Central team a beating. And I'll say it felt really good to do exactly that.