Reality bites er bets: Alabama 3/1, Texas 5/1, tOSU 13/2, USC 12/1, Oregon 12/1, Florida 18/1, fUCLA 60/1, Notre Dame 75/1. Place yer bets ladies and gents.

Bodog.com odds to win the 2011 BCS National Championship:
All wagers have action.
Alabama 3/1
Arizona 100/1
Arizona State 100/1
Arkansas 30/1
Auburn 30/1
Baylor 125/1
Boise State 15/1
Boston College 125/1
BYU 125/1
California 100/1
Cincinnati 80/1
Clemson 50/1
Florida 18/1
Florida State 50/1
Georgia 30/1
Georgia Tech 50/1
Illinois 100/1
Iowa 20/1
Kansas State 125/1
LSU 25/1
Miami 20/1
Michigan 50/1
Michigan State 100/1
Mississippi 100/1
Missouri 50/1
Nebraska 15/1
North Carolina 60/1
North Carolina State 80/1
Northwestern 125/1
Notre Dame 75/1
Ohio State 13/2
Oklahoma 15/1
Oklahoma State 80/1
Oregon 12/1
Oregon State 30/1
Penn State 20/1
Pittsburgh 40/1
Rutgers 90/1
South Carolina 125/1
South Florida 75/1
TCU 18/1
Tennessee 60/1
Texas 15/1
Texas A & M 100/1
Texas Tech 75/1
UCLA 60/1
USC 12/1
Utah 100/1
Virginia Tech 18/1
Washington 50/1
West Virginia 80/1
Wisconsin 40/1
Field (Any Other Team) 20/1

I have three words for you stupid ruins: FIRE RICK NEUHEISEL!!!!!

Listen, if you clowns are lucky enough to have Cap’n Leach fall in your lap you should do what you do best: PROTEST! DEMAND WEASEL’S HEAD ON A PLATTER!!!!!!! Take to the streets, lie down in the halls, don’t go to class, burn some mattresses, chain the doors to Dan Gerrero’s Morgan Center office, Ackerman and the Wooden Center then shut down Wilshire Boulevard and the Federal Building. DO IT, DO IT NOW!!!!!!

If you don’t, all you’ll just serve as a pirate rehab center and in a year he’s headed to Cal. On second thought… I like Cal. Hmmm...

Don’t worry your little heads Bruin Buddies! You are about to have a NEU Dream Team coaching staff that will last forever under the direction of the greatest mind in all college football, Richard Gerald Neuheisel Jr. Esq!!!!! Yes, Mike Leach is coming to coach Kevin Prince and he will stay forever, and he’ll do it at the Wal-Mart price as long as you let him wear the bear suit on Halloween!

After screaming like a banshee last night about a supposed contract offer sent to Jack Del Rio, Wolf finds himself in front of a Blue Plate special of crow and humble pie. His retraction:

We hear that Jack Del Rio informed USC he will not walk away from the $15 million left on his Jacksonville contract, which could prove fatal to his candidacy.

DUH!

Some of the comments are priceless though. Here are some fine examples:

momo said:

The fact you put out a bogus report is just sad Wolf. You mislead many people and you should be ashamed...

3rdandlong said:

Wolf's bogus report got him 25 seconds on ESPN and he sounded like a scared little girl.

uscmike said:

C. J. Spiller thinks Scott's report was bogus.

JAG said:

Good for JDR to line up a job in case he got fired. From what I've read, this was never that likely to happen.

I don't think JDR is a big loss for USC. Any coach who needs a package of coaches to be complete, is less than ideal. Assistant coaches have a way of leaving programs that are successful.

USC needs to forget about name recognition, and find a very good COLLEGE coach who is a proven recruiter. It's a bit late in the season to pull a premier HC from another major program. The colleges coaches could be pursued systematically in the following order: PAC-10 HC, college HC with USC ties, midmajor HC, Pac-10 assistant coach. etc.

Given that Riley said no, Sark is still a boy, Harbaugh is a dick, and there aren't a lot of current college HC's out there with USC ties, it's time to give serious consideration to some of the top mid-major coaches in the western US. That's how Florida found Meyer and tOSU found Tressel. Names like Chris Petersen, Gary Patterson, Kyle Whittingham, and even Dewayne Walker need to be rapidly and thoroughly vetted. It will take hard work and overtime. Forget about Herm Edwards and Jon Gruden. There's a reason that Norm Chow has never been a HC. If USC can land a good recruiter, at the very least it will be a bridge to the next guy if things don't work out.

BTW, anybody else think USC is treating Scott like a mushroom?

Change is inevitable, it should be welcomed with open arms as it always brings renewal and opportunity. I congratulate Pete Carroll on his promotion to the NFL and thank him for everything he did for our Alma Mater; the memories will last a lifetime.

In the next few days, I fully expect that PC will handle this delicate situation with dignity, honor and nobility. As an alum, fan and donor all I ask is the following:

From Pete Carroll:

a) Do not raid the USC coaching staff. Do not take a single one of them (not even Bates or Brennan), so as to not leave the program in disarray and to provide continuity for our athletes.

b) Call the recruits immediately. Tell them the truth and reassure them about the future of the program you designed and nurtured. Make a final sales pitch, tell the kids you will always be a Trojan, and they have a friend in the NFL.

c) On Monday morning, make your official announcement at Heritage Hall in front of the Trojan family, make an inspiring speech encouraging everyone to Win Forever and Fight On!

From Mike Garrett:

a) With the assistant coaching staff in place it will be possible to continue the recruiting process and assure the kids that the house that Carroll built will be stewarded by an elite coach.

b) Choose a youthful and energetic coach to carry on in the joyful spirit of Pete Carroll, but get it done in one week or risk losing most of our recruiting class. Make it someone like Chris Petersen, Jim Mora, Bronco Mendenhall, Pat Fitzgerald or even Nick Holt. If you insist on bringing in a retread, you can hire Jack Del Rio, Bob Stoops, Ed Orgeron, Norm Chow or even Herm Edwards if things get desperate. The boldest choice would be Mike Leach; with our 5-Star players he would terrorize the Pac-10 from the get-go, but thanks to the chaos in your athletic department The Pirate is practically untouchable, still...

c) Above all, even if you screw up all of the above, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS CARDINAL AND GOLD, PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME TRYING TO HIRE MIKE RILEY OR JIMBO HARBAUGH. Riley isn't going anywhere and Jimbo is a "Class A" douche -you should know.

d) Finally; one week after the new HC is hired, announce your retirement, to be effective in June 2010. You will be able to save your reputation and honor by showing reverence towards USC and your Trojan family, the family that has given you everything.

Witness Wolf's final AP Poll ballot. Wtf? Still fellating Mike Riley after all these years, or maybe he's ranking cheerleaders.

Here is my Top 25 ballot for the Associated Press poll.

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Boise State
5. Virginia Tech
6. TCU
7. Nebraska
8. Ohio State
9. Cincinnati
10. Mississippi
11. Pittsburgh
12. BYU
13. Oregon
14. Penn State
15. LSU
16. Iowa
17. Utah
18. Wisconsin
19. Miami, Fla
20. West Virginia
21. Georgia Tech
22. Oregon State
23. Stanford
24. Central Michigan
25. Navy

Merry Secular Holiday to all! The United States Santa, er Senate, is about to deliver the "gift" of health insurance to 30 million individuals living within the borders of the United States, yippee!! Many thanks go out to our generous Chinese patrons for such an extravagant present, it is only through their willingness to buy up an anticipated $1.3 trillion in low-interest United States devaluing dollar bonds next year and even more each year in the future that this will be possible. Oh, just remember to keep rolling the bonds over in perpetuity... Love ya!!! Thanks should also go (but won't cuz you're all rich a-holes!) to Americans that already have health insurance, you will participate with mandated insurance coverage, increased premiums and taxes and penalties and reduced services, especially for those on Medicare, hey it's only fair!

And another thing, Joe McKnight should really, really go to the NFL. Ho, ho, ho!!!!!!!!!

Deer Santa,
I wud like a kool toy space ranjur fer Xmas.  I'v ben a gud boy
all yeer.        

Yer Friend, Billy

Dear Billy,
Nice spelling.  You're on your way to a career in lawncare.  How about I send you a book so you can learn to read and spell?  I'm giving your older brother the space ranger.  At least HE can spell.

Santa

*****************************************************
Dear Santa,
I have been a good girl all year, and the only thing I ask for is peace and joy in the world for everybody!             

Love,

Sarah

Dear Sarah,
Your parents smoked pot when they had you, didn't they?           

Santa

****************************************************
Dear Santa,
I don't know if you can do this, but for Christmas, I'd like for my mommy and daddy to get back together.  Please see what you can do.      

Love, Teddy

Dear Teddy,
Look, your dad's banging the babysitter like a screen door in a hurricane.  Do you think he's gonna give that up to come back to your frigid mom, who rides his ass constantly?  It's time to give up that dream.  Let me send you some Legos instead.                     

Santa

****************************************************
Dear Santa,
I want a new bike, a Playstation 2, a train, some G.I. Joes, a dog, a drum kit, a pony and a tuba.            

Love, Francis

Dear Francis,
Who names their kid "Francis" nowadays?  I bet you're gay.  I'll set you up with a Barbie.                

Santa

****************************************************
Dear Santa,
I left milk and cookies for you under the tree, and I left carrots for your reindeer outside the back door.                   

Love, Susan

Dear Susan,
Milk gives me the shits and carrots make the deer fart in my face when riding in the sleigh.  You want to do me a favor?  Leave me a bottle of Scotch.                  

Santa
****************************************************
Dear Santa,
What do you do the other 364 days of the year?  Are you busy making toys?   

Your friend, Thomas

Dear Thomas,
All the toys are made in  China .  I have a condo in Vegas where I spend most of my time making low-budget porno films.  I unwind by drinking myself silly and squeezing the asses of cocktail waitresses while losing money at the craps table.  Hey, you wanted to know.             

Santa
****************************************************
Dear Santa,
Do you see us when we're sleeping, do you really know when we're awake, like in the song?           

Love, Jessica

Dear Jessica,
Are you really that gullible?  Good luck in whatever you do.  I'm skipping your house.         

Santa

****************************************************
Dear Santa,
I really want a puppy this year.  Please, please, please, PLEASE,
PLEASE could I have one?        

Love, Timmy

Dear Timmy,
That whiney begging shit may work with your folks, but that crap doesn't work with me.  You're getting a sweater again.                   

Santa

****************************************************
Dearest Santa,
We don't have a chimney in our house.  How do you get into our home?  

Love, Marky

Dear Mark,
First stop callling yourself "Marky", that's why you're getting your ass whipped at school.  Second, you don't live in a house, you live in a low-rent apartment complex..  Third, I get inside your pad just like the boogeyman does, through your bedroom window.               

Sweet dreams,      

Santa

Ho, Ho, Ho... 'Tis the Season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la la la. It's the magical time of year when all your wishes come true! Alas, some Trojans have been naughty and all they deserve is a small lump of coal or a one way bus ticket to Cleveland. After a tumultuous season that revealed the serious deficiencies in USC's coaching staff, it is time for good old Santa Claus to bring his bag of goodies to Heritage Hall. Let us prepare the way by roasting some real turkeys.

Feliz Navidad!

First the Dorrellian losing streak in football, which was followed by the basketball meltdown, then they get pwned by Pete Carroll on Saturday. Today we have this (via LAT):

UCLA basketball: Starting center Drew Gordon leaves team December 1, 2009 |  2:09 pm

UCLA center Drew Gordon has left the UCLA basketball team and will transfer at the end of the quarter.

Gordon was a starter averaging 11.2 points and 5.3 rebounds in 23-plus minutes a game

Coach Ben Howland declined to give a specific reason, explaining that it resulted from a series of conversations with the player over the past weeks.

"This is not a spur-of-the-moment thing," Howland said.

The announcement, made at the coach's weekly press conference on the UCLA campus, follows a disappointing holiday weekend for the Bruins, who lost all three of their games at the 76 Classic in Anaheim.

Freshman Reeves Nelson will fill some of the gap created by Gordon's departure.

"He has a lot to learn and he knows this," Howland said. "This is going to increase his playing time dramatically."

-- David Wharton

UCLA, "Chumps Made Here"

Before the game last night PC trotted across the field to greet Norm Chow. This raised eyebrows among the regulars in my section and unleashed a smattering of boos around the Coliseum. Scott Wolf commented on the encounter this morning:

Carroll was in a jovial mood before the game and sprinted across the field to greet his former offensive coordinator, Chow. Last year, they did not speak to each other before the game as Chow stayed on the UCLA side of the field.

But Carroll made sure he crossed the invisible boundary that separates the teams during warmups to greet Chow. There was a mixed reaction from the crowd who witnessed the greeting, perhaps a sign of their displeasure over Chow's forced departure following the 2004 season.

I am on record here as being firmly in the "NO, NEVER CAMP" along with Paragon; but with Norm Chow entering the last year of his contract, well...  Let's just say that Norm doesn't have any Heisman hopefuls in his ucla stable, and Norm likes money, and it's going to run out pretty soon. Norm likes working with Slick but, how much ($$$) does he really like him?

Could it happen? NO, NEVER!

It’s not often that we Trojans agree on anything with Nestor and his BruinsNation cohorts. However, anyone with love, respect, and above all, gratitude for their Alma-Mater, can understand the anger and disappointment the BNers are feeling towards the lack of spirit, if not true apathy, of the current generation of UCLA students. Apparently the tired little schoolchildren were all busy sleeping in their baby blue pajamas Tuesday night while a small strike force of Trojan Commandos managed to sneak into the heart of the UCLA campus and prank the Bruin Bear statue right under their noses. The hippies up at Cal certainly wouldn’t have allowed it, so what’s wrong with these Bruins? In this post the Bruins Nation excoriates the slackers, and UCLA students give lame excuses for their "beat SC week" bungling.

Continue reading this post »

The moniker says it all. Pete Carroll is a big-time gambler, a player; and we have been loving it all these years. The bravado and success have made him an American icon. Pete Carroll has set the bar at new heights with a run that is the envy virtually every other college football coach. However, gamblers don't "win forever," and this season PC and the USC Trojans lost, big time.

Paragon, DC Trojan and most commentators on the Conquest Chronicles have noted that we were expecting some losses in this rebuilding season. What no one expected was an absolute collapse in the two biggest games of the season and in one fairly easy one. These losses were extraordinary in that they succeeded in making Pete Carroll look foolish. Against Washington our ex-assistants took a bunch of scrubs, coached them up and schemed out a win against a team that looked dazed and confused. But, when it came to Oregon and Stanford the message was loud and clear; they are better than USC now and each coach sent his own particular message. Chip Kelly showed "mercy" by shutting down his offense in the 4th quarter, and embarrassment no doubt; but that wouldn't do for the loony Jimbo Harbaugh who decided to put himself in the record books. Revenge is a dish that is served cold, and when Jimbo got his chance he planted a cleat on those big balls and stomped as hard as he could. "What's your deal?" A scream heard around the entire country.

Llast Saturday Pete Carroll had a date with destiny. Looking at the wreckage can anyone of us say we're surprised? On September 11, 2009, Esquire Magazine published an article by Mike Sager in which he related his experiences with Big Balls Pete over a five-month period before the 2009 season. The article is edgy and now wholly complimentary, definitely a good read, and it made me wonder what the hell was going on down at Heritage Hall. Re-reading it this week sent a few small chills down my spine, because through the words of an impartial observer we could see this train was rolling towards the station. My Dad once said these words to me "son, you will fail if someday you start believing your own bullshit." Sager gives us a glimpse:

In the process of honing his craft and his philosophy, Carroll had begun to emerge as a regional pied piper, a man who, in his own words, has the "ability to convene people" in one of the world's most powerful cities. His Facebook page has maxed out his allotment of friends. Nearly fifty thousand souls follow his blog and his tweets on Twitter, which include inspirational messages ("Been thinking all morning about how you only got one life to live... so you better live it or it'll live you"), notes from the Lakers' victory party ("Watching Kobe and the mayor rock out to Lil Wayne - so insane!"), and songs of the day (everything from "Live Your Life," by T. I. and Rihanna, to "Add It Up," by the Violent Femmes).

A "regional pied piper" "honing his craft and his philosophy." Has Pete Carroll transcended football? His public persona would win him the Governorship of California if he wanted it, or he could be a best-selling author self-help books, or an inspirational leader of America's disenfranchised youth. These would certainly be laudable endeavors, but in reality a man can inhabit only one world at a time, and for now Pete Carroll seems to be levitating above the little world of college ball. Sager:

Imagine the historic Los Angeles Coliseum, filled to capacity with a USC football crowd of more than ninety-three thousand , a good many of them doing the cupped-hand thing, a celebration of Carroll's confident tenacity, his tendency to go for it... on fourth down, in noontime pickup basketball games, at a fantasy-football camp for grown men, in every single endeavor he undertakes, from his efforts with ghetto youth (A Better LA) to his partnership with the new owners of the L. A. Marathon to his recent enlistment, by the U. S. government, to help focus the training of small-group military units to the little competitions he is constantly playing against himself

During interviews this week, PC put on a good face saying the team was doing fine and that he didn't take Harbaugh's actions seriously. If he sincerely feels this way it would indicate that "win forever" was a metaphor that simple-minded fans thought would apply to actually winning football games. Perhaps winning forever is a state of mind in which you feel like a winner no matter what happens, as long as you're having as much firkin' fun as possible.

In some of his philosophical writings, which he shared with the understanding they would remain off the record, he mentions a wide range of influences, including psychologist Abraham Maslow (self-actualization), author Tim Gallwey (Inner Tennis), countercultural Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, Tibetan Buddhist monk and meditation master Chogyam Trungpa, and Zen master D. T. Suzuki.

Winning requires an organization, hard work, willingness learn new things and the ability to take accept advice and criticism. Your coworkers should always be your toughest critics. Have fun with your work and invite others to join in, but when fun and games come first you pay a price. Here's Sager describing what goes on in meetings.

His eldest, Brennan, thirty, is known as BC. He played tight end for Pitt. Now he's the tight-end coach and chief recruiter for the Trojans. At the conference table, BC is always the loudest and most boisterous. Because the Pittsburgh Penguins had just won the Stanley Cup, he had lately been shouting out "Pens!" at random moments, bringing to mind a Tourette's sufferer. He always sits to Carroll's immediate right; he stopped calling him Dad some years ago. They have the same blazing blue eyes and granite jaw; they speak to each other like two parts of the same brain.

"We both have ADD," Brennan says. "We're weird. It probably helps more than it hurts, being a little off the wall. In this profession there probably aren't a whole lot of people who would pattern their styles after the way he is, and now I'm the junior version of that."

Sorry Brennan, but being "off the wall" definitely hurts. BC is big and loud and sitting at the right hand of his Dad. Who will utter a discouraging word? The line is as clear as a yellow first down marker, who's going to cross it? That would be nobody.

Carroll entered from his office across the hall, McMuffin in hand. His mouth was full, he was chewing, he was wearing the silly/happy expression of a guy who's just come to work after his morning surf. "What's happenin' boys?"

"A little camp today!" hollered the defensive coordinator, Haruki Rocky Seto, "Rock" to his friends, a second-generation Japanese American named for the boxer Marciano. (His brothers are named after Sonny Jurgensen and Johnny Bench.) An undersized junior-college fullback who made the Trojans as a walk-on, Seto entered the coaching ranks as a video assistant, filming practices. When Carroll came to town for his first USC press conference nine years ago, Rocky was the kid who picked him up at the airport. Now he's in charge of Carroll's first love: defense.

They're a tight knit family and Pete is more than just a patriarch, he is their lord and master. This is PC's perfect staff, they owe him everything and they're loyal to the end. There is no dissention.

Carroll talks a lot about his coaches "growing up in the program." He likes grooming his own people instead of bringing in established stars. He is proud of the fact that former assistant coaches, like Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian, who recently departed for Pac-10 rival Washington, have gone on to head-coaching jobs themselves. "I want guys to come to the program knowing that I'll do everything in my power to get them the job of their dreams at some other place," he says.

Play your cards right and you too can move up. Do you wonder why Nick Holt would take the crappy job of running the UW defense? Or why every other standout coach has left? Pete's words:

"When I went to junior college, it started happening for me. And when I finally got to Pacific, my first year I made the all-conference team, I was captain, all that shit. It was like I had a chip on my shoulder. I had something to prove; I was gonna prove it to everybody. I've lived that way ever since."

 After Pete's humbling experiences with the Patriots and Jets he came to USC and installed a dream team staff of coaches, with Norm Chow as first among equals running the offense and Ed Orgeron enforcing discipline on the defense and bringing in every recruit they wanted. But success came so quickly and easily that the light that suddenly shone so bright blinded Pete completely. "I had something to prove; I was gonna prove it to everybody."  Apparently, Norm Chow, Ed Orgeron, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, Nick Holt, Mack Brown, Karl Dorrell, Mike Riley, Chip Kelly and Jim Harbaugh also had something to prove. Slick Rick and Mike Stoops are looking forward to their chance to do the same.

Most USC fans argue justifiably that when Norm Chow left for greener pastures our offense became less prolific, resulting in the end of our Championship run. What seems to be forgotten by many is the cavernous void that was left in the soul of our coaching staff when Coach Ed Orgeron moved to Ole Miss. Even though there were many mistakes on offense, the 2005 loss to Texas to a large extent was the result of a miserable defensive performance, early shades of what we're suffering now. I would argue that losing Ed Orgeron caused more long term damage than losing Norm Chow. 

Coach O came to USC in 1998 to work for Paul Hackett, and PC had the foresight to rehire him as his Defensive Line Coach and Recruiting Coordinator in 2001. No one on our current staff knows how to recruit like Coach O. For the most part, Ed Orgeron was responsible for reeling in the magnificently underrated classes that took us to the promised land, and his defensive lines created havoc in opposing backfields the likes of which we haven't seen since he left. Jethro Franklin has been a disappointment this year (just like in 2005), so Coach O's talent as Defensive Line coach would be extremely welcome.

PC has done a lot for the Lane and Monte Kiffin and it's time for them to return the favor. Coach O would come at a reasonable price. John Solomon of the Birmingham News posted the salaries of the highest paid SEC assistants; not surprisingly Coach O is on the list, making a doable $650,000.00. He is worth every penny. If PC can find it in his head to make just one change, this one would create the mother of all turnarounds. In a few years PC can ascend to Football Mount Olympus and hand Coach Orgeron the keys to the Cardinal and Gold Chariot with it's Noble White Steed.

BRING BACK COACH ORGERON!

When I was a kid we didn't worry about Global Warming or asteroids hitting the Earth, but we Californians were bombarded regularly with alarming reports of impending seismic doom.  The San Andreas Fault was overdue for a major earthquake and California would "tumble into the sea." We were doomed to drown like rats.

Continue reading this post »

Can PC finally admit the obvious? The quality of USC's assistant coaches has deteriorated steadily since 2005, and finally hit rock bottom this year with a bunch of NFL retreads and yes men like Rocky the Latte Boy and Johnny the Schlepper. Pete can’t delegate to these guys and is trying to personally coach offense, defense and special teams in addition to all his other responsibilities, like recruiting.  IT. IS. NOT. WORKING.

People are banging on PC today for his outside interests and charity work; I think that’s wrong but if he wants to be a CEO he’s going to have to bring in a team of Vice-Presidents that can deliver the goods.

Losing is acceptable when you lose with honor, but yesterdays was nothing but dishonorable. Good intentions are not going to get it done this time, no matter how they spin it on PC's official blogs. Heads must roll, let the axe fall where it may. It’s time for PC to raid someone else’s "hot " coaching staff.

Bumped...P

The Sark Virus

Dictionary: vac·cine (văk-sēn', văk'sēn'), n. A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen, such as a bacterium or virus, or of a portion of the pathogen's structure that upon administration stimulates antibody production or cellular immunity against the pathogen but is incapable of causing severe infection.

Paragon commented below on Chip Kelly's visits with Jon Gruden and their likely collaboration on a scheme to defeat USC's Tampa 2 defense. While there is little doubt that Kelly learned much from Gruden, in football there is no substitute for practice followed by live experience and further practice to help you perfect your scheme. A perfect scheme can give a team "immunity" against an adversary.

Continue reading this post »

Bumped...

As USC and Oregon prepare to battle for the Rose Bowl and potential BCS glory, I'm also reading Domer Dan Lungren's foolish comments about USC's "headhunter," and I realize how football as we know it could end someday.

A hundred years ago, baseball became our "National Passtime," but football has far surpassed it in the last 40 years, becoming a National Obsession. Politicians took note of its popularity and tried to use it to promote themselves; but for some, the game became an irresistible target due to its violent nature. More recently Orrin Hatch, Dan Lungren and other clueless pols have been getting in on the act for their own selfish reasons.

America's elites have always viewed football disdainfully, but they've left it alone. Now, with clueless repubs like Lungren trying to score some cheap political points, the lefties see a golden opportunity to emasculate, er... "Change"  the game.

Continue reading this post »

UPDATE II

The Wildcats did everything they could to help the Bruins by turning the ball over five times, but SlickBall failed to produce a single offensive touchdown.

"I want to be your coach" - Rick Neuheisel to Deitrich Riley. Uh, huh... He'll get back to you on that coach.

For now I ask, were any of the Dorrell era losing streaks this calamitous? It's now four 4-game losing streaks this decade, and with a bunch of angry Beavers looking for a victim, the Bruins will need all the claws on one paw to count their losses by this time next week. When will it end?

TUCSON, Ariz.(AP) Nick Foles threw two touchdown passes to Juron Criner , and Arizona overcame five turnovers to defeat UCLA 27-13 on Saturday and keep pace in the Pac-10 race.

Nic Grigsby and Nick Booth each ran for a touchdown for the Wildcats (5-2, 3-1 Pac-10), who remain tied for second place.

Foles had a hand in all of five of Arizona's turnovers. The Pac-10's leading passer threw three interceptions, had a fumble returned for a touchdown and botched a handoff that led to a fumble.

UCLA's defense did everything it could to keep the Bruins (3-4, 0-4) afloat. All 13 UCLA points resulted from turnovers.

UCLA free safety Rahim Moore , the national interception co-leader, picked off his sixth and seventh passes of the season, and strong safety Tony Dye returned a fumble 28 yards for a score.

Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel tried three quarterbacks - starter Kevin Prince , Kevin Craft and Richard Brehaut.

"All I know is at the end of the day if we get served up with either Walker or CHOKER, DG will be responsible for poisoning the atmosphere of UCLA football to such a extent, it may take decade or more to undo the damage" - Nestor, December 18, 2007.

Prophetic words from Dear Leader? Apparently not, because he and "The Nation" failed to see that Rick Neuheisel is who we everyone said he was. Instead of admitting some responsibility for the part "The Nation" took in running Dorrell out of town and cheerleading for Slickball you get this:

"Years of mismanagement and I would submit total neglect from the UCLA administration has our football program the state it is in right now. It is not going to get easier any time soon" - Nestor, December 25, 2009.

Perhaps it also has something to do with years of listening to the rantings and new media "oppo" campaigns of a bunch of ranting lunatics (no need to name names) led by an honest to goodness political hack.

And finally, Nestor issues a warning:

Neuheisel and his coaches need to bring home 6 wins. If he tries to spin anything less than that as a successful season, we are going to LOL at him or anyone else who tries to spin it as success. So anything less than 6 wins this season will the first strike against him in his UCLA career.

If he can't win 7 games next year (and beat Southern Cal) and then follow it up with a title run (a legit one not the BS 10 win season from Dorrell's third year in Westwood) in his fourth season, he will get full fledged Dorrell treatment here on BN. In fact we will subject him to that if it becomes clear (number wise) that he is not getting it done.

Wow, so the old knives are being sharpened already? So much for all the talk of loyalty among Bruins. Members of "The Nation", let the finger pointing begin; but don't forget to point a big fat one at yourselves.

__________________________________________________________________

UPDATE I

After an embarrassing shellacking at the hands of the Cal Bears, Kurt Streeter brings up an "inconvenient truth" regarding Rick Neuheisel.

Look, even in the darkest days of Karl Dorrell, they never had a season-and-a-half stretch this bad. Just two years ago, his job in grave danger, his team injured and undermanned, Dorrell's Bruins played a Cal team as dispirited as the one that just tumbled into the Rose Bowl.

Back then, Cal was coming off a heartbreaking loss that had cost it the national No. 1 ranking. Under Dorrell, the Bruins won, just as they did that year against Oregon. Under Dorrell, true enough, there were some disturbingly ugly games, he was hardly Bill Walsh after all. But there were also a fair share of months ranked in the nation's top 15. And nothing as bad as last season in Provo, 59-0. Genius, let's just say, has its limits.

Sweet revenge for Kurt, who was pilloried without mercy by The Nation in November 2007 for having the temerity to say this:

KURT STREETER - Keep Karl! And keep me posted

He's too staid, too indecisive, in over his head and doesn't win enough.

So goes the tired, old argument against UCLA football Coach Karl Dorrell. An army of you critics wants him gone. Bring in someone else, you say, and the Bruins will morph into a football juggernaut.

Karl Dorrell is right for the Bruins. UCLA should not stoop to the maddening crowd and cut him loose.

Someone should square off against the lot of you who are trying to drive a good coach out of town. You have your websites and blogs. So I'm starting mine. I'm calling it dontdumpdorrell.blogspot.com, and it's on the web now. It is a forum for discussion about the embattled coach.

I'll post this column and respond to your reasoned arguments until we know his fate.

I hope my final post will be hearty congratulations to UCLA administrators for finding their coach of the future -- the guy they have right now.

Here is why Karl Dorrell should stay. He has the kind of smart, honorable character that more coaches need.

And he has done exactly what he was asked to do.

UCLA brought him in before the 2003 season and told him to refashion an unruly, undisciplined team in his own straight-arrow image. Under Dorrell's watch, here is what you no longer see: Bruins in the headlines for run-ins with the law.

He was also told to win. His record could be better, but he's done plenty to keep his job. Two years ago, his team was 10-2, and he shared Pacific 10 Conference coach-of-the-year honors with Pete Carroll. Over time, Dorrell's teams have won nearly six of every 10 games -- pretty much the standard Bruins clip.

This year, as the Bruins' sideline has come to resemble a hospital emergency room, Dorrell's team has five wins and five losses. With two of the toughest games of the year still to play, you critics have him firmly in your cross hairs.

The reaction to Streeter's column was immediate, breathlessly sanctimonious and highly political, with Dear Leader (in a fit of extreme rage) personally accusing Dorrell of "playing the race card." The outrage was so loud, wild, and potentially dangerous that it prompted Streeter to follow up with this headline:

KURT STREETER - Race issue can't, and shouldn't, be avoided

'Mr. Streeter, you are a vile demagogue and a self-pitying bigot."

It was one of the tamer notes to grace my inbox. Anonymous, of course, it arrived after I wrote two weeks ago that Karl Dorrell should keep his job. I added that, for some, race plays a part in their angry criticism of the UCLA football coach.

Using rhetoric often too ugly to print, scores said that I coddled Dorrell and that I "played the race card" because he is black -- and so am I. Scores more said that I should be embarrassed, ashamed, silenced or fired for having the nerve to mention race.

Dorrell is one of only six African Americans among the 119 head coaches in major college football.

Since Nov. 18, when my column was published, the hyperventilating has not stopped, mostly because of six paragraphs I wrote about race at the end of my column. Here is the conclusion I draw: Too many of us are far too scared of the very mention of race. It jangles the nerves and destroys common sense.

Not surprisingly, the vile accusations did their damage at a very nervous Morgan Center, forcing Karl Dorrell to issue the following statement:

Nov. 21, 2007

"This statement is to clarify issues arising from an article written about me this past Sunday. During the interview, the reporter asked a question regarding the issue of race in today's college coaching environment. I told the reporter that there still exist issues in this profession, with qualified minority candidates not receiving college head coaching opportunities. In college football, six out of 119 Division IA head coaches are African American. This was the context in which the subject was addressed during the interview.

"My comments regarding race issues were expressed in a general sense, and clearly not as an indictment about my experience at UCLA. I have seen a lot of issues in this profession over the last 20 years, but I have not had to deal with any such concerns during my time at UCLA."

Today there's a couple of guys, one in Miami and another in Las Cruces, that realize how good life can be when you don't work at UCLA.

Finally, Streeter indulged in a little irony today when he said:

I'm on record saying Neuheisel -- any major college football coach, really -- should start off with an eight-year contract and be allowed to stick it through; baring an unparalleled meltdown or serious trouble with the NCAA police.

Yeap, let it all hang out Kurt. Six more years of Slick Rick? Revenge is oh so sweet.

On deck: Dan Guerrero; and what's that ticking sound?

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Bumped...P

It's mid-October and we are quickly learning the talent and tendencies of our Pac-10 and BCS competitors. After watching the Oregon-UCLA game yesterday, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to Dan Guerrero on behalf of all Trojans, Ducks, Trees and the rest of the Pac-10, for paying homage to the BruinsNation and hiring Slick Rick Neuheisel instead of DeWayne Walker as head football coach.

The "dream team" of Walker and Chow was given a lot of consideration by DG, and supported enthusiastically by a legion of smart Bruins. Unfortunately for the Bruins the concept ran into a wall of opposition and ridicule from the BN; so much so that it received the derisive moniker "CHOKER" from the implacable BNer in chief, in a post with the ominous title: "CHOKER or Walker = No 3rd Chance For Dan Guerrero"

Continue reading this post »

and Weasel are inspiring doubts in their erstwhile Ruinland disciples. From Inside UCLA enjoy a few samples:

Anonymous said:
Chow supposedly the offensive guru and yet in this game the play calling to keep Craft in the pocket instead of going outside. I thought he knew Craft is not comfortable to stay in the pocket on pressure situations.

Anonymous said:
It's a good thing we have a genius coordinator and an offensive minded head coach. Imagine how bad the game plan and play calling would be without them.

Cali said:
Play calling sucked. Where has NC disappeared to. This is no the same guy that guided BYU and $c to record setting offenses. I swear but it but the case of the body snatchers. Just an overall terrible offensive schemes that don't produce.

plus this gem:

Dean said:

I also was surprised that Chow didn't go with any screens or draws in the 2-minute drill against all those blitzes. Make them pay for being so aggressive.

Also, after all those slants, where was the pump-fake? I thought we were running the sc-offense now?

Ungrateful louts!