In this week's edition of Headlines in the Bruin Twitterverse, we start with the Justin Combs scholarship "issue."

We've heard from LAWeekly, a quick blurb on Huffington Post with a snarky comment about his car, and the Daily Mail starting the discussion over the weekend because news sites in the UK had nothing to post about over the weekend, but most of the tweets in support say that Justin earned the scholarship and he's doing his best NOT to be dependent on his father's wealth. You know, like how we teach our children to learn on their own.

Many Bruins jumped into the fray, defending the scholarship. Jerry Neuheisel in two parts -

The fact people are complaining about Justin Combs getting a scholarship is ridiculous...regardless of who his dad is he earned his...

— Jerry Neuheisel (@jerryneuheisel) May 30, 2012

scholarship in the classroom and on the field. I cant wait to have him as a teammate next year. Go Bruins!

— Jerry Neuheisel (@jerryneuheisel) May 30, 2012

You have to love this kid. I know some may argue that Jerry received his scholarship due to his father being the Coach at the time, but he's still out there fighting for UCLA, and that's all we ask of our fellow Bruins. (Plus his dad made a good chunk of change as coach, where was that uproar?)

By the way, MSM, you're only picking up on this "story" now?

ICYMI back in November: Diddy's son Justin Combs to play UCLA football espn.go.com/los-angeles/nc…

— Peter Yoon (@PeterYoonESPN) May 30, 2012

Furthermore, he signed his letter back in February. California has been broke this entire time. This is not a new issue.

Justin also had a response:

Regardless what the circumstances are, I put that work in!!!! PERIOD.

— Justin Dior Combs (@JDior_) May 31, 2012

Justin's mother Misa supports her son for earning his way through life. His father has stayed silent, which is probably a good idea at this time.

Incoming freshman Simon Goines is also supportive of his soon to be teammate:

@JDior_ idk why they hating on you bro I know you been grinding you worked for it!

— UCLA BOUND GOINES!(@goines_simon) May 31, 2012

Bruin Love.

As of 8:30 this morning, Justin was trending on Twitter, so this issue is not going away quietly. At least we're not Vanderbilt, who requires assistant coach applicants to send a resume and a picture of their wife.

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We start off this week's Bruin Twitterverse round up with the good things Bruins do.

VIDEO: @footballUCLA players Jeff Baca & Johnathan Franklin on 1 of their weekly visits to Mattel Children's Hospital: ucla.in/KmZqCB

— UCLA Athletics (@UCLAAthletics) May 16, 2012

Tony Dye wanted everyone to know that this was not a one time occurrence for Baca:

@UCLAAthletics @footballUCLA Jeff baca has been doing that every week for 4 years. Good man

— Tdye (@TonyDye6) May 16, 2012

Also, Kevin McReynolds is helping out:

Up kinda early on my Sunday to go play with the kids at the Boys and Girls Club of East LA. Got to give back. Children are our future.

— Kevin McReynolds (@LifeofKM) May 20, 2012

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Welcome to our newest feature here on BN, where I justify following hundreds of people on Twitter to give you the most interesting, relevant, and fun Bruin related tweets. They're not just about the athletics programs, but about UCLA in general, Westwood, and other fun tidbits from the lives of our favorite current, past and future Bruins.

First, congratulations are in order to Brandon and Jalynne Crawford, he of UCLA Baseball (and current SF Giant) and she of UCLA Gymnastics, as they announced they are expecting their first child together.

First of many pictures this baby is going to be taking with @JalynneC35 as its mommy... yfrog.com/kk7hitjj

— Brandon Crawford (@bcraw35) May 9, 2012

That is going to be a VERY beautiful baby.

Checking in on the men's basketball team, LMR is working out with the team.

Another great workout with the ucla kids. They look great. Norman Powell, Josh Smith looks great and Lamb is improving. #BRUINS

— Lorenzo Mata(@RealMataLo) May 10, 2012

Gavin Smith is still missing. For updates, please visit the website linked up by his son.

SOMEBODY has to know something. Seen him. Anything. I need my Dad. Help me bring him home. #USC #Trojans findgavinsmith.com

— Evan Christian Smith (@EvanSmith22) May 8, 2012

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We've come to the end of our quite possibly longest titled series of posts in quite a while here on BN: our way too early but you're never too early to spend too many hours on the internets positing about quarterbacks. Oh and special teams. (Don't worry special teams, we love you.) If you want to check out our previous posts, check out the posts on linebackers and the secondary, the guys in the trenches - the O-Line and the D-Line, and yesterday we went over the WRs and the RBs.

Today we will take a glance at the QBs and Special Teams... and guess what.

We don't have a quarterback.

If you were surprised, raise your hand. Don't lie, put your hand back down.

Depth charts this early are an exercise in futility, because so much can change between now and the summer, when practice begins. The biggest note that came out of spring practice is that Richard Brehaut, in a bid to calm all the worrywarts, has decided to concentrate solely on football and will not continue with the baseball team this spring or play summer ball.

Let's look at the QBs, their spring, and special teams after the jump.

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In a weekend with spectacular gymnastics from the top three teams, the UCLA Bruins Gymnastics team found themselves 0.100 points out of first place on Saturday, bested by Alabama, who won their second consecutive championship, and barely edged out by Florida by 0.025 for second place.

The competition was close all day, and came down to UCLA in the fifth rotation (they had a bye in the sixth and final rotation) to set the mark the other schools had to beat. UCLA was on the balance beam, and had spectacular performances by Vanessa Zamarripa with a 9.950. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs was up next, and during an aerial series, had an uncharacteristic fall. She tried to stay on the beam, but just could not keep her balance, and lost 0.500 points from her score. Samantha Peszek followed up the performance with a spectacular, nearly perfect 9.950 to keep UCLA in the hunt. With Hopfner-Hibbs' fall, UCLA had to count a 9.725 on the beam from Aisha Gerber (who nearly lost her footing on the beam during her dismount) in their team score. If Hopfner-Hibbs had scored a 9.9 (she scored a 9.975 at the Pac-12 Championships with the same routine) UCLA would have/could have won their seventh national title.

Continue reading this post »

After UCLA missed out on #109 by 0.100 of a point, all eyes have now moved to the event finals today in Georgia.

UCLA will have five athletes competing in the event finals today starting at 10am UCLA time.

Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs - beam and floor
Vanessa Zamarripa - bars and floor
Olivia Courtney - bars
Aisha Gerber - bars
Samantha Peszek - beam

Shockingly, not a single Bruin qualified on the vault, UCLA's best event.

Samantha Peszek is the defending NCAA Champion on the balance beam. She scored a 9.90 to qualify, and a 9.95 in the Super Six.

Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, after an uncharacteristic fall on beam yesterday on an extremely difficult element, will look to repeat her 9.90 from Friday.

Zamarripa had tied for the highest qualifying score from their semifinal for the floor, and she will also be spectacular on bars after her 9.95 yesterday.

Courntey and Gerber have been solid on bars all season long, and both scored a 9.90 to qualify.

If you want to watch, you ESPN3 will be carrying it live. Live stats are here. Feel free to update below with scores!

Go Bruins!

Congratulations to the UCLA Gymnastics team, who won their semifinal yesterday by 0.200 points over second place Utah, with a final score of 197.400. Stanford is the third team from the morning session that is advancing to the Super Six, with a score of 197.125. Congratulations to the Pac-12 for dominating!

Senior Vanessa Zamarripa secured the win for UCLA with a fantastic floor routine with a score of 9.90. UCLA hit 22 out of 24 routines, which was good enough to win yesterday, but will not be enough to win today against powerhouse programs from the SEC. Everyone must be sharper. Even Coach Valerie Kondos-Field acknowledged this:

"To be here, to be moving on the Super Six, is beyond words exciting," said UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos Field. "For us, it was an okay meet, it wasn't a great meet, and it's great when you get your team that says 'No, we're not going to give up. No, we're not going to settle for anything less than greatness'.

The Bruins know this all too well, as they came in second last year.

Today is the team final, where in addition to Utah and Stanford, the Bruins will be up against Alabama, Florida, and Arkansas. We shall call it a showdown for gymnastics dominance between the Pac-12 (Oregon State missed out on being the 4th Pac-12 team in the Super Six) vs the SEC. We can't beat them in football, so let's kick their behinds in gymnastics.

Alabama and Florida put up monster scores of 197.675 and 197.650 respectively. If UCLA wants to come close to Alabama's level, they will need to hit every single routine. The lowest score by an Alabama gymnast was 9.825 which is pretty close to what UCLA was averaging per event. UCLA did break the 198 barrier this year, and will have to be 24 for 24 to win the national title.

UCLA's Rotation Order: (thanks UCLAgymnastics Twitter)
Rotation: Floor
Rotation 1: Floor Exercise
Rotation 2: Vault
Rotation 3: Bye
Rotation 4: Uneven Bars
Rotation 5: Balance Beam
Rotation 6: Bye

The Super Six is being aired live on ESPN3. You can also follow along via the UCLA Gymnastics Twitter, follow the live stats, or chat along with us below.

The journey to 109 continues today. GO BRUINS.

The second ranked UCLA Gymnastics team is in Duluth, GA and ready to take on their morning Semi-Finals session as they compete for a spot in Saturday's Super Six Team Finals.

UCLA is looking to win their seventh overall NCAA title and UCLA's 109th title. The event WILL be televised at the NCAA's website, or you can follow UCLA Gymnastics on Twitter or follow along in our open thread below!

UCLA's rotation begins on the vault, UCLA's strongest event. then a bye, uneven bars, balance beam, the second bye, and ending the session on the floor. The other teams competing in the morning session are #3 Oklahoma, #6 Nebraska, #7 Utah, #10 Stanford and #11 LSU. Check out our preview of the teams here.

In order to move onto the Super Six team finals, UCLA must place in the top three spots of their session. Ideally UCLA wants to be first and score at least 197 to receive a preferable rotation order in the Super Six. While UCLA has improved on the balance beam this year, you do not want to end your NCAA championships on that apparatus.

The Lady Bruins will also be competing for individual spots in Sunday's Event Finals, so a top performance will be required today. Gymnasts advance to the event finals if they score in the top 4 of the apparatus. The All-Around Champion will also be determined from Friday's scores. Sam Peszek is the current NCAA Champion on the Balance Beam.

The Quest for #109 is on. GO BRUINS.

The second ranked UCLA Gymnastics team is traveling to Duluth, GA to compete in at the NCAA Championships. The Championships run over three days, with Friday, April 20th as the team semi-finals, Saturday April 21st as the Super Six Team finals, and Sunday April 22nd as the individual event finals.

UCLA will be competing in the morning session on Friday at 9am UCLA time as the top seed in their semi-final, along with #3 Oklahoma, #6 Nebraska, #7 Utah, #10 Stanford and #11 LSU. The afternoon session has the remaining six teams, including #1 Florida and fellow Pac-12 school #9 Oregon State. The top three teams from each semi-final will advance to the Super Six team final on Saturday. If the Super Six follow the rankings, the six schools would be Florida, UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia and Nebraska. But anything can happen - a team could totally collapse on one element, and another team can jump into the Super Six. The semi finals will not be televised, but you can follow along on ncaa.org. The Super Six Team Finals and Individual Event Finals will be televised on ESPN3. We will have open threads up for the competition as long as UCLA is involved and if any Bruins move on to the event finals.

Let's review the teams grouped with UCLA in the morning session after the jump.

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Congratulations are once again in order to the third ranked UCLA Gymnastics team, as they won their NCAA Regional for the 28th time in program history, with a team score of 197.225. Host school Arkansas placed second with a team score of 196.825. Both schools advance to the NCAA Championships in Duluth, GA on April 20-22nd.

Congratulations are also due to Samantha Peszek and Vanessa Zamarripa, who came in second and third respectively in the all-around with scores of 39.6 (a career high) and 39.55. Peszek missed winning the all-around by only .025.

Overall, the team won three of the four events on the day, and came in second on the bars.

Continue reading this post »

UCLA Gymnastics is in Fayetteville, Arkansas today at 2pm to compete at NCAA Regionals. The top two teams from this competition will move onto the NCAA Semi-Finals on April 20, 2012 in Georgia.

Live Stats and FREE video will be available at ArkansasRazorbacks.com, courtesy of Arkansas, the host school.

UCLA is competing against No. 10 Arkansas, No. 15 Boise State, No. 19 Missouri, No. 29 New
Hampshire, and No. 34 Maryland. UCLA is the No. 1 ranked team in the Regional, and the No. 3 ranked team overall in the country. Check out our preview to learn more about our opponents. UCLA has won their Regional 19 times.

If you are watching live, UCLA will begin the meet on the uneven bars, then move to the beam, followed by a bye, the floor, the vault, and ending the meet with a bye, meaning the team will need to watch everyone else to determine their final placement.

Bruins to watch will be Vanessa Zamarripa, who finished the season ranked no. 1 in the country with a score of 9.935. In general, watch the Bruins on the vault - they are the highest scoring team in the country on the apparatus. Also watch for Samantha Peszek and Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, who are tied with the highest all-around scores on the team this season at 39.575.

Let's go ladies, as the march towards 109 continues. GO BRUINS.

The UCLA Gymnastics team is currently preparing for NCAA Regionals, which is this Saturday, April 7th. UCLA will be competing in the Fayetteville regional with Missouri, Boise State, New Hampshire, Arkansas and Maryland.

UCLA is currently ranked third in the country, behind Florida and Oklahoma. In their regional, Arkansas is ranked 10th, Boise State is 15th, and Missouri is 19th.

At the competition, the top 2 teams from the competition will advance to the NCAA Championships April 20-22nd in Duluth, GA. UCLA's meet will begin on the uneven bars before moving to the beam, a bye, then floor exercise, then vault, and then finishing the day with a bye. UCLA ends the meet on their two strongest events, but they will need to set the bar high when they finish on vault as they will have to watch the other schools finish their final rotation.

Last year, UCLA won their regional and placed second at the NCAA Championships. There is an advantage to winning, as it affects your seeding in the semi-finals, which in turn will affect your seeding in the finals. Seedings determine where you start and finish your rotations in competition. In general, most schools want to avoid Balance Beam as their final event, and finish on the floor or vault, as they tend to be scored higher (and have a higher final impact.) At Regionals, you need to be in the top 2 to move on to Nationals on the 20th, so while UCLA can probably afford a few off routines, the goal is to hit every routine.

Continue reading this post »

We are continuing with our Bruins Nation 2012 spring football previews. We have had several installments so far which have looked at a program overview and Coach Mora and coordinators, position coaches here and here, and the defensive scheme. We have also looked at specific units on the field, including the defensive line, linebackers, special teams, defensive backs, offensive line, running backs and wide receivers.

Our final preview for UCLA Football going into spring practice, which begins today, is of the quarterbacks. Yet again, we are heading into the spring without a definitive starter, and a season where neither quarterback was able to set themselves apart from the pack (depending on who you speak with, of course, as many are squarely on Team Brehaut, Team Prince or Team Hundley.)

With the end of the Pistol (farewell and good riddance) Offensive Coordinator Noel Mazzone will be bringing his N-Zone Offense to Westwood. The former Offensive Coordinator at Arizona State, he tutored Brock Osweiler to a possible third round selection in the upcoming draft and is the QB guru to current NFL Quarterbacks. Will he be able to work his magic with our current crop of QBs?

Continue reading this post »

Once again, we would like to congratulate the UCLA Gymnastics team for winning the inaugural Pac-12 Championships and their 17th overall conference title.

The Lady Bruins are now moving onto NCAA Regionals against Arkansas, Boise State, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Maryland. UCLA is currently ranked 3rd in the nation, while Arkansas (10th), Boise State (15th) and Missouri (19th) are ranked in the top 25. The meet will be in Fayetteville, Arkansas on April 7th at 4pm CT (2pm UCLA time.)

More on the All-Pac-12 Bruins, Regionals, and eventually the NCAA Championships after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

The UCLA Gymnastics team is currently in Utah preparing for their first ever Pac-12 Championships. They are the top seed and are ranked #4 in the country. (Rankings are based on a compilation of the team's scores over the season.) The team has lived up to preseason expectations when they were picked to win the Pac-12 and were voted the top team in the preseason coaches poll.

The meet will be held in two sessions, with teams seeded 5-8 competing in session one starting at 2pm MT (1pm UCLA Time) and teams seeded 1-4 (UCLA included) will be competing in session two at 7pm MT (6pm UCLA Time.)

The meet will not be televised or streamed live. Live stats will be available online and it will be televised a week later on March 29th on Fox Sports with Jim Watson and 1996 Magnificent Seven Team USA Member Amanda Borden.

More info on the seeds and UCLA's season so far after the jump.

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Usually I try to start the post game recaps with a witty line encapsulating the game experience.  Here it is.

That sucked.

And that's putting it mildly.

I also put in the post game recaps what happened during the game.  Here we go...

UCLA kicks off.  USC scores on four plays.

We get the ball, we get all the way to the one.  On fourth down, we ACTUALLY go for it, but of course run up the middle and we're stuffed.  Quel surprise.

SC scores.

We can't catch a ball to save our lives, but Jeff Locke has a nice punt.

SC scores again and goes for two.  Of course they make it.

SC scores.  repeat x number of times, as I am writing this before the game ends.  Right now the score is 50-0. (It ends at 50-0.)

Coming into this game, there was one main thing:  stop Lee and Woods of SC.  I mean, they're only the leading receivers in the Pac-12 right?  Unfortunately our secondary just cannot stop these two.  We can't get effective pressure on Barkley, and he has all day to throw passes.  It's just... sad.  USC steamrolled us tonight, and there's nothing that can be said that spins the game in a positive light.

We were blitzed from the beginning.  UCLA came out unprepared, undisciplined, unfocused, uneverything.  Remember a few weeks ago, after the Arizona game, when I said that that game was embarrassing  to the word embarrassing?  This is a million times worse.  It was shameful.  And there are a few people we can pin the blame squarely on.

1a. Dan Guerrero
1b. Rick Neuheisel

Are you tired of UCLA coming out for big games flat, unprepared, and completely steamrolled by the other team?  And it's not just football, it's basketball also.  

We need one thing at UCLA:  REGIME CHANGE.  Dan Guerrero and Rick Neuheisel must go.  Dan Guerrero cannot be permitted to hire another football coach, or we are going to set this program back another five to ten years.

Continue reading this post »

And all through Spaulding
Not a player was seriously injured
Not a single one (except Wesley Flowers who hurt his knee)

(I know, I'm off on the rhyme pattern.)

The new uniforms stayed hidden in boxes, with care
With hopes that the fan base won't try to rip out more of Dan's hair.

And with players in their kerchiefs, and Rick Neuheisel in his cap
One more practice to go, before the post turkey nap....

On Wednesday the UCLA Bruins football resumed their preparations for their showdown with that other school across town.  Coach Rick Neuheisel opened his post practice remarks with Thanksgiving wishes and that it was a good practice, with everyone working to put their best foot forward.  UCLA will practice in the morning, and will be able to go home for Thanksgiving in the afternoon.

Neuheisel was asked if he had to win to keep his job, and he said he didn't, he just has to do his best everyday and he enjoys coming to work. 

All that other stuff is on someone else's desk.

Unfortunately, it is on the desk of Dan Guerrero, and probably under a pile of donuts.  Neuheisel did reiterate that we've "earned the right to play for a championship" and he "works at a school that has 107 national championships and football has been on a hiatus from championships." He wants UCLA football back in that talk.  At least he knows what the goal is, although the execution has been extremely suspect.

Jonathan Franklin is looking forward to Saturday's game, and is looking to put his issues with fumbles behind him. Neuheisel trusts him but states that we must win the turnover war on Saturday.

"I don't want it to become something mental for him," Neuheisel said. "But there's no question in games like this, turnovers are huge. In both games (against USC the last two years), we gave up turnovers that resulted in touchdowns for them."

After Franklin's fumble last year, he only had one carry the remainder of the game.  Last year's performance will not affect Saturday's play calling, and Franklin will be in the rotation.  Don't forget you have this guy named "Derrick Coleman."  He's pretty good too.

A bit on the defense, after the jump.

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Coach Rick Neuheisel opened this week's press conference with a plain v-neck sweater.  I am disappointed, fashion wise, but for crazy quote wise, just keep reading.

The most out there quote of the day?

When asked about the "gap" with USC:

We have closed the gap more with SC. We got a chance to win a championship this week. That's closing the gap. We haven't had that chance in the past. We'll see where the gap is after the ball game, but the gap is closed. We're much closer to them than when we first got there. The gap has closed - I'm not sure if it's all the way done.

Neuheisel stated that the goal was always to have the SC game to be meaningful, and in that regard, in his mind, the gap has closed with SC.

Except SC doesn't do silly things like lose to Arizona on national television and get into brawls that everyone talked about the day after.  Also, as their season has gone on, their team has shown improvement, and we're stuck in a win-lose pattern.  So no, the gap hasn't closed.  Sure, we expected this team to be in contention for the Pac-12 South, but not the way we've nearly backed our way into the title game.

Crazy quote two, when asked about USC:

They are a very talented football team. They have a very good coaching staff and it's no accident that they improved. Especially when you see younger players playing when they get over the course of a season they're going to be much better at the end of the season. 

Funny, that doesn't happen on this side of town.  What a novel concept - younger players improve over the course of a season if you play them.  Huh.  (Side note: Ben Howland, check that idea out!)

Are Nelson Rosario and the wide receivers going to have to challenge SC down the field?

Our offense is predicated on controlling the line of scrimmage and being able to run the football. When people stack up against it, we either have to get the quarterback involved in the running game or we have to get the ball downfield... last week was a prototype of what we'd like to do. We were efficient throwing the ball. Our yards per attempt were a big number. We were able to run the ball effectively. It wasn't perfect but if we can have our way that's what we'd like to do.

Was Neuheisel expecting SC to be down a little longer?

No, and I've been on record that I can't concern myself with what sanctions will mean to their program.  You have to expect SC will always be very talented. They've placed an incredible amount of importance on the football program. We just want to be good with them and make this game as it is this time for champion stakes. When I got here it's the first thing I said publicly, it's the first thing I said to Pete Carroll, I want to play for more than just city championships - he didn't think it was possible, but here we are.

What about our road game problems?

We are a work in progress.  We are working to develop out of that, we got to be come a more tough minded team. If one side of the ball is struggling, the other side doesn't fret and continues to play hard and well and waits to catch fire. Unfortunately on the road that has not always been the case and we got to fix that, as fast as this weekend.

Will this game be played differently if UCLA has already locked up the Pac-12 South (Utah and ASU play on Friday)?

Absolutely not. I'm not even sure if I'll know what the score of that game is. We are trying to win this conference and we are trying to do it through the front door. If we get an opoortunity, that's all we can ask for. I'm excited for this chance.

More after the jump about Kevin Prince, Derrick Coleman, and UCLA/SC Memories...

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Hey guess what?  We're bowl eligible!  Thanks, Colorado!

On Senior Day, the Bruins came out blazing, stopping Colorado on their first drive although the missed tackle bug started to return.  As a Senior Day gift, Taylor Embree was also allowed to return the ball on punt returns today, actually accumulating 13 yards of return yardage.  On our second play from scrimmage, UCLA uses a little play action and Kevin Prince throws a perfect strike to Shaq Evans, who just has to put his hands out and a ball is placed in there for a touchdown. 

Of course, we can't do anything right without doing something wrong, and Evans is flagged for excessive celebration, the first of nine penalties on the night.  For once though, the flags don't hurt us in this game.

On the next series, Tyler Hansen's pass bounces off the receiver and Sean Westgate is in the right place at the right time to intercept the ball, and we are given another 15 yards when Colorado nearly rips Westgate's head off by the facemask.  Prince hands the ball off to Jonathan Franklin, and BOOM, touchdown.  14-0.

After Colorado can't do anything after Jeff Locke kicked the ball off out of bounds (and some good UCLA defense after Westgate misses a tackle) UCLA gets the ball back and it's all Kevin Prince, Joseph Fauria, and Nelson Rosario on the drive, as Prince broke off a few nice runs, Rosario went over 2000 receiving yards in his UCLA career, and Fauria shows off his acrobatic skills, diving into the end zone for the touchdown.  We're not even out of the first quarter, and we're up 21-0.

This is the effort we have been waiting for ALL SEASON, and it showed up... when we played the worst team in the Pac-12, Colorado.  Don't celebrate too much everyone.  It's COLORADO.

In the second quarter, Colorado scores after their touchdown is reviewed but they miss the extra point. But some worry creeps in, as UCLA starts acting like UCLA, committing dumb penalties, and going super conservative on the play calling as we run for the end zone, but miss a field goal from 25 yards.  The first half ends with a lot of stupid penalties, particularly one by Randall Carroll on a punt, but we're lucky that Colorado is Colorado, and that we played "well" in the first half to make most people forget about the penalties. 

The first quarter was fun.  Too bad we'll never see anything like that again (or maybe when we get a new coach...)

Continue reading this post »

The Bruins practiced on Wednesday in only helmets and shoulder pads - a tactic to give the football players legs a rest, as we approach the end of the season and the bodies are starting to feel the wear of a full season.  Coach Rick Neuheisel called the practice "spirited" where a lot was accomplished and they are on course for Saturday.

This week, reducing the number of (stupid) penalties was a focus of the team, in particular the offensive line. 

UCLA incurred six false starts last week as they tried to implement a new silent count snap that didn't go very well.

"That can’t happen," said tackle Mike Harris, who had four of the false starts. "It puts us back five yards and I’m going to try to come back this week and give my team my all because they deserve it for me. It was just a bad game."

Apparently Harris fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book:

"The defense keyed on the silent count and they would say something like 'go' and I went off that call," Harris said. "I feel like as a whole line we didn’t play as well as we should have and I’m going to let that pass and we have two games left and I’m going to give it my all."

More about the deep Colorado connection after the jump.

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It has been a depressing and weird couple of days for UCLA Athletics, and the current patheticness of the Pac-12 South took a turn for the surreal as tie breaker scenarios were bandied about.

Yes UCLA fans, even though we were thoroughly beaten by Utah and should be out of the Pac-12 race, Washington State decided to help ASU in their downward spiral and beat them on Saturday night. What does that mean? 

We are still in the hunt for the Pac-12 title.  Hold on to your britches everyone.

What are our chances?  Not good.  Not good as in one out of a hundred?  Nah, I'd say more like one in a million.  SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE'S A CHANCE?!  Rejoice Neubs!

The mind-blowing scenarios (h/t to LA Bruin for posting it earlier)

• UCLA goes 1-1, beating Colorado but losing to USC.  ASU and Utah loses one of their remaining two.  These are all feasible scenarios.  UCLA goes to the title game and is trounced by Oregon.  With a record of 6-7, we are not eligible to go bowling because we have a sub-500 record.
• UCLA, ASU, and Utah go 0-2. (not far fetched.)  UCLA is the Pac-12 South Champion, and by some strange, far-fetched, inconceivable miracle, we beat Oregon in the Pac-12 Title Game.  Even though we would be the Pac-12 champion, we are not eligible to play in the Rose Bowl.  We would have to appeal for a chance to play.

So what we need is to win one game, and hope Utah or ASU win out, to avoid this insanity.

For a slightly less painful time, let's recap Coach Rick Neuheisel's press conference this week.

Continue reading this post »

UCLA returns to Utah, a house of horrors for them as they lose their previous two games in the state in an ugly fashion.  Would it happen again?  Of course!  This is UCLA football, a team that had a chance to control their own destiny in the Pac-12 South as they prepared themselves to possibly be sacrificed to Oregon or Stanford in the Pac-12 title game,  there's no way they'd come out listless, unfocused, and outclassed.

Then the game started.

The first half was a parade of flags for UCLA.  No, not a cool parade of flags with flags from all over the world, but penalty flags flying as UCLA is unable to do anything but shoot themselves in the foot with penalty after penalty.  In the first half we had 10 penalties (although only 9 were recorded, as one was declined.)  The penalties were probably the highlight of the game, as it illustrated so much about our team - unprepared, undisciplined, think of an "un" and it probably applies.

• First series: third and short, false start, moves us to third and six, and the dumb mistake hurts us. 
  
• Jeff Locke punts the ball, Utah waves for a fair catch a fraction before Jonathan Franklin arrives, we get hit with an interference penalty, fifteen yards.  Dumb.
• Utah has 3rd and 8 and Sheldon Price interferes.  15 yards.  We get lucky when Utah doesn't convert on a later 4th down.
• False start on our ensuing drive.  On the same drive, Jeff Baca picks up a late hit penalty (#5) and on the ensuing punt, we have a false start (#6!!)  For once, punting is winning though, as Utah fumbles, we recover (Isaiah Bowens makes up for the false start he committed seconds earlier) and Tyler Gonzalez boots in a 30 yard field goal.
• Next UCLA drive:  False start, Mike Harris.  Kevin Prince can't run.  Kevin Prince gets sacked.  Penalty AGAIN on Kai Maiava but the penalty is declined, so penalty #8 is temporarily avoided.
• Wade Yandall flinches after we are pinned at the 2, so we move back one yard to the 1. (#9!) False start again by Mike Harris (#10) and then we wind up with the dumbest penalty ever, 12 players in the huddle for penalty #10.

Then the John White IV show begins, as he runs all over the UCLA defense which didn't realize that in order to maybe consider winning, we should stop the running back.  The stat was when he rushes for over 100 yards, Utah wins.  Maybe we should stop him.  Oh simple plans...

Would you like to know what's a simple plan?  Clock management.  You know what's horrible?  UCLA's clock management at the end of quarters, as we move down the field without any sense of urgency or even a thought that the game is played against a clock.  Prince takes an unfortunate sack which knocks us beyond Gonzalez's longest FG yet. It wasn't far enough that we can't try to kick a FG though, since we are KICKER U, but 47 yards is outside of Tyler Gonzalez's range, and he misses it wide right.

The first half flat out sucked.  It feels like we had more penalty yardage than yards on offense (it was close, but we barely had a few more yards on offense) and it was an absolutely lost half.  Kevin Prince was getting rushed non stop, sacked, and the defense was not responding to keep the team in the game.  The score may have been 7-3 at halftime, but it might as well have been 42-7.

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After the game Joshua Smith posted the following on Twitter:

After a game where UCLA did not play with any sense of urgency, any sense of teamwork, and letting a team that hasn't beat UCLA since 1941 come into our "house" and completely show us up, I don't believe LMU was the "bum" team.

Joshua Smith's line tonight:
16 minutes, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 fouls.  Perhaps his only credit tonight is he committed zero turnovers.

After a good performance against a Division II team, one could definitely argue the straight bum tonight was UCLA  Basketball and the author of this tweet, Joshua Smith.

The "straight bums" of LMU also didn't look limited by their conditioning - they looked like they could go all night long.  Guess who does look limited by their conditioning?

The author, Joshua Smith. 

Who looked listless and bewildered as he picked up fouls during the game?

The author, Joshua Smith.

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Aaron Hester will not play the first half of Saturday's game against Utah after being suspended by Coach Rick Neuheisel for his comments after the ASU game and reprimand by the Pac-12.  He went down during practice, "screaming in pain" but managed to leave the field on crutches and should be fine on Saturday, according to Neuheisel.

"Aaron will be fine," Neuheisel said. "Aaron tweaked an ankle, but we expect him to be ready to go."

Hester, a starting cornerback, was covering a receiver during team drills when the injury occurred. He stayed on the ground for a few minutes and the team had to switch ends of the field in order to continue the drill. He walked off the field under his own power and spent about an hour in the training room before leaving on crutches.

Randall Carroll is expected to start in Hester's place, and he is ready.

"I’m pretty much ready physically and mentally. Mentally is the part that’s going to be tougher, but I’m working with that every night."

Our secondary has had the injury bug this season.  Hopefully our secondary won't be tested that much this weekend, considering that Utah's quarterback is a former Division II starter.  Carroll should be ready to be picked on during the first half.

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Coach Ben Howland addressed the media after UCLA's exhibition win against CSUSB on Sunday and answered everyone's pressing questions about Brendan Lane, Anthony Stover, Joshua Smith, and of course, defense.

What's going on with Brendan Lane's minutes?

He is not ahead of the four guys that are playing ahead of him.  It's just based on how each game goes, right now he is the fifth big guy.  He brings a good attitude everyday, works real hard, he's had some physical problems finally getting under control including a problem with his back again this summer he's figured out ... but he's not ahead of Josh, Reeves or the Wears. The 4 is what he's best suited for and he can play some 5.

Anthony Stover:

He's still trying to come back. The trainer told me he had a real good day yesterday in terms of them working together and rehabbing.

and

It'd be nice to get Stover back. I think his length is the length that bothers more people than anybody. Josh has good length and size combined but we do have a lot of length.  Stover is the kid in the program that changes more shots and is able to alter shots better than anybody.

I can't wait for the Anthony Stover block party to start up again.

Some quick bits about Loyola, Joshua Smith, and more after the jump.

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