We play *$c tonight, so naturally I'm thinking about Eric Affholter.

If there is a number one all-time anti-U.C.L.A. villain for me, it's him. I've hated that guy since he carried on the legendary $c tradition of scoring touchdowns that weren't really touchdowns, most notably when he juggled a ball about 8 feet out of the end zone against the Bruins in 1987, yet was somehow awarded a touchdown to seal a 17-13 trogan win and rip the '88 Rose Bowl from us.

Well, maybe it was closer than 8 feet out of bounds, but not much. The trogies are lucky there were no red flags and coaches' challenges in those days. Especially considering he stepped out of bounds on the sideline on a touchdown run against us the very next season and stole the Rose Bowl from us again. Affholter?! Twice?! Pure hate!

Some might say it is irrational for me to hate someone I never met. I guess it's possible that Affholter is the greatest guy ever, but I doubt it. The similarity between his last name and a certain orifice at the end of the rectum is surely no coincidence. And I'm sure I'll get over it in another lifetime or two, so it's not like I'm completely obsessed. But not yet. That agony hasn't faded. Just a year ago, my friend Todd (who is both a Trojan alum and and attorney, but is still somehow a really good guy) gloated over how Affholter still caused me so much pain after 20+ years.

Okay. Maybe three lifetimes.

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Attention, Dan Guerrero: this is how a real Athletic Director does it.

An article on the ESPN Chicago website discussed Illinois AD Mike Thomas and his refusal this week to publicly give a vote of confidence to his men's basketball coach, Bruce Weber. You know what that likely means for Weber. It means Thomas has high standards for the University of Illinois, things aren't good enough with the basketball program, and the AD is not going to stand for it.

We know this because he not only said it publicly, he said it directly to an Illinois fan. Almost as impressive as AD Thomas having high standards, and making these comments is that he made them in direct conversation with the Illinois fan base.

Thomas took about an hour of phone calls Saturday morning from a mostly disgruntled Illinois basketball fanbase on WDWS-1400 AM in Champaign, Ill.

"I need to look at the total body of work and all of the things that come into play as far as making those decisions. Because those are important decisions and they affect a lot of people. I'll tell you this: No one wants to win more than I do. I'm here to win championships."

"You certainly look at the competitive piece," Thomas said. "You look at your recruiting. You look at trends, the trajectory. Are they on an upward trajectory? You look at other things. You look at other things that might be off the floor as they relate to compliance and academics."

Here is an AD who gets it. If only our own AD had similar standards.

At a quick glance, Illinois basketball is having a decent year right now. The Illini are 16-8 in a very competitive B1G Ten that features 5 teams that are ranked in the AP Top 25 (#3 Ohio State, #11 Michigan State, #21 Wisconsin, #22 Michigan, #23 Indiana. Those teams account for half of the Illini's losses, with nationally ranked UNLV and Missouri accounting for 2 others. Illinois is certainly in play for a tournament berth. Contrast that to our Bruins at 14-11 and 7th place in a conference that has no teams receiving votes, and with 9 of our losses coming against unranked teams. By any comparison, Illinois has got it all over us right now.

But that's not good enough for the Illinois AD.

"Is it realistic that we in any sport are going to win the Big Ten championship every year?" Thomas said. "It's probably not likely. But even in those situations, you want to be part of the discussion. You want to feel that energy and excitement is there when you get towards the end of the season.

"And then when you're looking into the NCAA postseason play, it's not a question of whether you're in the tournament, now you're sitting there saying, 'Where are we going to be seeded?' "

Nor has recent history been that bad for Illinois. In 8 years under Weber, the Illini are 83-53 (61%), reached the NCAA Tournament in 6 of those years and made it to the Championship game in his second year (they lost to UNC), and have just one sub .500 season. Not too bad, right? Lots of schools would be happy to have that sort of success over nearly a decade.

But that's not good enough for the Illinois AD.

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The all-time marquee programs of college basketball: North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, U.C.L.A.

One of these names doesn't belong right now. And you only have to look at this week's games and this week's news coverage to demonstrate it.

Wednesday night's featured matchup between #9 Duke at #5 North Carolina was nationally televised on ESPN and was hyped all week leading up to the game. Besides the longstanding ACC rivalry, both teams were in their usual spots within the Top 10, adding to the hype surrounding the game. The Dean Dome was packed with 22,000 raucous fans, nearly all dressed in identical Carolina Blue and provided an intimidating home court advantage for theTar Heels. Duke valiantly followed the lead of their star freshman guard. And like any good rivalry game between two great teams and legendary programs, this one came down to the last shot.

Nestor already put up a fanshot of the amazing finish. The game led the morning edition of Sports Center and you can watch the coverage here (beware of Stuart Scott trying to upstage the highlights with his commentary). Big teams. Big game. Big finish. Big news.

Only slight less newsworthy this week was #10 Kansas getting a decisive road win at #6 Baylor. #2 Syracuse beat their hated rival #11 Georgetown in front of 28,000 orange clad fans. And Kentucky solidified its #1 ranking by beating #7 Florida by 20. More big teams. More big games. More big news.

Contrast these games to last night's meeting between U.C.L.A. and Stanford. While the country still buzzed over the Instant Classic in Chapel Hill the night before as well as the other Top 10 matchups, hardly anyone noticed that the Bruins and The Cardinal were battling for 6th place in a really bad conference. The Bruins drew a relatively large crowd of about 5,000 to their decrepit temporary home, all dressed in a variety of colors and bearing little semblance to an intimidating home crowd advantage. They watched a pretty sloppy basketball game that virtually no one else in the the country saw, including the people in Palo Alto, where the local provider elected to carry the Cal State Northridge vs U.C. Davis game. The Bruins and the Cardinal were relegated for a 6-15 CSUN team and 1-21 UCD team? Incredible.

It reminded me of that old saying: if a U.C.L.A. team plays a game in the L.A. Sports Arena and hardly anyone is there to watch it and no one sees the telecast, does it still count in the standings? Or something like that. Luckily, the game did count, and our Bruins took sole possession of that 6th place spot. But that's not the only story to come out of this game.

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Ben Glicksman with SI.com wrote an article today and handed out grades for recruiting to the new BCS coaches, and his gave Jim Mora and his staff high marks.

UCLA's Jim Mora: A. Despite NFL lifers' historical proclivity for flailing in recruiting circles (see: Gailey, Chan), Mora has thrived since taking the reins Dec. 13. The Bruins landed the No. 12 class in the nation (they ranked No. 44 in 2011), and half of that haul committed after Mora's hiring. Among the headliners: U.S. Army All-Americans quarterback Devin Fuller, defensive tackle Ellis McCarthy and wide receiver Jordan Payton -- the latter two of whom flipped from Pac-12 rivals on or before Signing Day

Glicksman's opinion goes along pretty well with the grades that we gave Mora and his staff for our class in Part 1 of AHMB's Recruiting Roundtable. It's pretty tough to win without talent, and Mora and Co took an important first step in that direction by maintaining the talent level on the roster and even upgrading in some areas. The coaching staff's next step will come in April when they lead the team through spring practice. There the new regime will begin to put its stamp on the current team, and we will see if it results in better discipline, sounder fundamentals, sharper execution, and a better overall football team.

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Some things change, and some will remain the same from now until the end of the world. Lane Kiffin looks like he is cheating. Again.

ESPN Reporter Shelly Smith accidentally revealed a potential recruiting violation when she reported on a text she received from USC Head Coach Lane Kiffin yesterday morning.

"I got a text from Lane Kiffin at 5:15 this morning telling me to wake up, it was a big day and then I got a second text saying, 'We need to get Nelson,'" Smith said live on ESPNU.

Nothing like getting your BSPN mouthpiece to do some TV recruiting for you. While SChelly is better known for prematurely reporting of false news, breaking big stories is not her forte. There is no appearance that she initially understood that what was communicated to her personally and what she subsequently reported nationally was possibly illegal. We'll have to leave the interpretation of the rules to journalists with a better understanding of their subject, like the staff at Yahoo! Sports, for instance.

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I was motivated to write this post in response to a recent poll that was attached to a well-written and well-reasoned article by KSBruin questioning whether Ben Howland has earned the right to stay at U.C.L.A. This article and poll appeared after the Oregon State loss, but before the Oregon game last Saturday. It asked a simple question:

Does Ben Howland deserve to remain as the UCLA basketball coach if the Bruins miss the tournament for the second time in last three years (and no where close to being an elite basketball program)?

The initial results were discouraging to me. After the first hundred or so votes, 2/3rds of the voters felt Howland did deserve to stay even if his team missed the tournament again this year (which they almost assuredly will unless they win the Pac-12 Tournament).

I don't want this to be about the reasons that Howland needs to go or stay. Many people here at Bruins Nation have been expressing concerns about Howland for the last 2-3 years. Despite many who railed against those concerns, the alarm bells have only increased over time. Last Monday, after several months of discussion, Nestor (with the support of the other front pagers) wrote of our conclusion that we had passed the point of no return and it was time for Howland to move on.

The initial response in the poll suggested that the majority of readers/voters disagreed with us.

It was only partly surprising that later that day, after the Bruins blew a 13 point halftime lead and gave up 51 points in the second half (remember when we used to give up 51 points in an entire game?) against Oregon and lost that the poll results turned around. The current results of the poll after 742 votes is that 44% think Howland deserves to stay, while 41% feel he needs to go. The no's made up an awful lot of ground.

Now I don't know if people voted "no" in anger, or if people suddenly saw the logic of our arguments. I doubt it was just the latter. I'm not upset that people disagreed with us. We seriously always welcome intelligent and respectful debate here. To me, the sudden swing was worrisome because it seemed to be motivated by the latest basketball score, and the most recent score is the wrong reason to make a decision on something as important as determining the basketball head coach's future.

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Pauley renovation, falling donations, Student seating, a decade of Football misery, Coach Caldwell, Chianti cruises, Baseball facilities, non-communication, arrogance without cause, collateral damage to academic fundraising.

Those are only some of the lowlights of Dan Guerrero's mismanagement of Bruin athletics. Sadly, we can now add to his trash pile the erosion of our most storied and treasured tradition, U.C.L.A. Basketball.

This weekend's collapse against two barely average teams in Oregon and Oregon State shows me that Coach Howland has lost this team and this program. He has failed to bring in the right kind of players for his system, and then has shown little flexibility to adapt to the players he did bring in. Forget the NCAA Tournament. We are a game away from falling into the first day play-in games in our own conference tournament.

I see no light at the end of this tunnel. The only thing less palatable than watching the further collapse of Bruin Basketball is the thought of Chianti Dan remaining in a position to do something about it. So time to light up the phone lines and email inboxes again:

Chancellor Gene Block

Phone: 310-825-2151
Fax: 310-206-6030
E-mail: chancellor@ucla.edu

U.S. mail address:
UCLA Chancellor's Office
Box 951405, 2147 Murphy Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1405

Campus mail address:
2147 Murphy Hall
Mail code: 140501

Keep your message concise, passionate, and professional.

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I was there last Sunday.

Tim Tebow Highlights 2011 2012 Broncos DEMARYIUS THOMAS (via stumpshus)

Perhaps some of you saw the highlights of this game. Maybe some of you have even heard of this Tim Tebow guy. As with the BCS game, I thought maybe Tebow wasn't being adequately covered in the press, so I thought I'd try to do some justice here on BN.

My wife and I have had season tickets in the South Stands for 15 years, and that goes back to the old Mile High Stadium when that section really meant something special. So I saw a lot of Elway's 4th quarter comebacks, a lot of big games, and a lot of playoff wins. Sunday was different. That second video is one that I took that with my phone over 5 minutes after the play, after we were done hugging and high-fiving every stranger within a 15 person radius. Everyone is still dancing and yelling and going nuts. No one wanted to leave. Everyone wanted that moment to last forever. It was incredible and unique and I've never experienced that big of a moment in the middle of that big of a crowd.

But there are some other moments which still rank a bit higher for me. Follow me after the jump...

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Let me start with this, the best quote ever:

I always wanted to come back to U.C.L.A.

Welcome home, Xavier Su'a-Filo.

Line wins games.

You've seen me post this once or twice or a hundred times before. It's because it is true, and IEAngel will back me up on this. Before you need a great QB, or great TB, or great LB, you need to have a great offensive line. The big uglies up front are the difference between a good rusher and a game breaker; between a solid QB and one who can pick defenses apart. Without a good offensive line, the highlight guys just get a lot of dirt on the back of their jerseys.

Xavier Su'a-Filo was a 4 star and top ten offensive lineman prospect in 2009 when he joined U.C.L.A. from Timpview HS in Provo, Spain Utah. The hype was justified. XSF became the Bruins' first true freshman offensive starter in an opener. The freshman went on to start all 13 games in 2009 at the critical left tackle position as a freshman. He made various All Pac-10 teams and All-Freshman Pac-10 lists after his rookie season, and then left Westwood to go on a 2 year LDS mission in Alabama and Florida.

Now he is back, and our O Line just got a hell of a lot better.

Another huge HT to Jon Gold for this interview with XSF embedded below (and HT to N for Fanshotting it earlier today). and for the extended parts transcribed on his blog Inside UCLA here and here. There were some key parts of the interview that I wanted to highlight to show why I think XSF will be the most important addition to our team next season

There are extended entires on Gold's blog....

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There is one more college bowl game tonight.

The BCS Championship Game (which not an NCAA Title, btw, so no one is gaining on us tonight) will get going tonight, featuring a rematch between the LSU Tigers (13-0) and the Alabama Crimson Tide (11-1). These two teams met during the regular season in Tuscaloosa with LSU edging the Tide in an unattractive game by an underwhelming 9-6 score. The dominating defenses (and utter futility of the offenses) soured many fans on seeing a rematch in the title game. However, LSU finished as the only undefeated team in the country, so their appearance was guaranteed. Alabama was the only SEC team amongst the one-loss teams, so their appearance was guaranteed. Someday there will be a playoff. Until then, we get the de facto SEC Championship Game filling in as the BCS Title Game.

It would be far more interesting for me to see this game at a truly neutral site, but this is almost a home game for the Tigers. While Alabama fans are flooding the Big Easy, being just under 300 miles from New Orleans, the distance from the LSU Football Ops building to the doors of the Louisiana Superdome is only 80 miles. Tonight's rematch will feature the nation's top two defenses, two strong running attacks, and a pair of Heisman finalists. And then there is the rematch between arguably the top two coaches in the country, LSU's Les Miles and Alabama's Nick Saban. I realize it's difficult to find any news or analysis about this game anywhere, so for a closer look at the matchup, follow me after the jump...

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Our friend Jon Gold wrote a(nother) very good article yesterday at DailyBreeze.com and there are several quotes and comments in it that deserve a closer look than a simple fanshot link would do.

In the article, Gold looks back at the 2011 season and analyzes what went wrong. The title of the article "UCLA Football in 2011: Much talent, little discipline" confirms everything BN said all season long.

Ridding the Bruins of the toxins of apathy, carelessness and indiscipline will be incoming coach Jim Mora's most crucial task in the coming months.

Here on BN, we have settled the issue numerous times that the problems with our football program was not the roster. Neu's recruiting class ratings speak for themselves. The Bruins had more than enough talent to compete with everyone they played and to finish far better than a .500 team in the regular season. If you want to separate the talent on the field from the talent on the sideline, then that's a reasonable argument, but even that is still the fault of the coaching staff. The level of talent was not the problem.

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Only slightly less prestigious than the 108 National Titles at U.C.L.A. are the annual Bruins Nation Awards. Shown above are our two winners for 2011, as selected by the readers of Bruins Nation. For Best Post of the Year, the winner is tazmiami with Sent My Voided Check, UCLA Gear & Letter to Chancellor Block. For Funniest Post of the Year, the winner is Rowdy44 with UCLA's Athletic Department to Merge With USC's. Congratulations to our winners!

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epilogue (noun; Gr epilogos: to say in addition) 1: a concluding section that rounds out the design of a literary work. 2 a : a speech often in verse addressed to the audience by an actor at the end of a play; also, the actor speaking such an epilogue. b: the final scene of a play that comments on or summarizes the main action

I'm a sucker for the epilogue.

I've read a lot of books in my days, many of which finish sad or frustrating or incomplete or in anger. Anna diving under the train. Frederic walking alone in the rain. The Vogons blowing up Earth. And I always hope there is an epilogue to fix all those wrong endings. Even though I've just read the entire novel and the story is finished and I know the outcome, when the plot leaves me feeling cold and incomplete I always hold out some desperate ridiculous hope that those last couple gratuitous pages will fix everything that is still bothering me, somehow obviate the previous 350 or so pages, and give me the reader the happy ending I was hoping for.

So I read it, and end up unfulfilled, still.

There are many famous epilogues throughout literature. The closing speech by Puck in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a classic example. After the players have exited the stage and the plot is complete, Puck gives a final address to the audience to close the dream, and perhaps to apologize for the chaos of the visions. But his promises to make amends never really satisfies me. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment has an epilogue that fits perfectly with the great Russian epics by being separately titled as "epilogue", and then lasting two entire additional chapters. It is an incredible work, but even the lengthy "wrap up" leaves me frustrated for Raskolnikov's decisions, his fate, and his separation from Sonya. And more recently, and rather less classically, the epilogue in Mockingjay, the final book of The Hunger Games trilogy reveals the eventual fate of Katniss - which was pretty important because I really really needed to know if it was going to be Peeta or Gale. Alas, I was on the wrong team time. But at least I was Team Edward in Twilight. Well, maybe we should just forget I ever mentioned that.

There was one more epilogue yesterday. In the final act of the tragicomedy that was the U.C.L.A. 2011 football season, we saw a final 4 quarter coda that, despite the hope for a dramatic final saving grace and justification for the endurance of the season as a whole - for one final good ending - we got a performance that simply reflected the frustration and misery and futility of the previous 13 games. And I fell sucker for the epilogue once again.

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Call me a Bruin.

U.C.L.A. and Coach Jim Mora scored a major coup today with the verbal commitment of Ishamel Adams, a 4-star cornerback from football power Oaks Christian. He is ranked by Scout.com as the #10 cornerback in the country.

This huge pickup was first tweeted by Brandon Huffman:

@BrandonHuffman
Brandon Huffman
Westlake Village (Calif.) Oaks Christian four-star cornerback Ishmael Adams has committed to UCLA... (@IshmaelLAdams)

It has also been confirmed by the LA Times, and HT to themichael21 for fanposting it, too.

Here are some video highlights of our newest Bruin (note he also plays RB for Oaks Christian).

Ishmael Adams Oaks Christian 2010 Junior Year Highlights (via ALLSTARAPPROACH)

Check out the beautiful example at 1:20 in the video of what this kid can do in press coverage. I would love to see a lot of that in the upcoming years.

This is a huge get for several reasons...

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Hello Again, Bruins Nation, and welcome back to the Annual Bruins Nation Awards. This morning we listed our 5 nominations for Best Post of the Year. Well, beyond all the serious and heartfelt posts in 2011, and after some people couldn't recognize satire, there was still a lot to laugh about, too, So here we get to laugh again with our most humorous posts of the year.

Once again, these awards are about our community members. As a way to highlight the outstanding contributions from the incredible Bruins Nation community, we picked the funniest posts and comment threads from our readership. No front pagers allowed. Garlic Joe will have to take a back seat this evening.

Again, I went back through every fan post and front page article in 2011. There were tons of articles and comment threads that had me rolling on the floor laughing my ass off (there really should be an acronym for that). I truly wish we had a way to recognize everyone, as we definitely have one of the top 20 or 30 best communities and writers on any blog anywhere, but this isn't AYSO or the college bowl season. We had to eliminate someone here. In the end we selected 5 articles that were the funniest posts and threads of the year. Now you pick the winner.

Last year's winner can be seen here. But as for this year...

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Hello Bruins Nation, and welcome to the Annual Bruins Nation Awards. After another year filled with joy, frustration, debate, and endless passion for all things Bruin, it seems only fitting to close the year with a look back and to highlight some of the best work that appeared on this little corner of the blogosphere in 2011.

It was a crazy year at Bruins Nation. From coordinator searches, to the ups and downs of basketball, to 2 incredible pitchers, to Women's Golf getting #107 and Women's VB getting #108, to the disappointment of the football season and the chaos that is basketball so far, to a head football coach search and an anchor of an AD that is sinking our athletics, there has been plenty to post and comment about.

These awards are about our community members. While we front pagers love our role on BN, without the entire BN readership, we are just a few Bruin fans talking to each other. With the addition of over 5,000 BN members, we are a powerful and important voice in the greater U.C.L.A. community. This is an opportunity to recognize the excellence of that community, and so only our community members are eligible for these awards.

With that in mind, I went back through every fan post and front page article in 2011. There were easily 40 or more articles that were deserving of consideration, and I wish we had a way to recognize everyone who contributed to BN this year. We really do have the best community and writers on any blog anywhere. In the end we selected 5 articles that best exemplified the passion, creativity, and dedication to what it means to be a U.C.L.A. fan.

Last year's winner can be seen here. Also, the poll for Funniest Post of 2011will be up this afternoon.

So with no further ado...

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It's Thursday. Call the Chancellor's office. 310 825-2151. Replace Dan Guerrero.

Day Two of the Jim Mora regime in Westwood was a lot like Day One, with Mora adding more new coaches to his staff. Mora then met with each member of the existing staff who was in Westwood, though no official announcements were made regarding the future of those coaches.

The big news of the day was the confirmation that ASU's Offensive Coordinator Noel Mazzone was leaving Tempe to take the same position at U.C.L.A. Mazzone has directed the ASU spread offense for the last 2 seasons, and has recent OC experience in the SEC, the Pac-10, and was a WR coach for the NY Jets. It is not clear yet if Mora intends to run primarily a.spread offense versus another style, though from his presser it sounds like there may be a mix of things. However, Mazzone's addition makes it look like we will see some elements of the spread at U.C.L.A. in the future. As was mentioned in a thread, this may also benefit the defense, as well, by giving them more first hand experience at defending the style that will be used by many of their opponents, and a style that Mora has not defensed himself.

More coaching hires after the jump...

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The Bruin Football Squad had its annual awards banquet on Monday evening and numerous players were recognized for their efforts during the year.

Nelson Rosario and Patrick Larimore were honored as the Offensive and Defensive MVP's respectively.

Eric Kendricks was named Rookie of the Year.

Joseph Fauria and Andrew Abbott were named Most Improved Players on offensive and defense respectively.

Sean Westgate was honored for Highest Scholarship by a Senior.

Other honorees included Steven Manfro, Kevin McReynolds and Roosevelt Davis (Outstanding Scout Team Players), Kai Maiava and Patrick Larimore (Best Leadership), Brett Hundley and Jacob Brendel (Academic and Athletic Balance), Derrick Coleman and Jeff Locke (Outstanding Special Teams Players), Cory Harkey and Sean Westgate (Outstanding Senior of the Year), and Cory Harkey again (Heart Award).

The entire list and bios of our MVP's can be seen on Jon Gold's Inside UCLA blog.

Congrats to these Bruins and to the entire squad for all their efforts during an up and down season for U.C.L.A. Football. Here's to more ups for the team at the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl and moving forward.

First things first, I will support our student-athletes every day of the week. This isn't on them. I will root for Coach Mora to succeed. I understand his desire to take the job and compete. Also, if someone offered me $12 mil for a job, even if I knew I couldn't do it well, I'd still sign and and make sure I bring in the best assistants in the world to make it work. Plus, I'm sure Mora really believes he can succeed. So this isn't on him.

This is all on clueless bumbling incompetent Chianti Dan Guerrerror.

As a passionate and admittedly biased fan base, we have hurled a lot of venom at Chianti lately, and deservedly so. We're all angry about what was a short-sighted, unimaginative, and typically conservative hiring process. But it isn't just the U.C.L.A. fan base that is befuddled by this hire. Impartial sportswriters around the country, who have no horse in the race and aren't emotionally involved in the process, are equally confused. And there are plenty of examples. After the jump ...

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Dan Guerrero is an idiot.

He has no trust from the fan base or from big time donors. The criticism of all aspects of his performance can be read here, on BRO, on Facebook, via twitter, and in traditional outlets like major newspapers including the LAT, and on national television. He has failed miserably in his two previous coaching hires.

And he still has the gall and short-mindedness to make this hire.

Never mind that Jim Mora is an awful choice. the whole manner of this coaching search and now in the way it was announced reeks of cowardice.

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Today is the last day of finals week in Westwood. Let's hope it has been a successful week for all of our student-athletes, and that our football team enjoys a well deserved weekend break before getting back at it on Monday. I'm really looking forward to following the practice updates next week to see how our team responds to interim coach Mike Johnson, and if there is a change in the vibe under his direction. Personally, if I never hear the word "crisp" to describe a practice again, I'm good. The imminent departure of assistant coach Jim Mastro will be another interesting dynamic. It is extra painful that he is off to WSU to join Mike Leach's staff, when you consider what a popular and successful (and easy slam dunk) choice Leach would have been for this team. Plus, we could have saved Coach Mastro all those relocation costs.

Of course, the big topic the players will get to deal with will be the ongoing chaos of Dan's bungled coaching search. Hopefully it will not cause much distraction to the players and their preparations, but only to those of us on the outside who really care about the welfare of our football program (do you hear me, Chancellor?). There are some very strong candidates like Dan Mullen and Troy Calhoun and Art Briles out there still, while Chianti chases retreads.

Jon Gold's blog Inside UCLA acknowledged there was little news on Thursday. We know Chianti Dan returned from New York yesterday. We can only hope that his time at the Intercollegiate Forum allowed him to spend some time with some qualified D-1 Athletic Directors who have a clue about what they are doing. Maybe the snickering behind Dan's back gave him a heads up that he isn't doing things well enough in Westwood. But even with no hard news coming out of Westwood yesterday, there is always more than enough to talk about with this program. The entire football season and coaching saga has been so consuming in that aspect that I didn't even realize that the Denver Broncos are apparently playing a new quarterback. Now you'd think that sort of thing would make the news.

But back to our football program, we did see a couple of interesting bits yesterday. Most notably, Scott Wolf of the LADN tweeted this last evening:

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So yesterday was a brief lull in the storm for U.C.L.A. football. Things were quiet around Spaulding with the players having this week off to concentrate on finals before resuming practice and preparations next week for the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on December 31. Things were quiet from a news standpoint around Morgan Center as Chianti Dan spent the day at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in New York. He is scheduled to return to Westwood later today and resume his well-planned, thoughful, and out-of-the-box search for our next football coach. Oh, wait...

But even with no official news coming from Westwood, the widespread ruminations on the future of the Bruins football program still didn't miss a beat. Since our not so media-savvy athletic director is not providing any information, or even attempting to demonstrate some control over the discussions, the rumors and speculation surrounding the already bungled coaching search picked up speed. With Jim Mora Jr's (who, btw, isn't really a Junior) name continuing to be bandied about for the head coaching job, seemingly to the exclusion of about 30 or more better qualified options, the nearly unanimous anger at Chianti Dan and his mishandling of his 3rd head coaching hunt marched on.

tasser10 provided an in depth look at Mora's decidedly unimpressive career 2 days ago, and Patroclus laid out a strong case in yesterday's Roundup why Mora has no business being U.C.L.A.'s next coach. These were followed by a pair of great posts by Odysseus that reviewed some objective criteria backed by data that could be used to stratify coaches, and then applied those criteria to many of the coaches being mentioned across the country for jobs right now. By objective criteria, Mora is nowhere close to being a top candidate. When Chianti said in the Monday press conference that U.C.L.A. is able and willing to spend the money necessary to get a top coach, I had a glimpse of hope. I also figured it revealed that the big time boosters were heavily involved in the process, since Guerrero's actions on Monday were completely inconsistent with his words the previous Saturday night. However, that promise of going after a big name coach appears to have only applied to Chris Petersen. Since then, it's been clear Guerrerror had no Plan B, and he has not shown any indication of pursuing the other top tier coaches. I guess I should have known better than to believe him. After all, his lips were moving at the time.

It could be that the increasing buzz around Mora is coming from his camp which is desperate to find a job, any job, which will offer him. No one else is knocking on Mora's door, and that should tell you all you need to know right there. As such, there is no reason at all to not to take the time to meet with other candidates. Mora, a guy who lasted an entire year at his last coaching job, and has been available for two years since, will be available in February. As of Wednesday night, no offer had been made to Mora, according to the LA Times.

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Tragic news from Corvallis tonight. Oregon State Freshman defensive tackle Fred Thompson collapsed while playing basketball on campus and died. Thompson, who was from the Bay Area, was 4 days short of his 20th birthday.

The thoughts and prayers of all of Bruins Nation go out to Fred's family, friends, and all our Pac-12 bretheren at OSU. You can offer condolences to the OSU fanbase at Building The Dam by going here.

Initial reports are that Fred suffered a heart attack, though cases like this of sudden death in young athletes are usually related to hypertrophy of the heart and lethal arrythmias. Whatever the case, this is just an awful event. It is also a stark reminder that, even at a time when we are wringing our hands over the state of our athletic program, college athletics are ultimately about the student-athletes and their futures, in and out of sports. It is a terrible tragedy that this young man lost his future so young. Rest in peace.

Chianti Dan Guerrero continues to mismanage every aspect of this coaching search. As N updated today, Miami head coach Al Golden is no longer a candidate for the U.C.L.A. head coaching job.

Yet another colossal blunder by Guerrero. Our chances of landing Golden would have been great a few weeks ago, before Miami shut the gate by giving him a four year extension, making it prohibitive to get him away from Miami. Of course, that extension was signed last week, while Guerrerror was blindly placing all his eggs in the Chris Petersen basket, when anybody with any sense on Petersen knew that we should at least be considering other options at the time, in case Petersen said no.

Speaking of "No's", another name that is repeatedly being mentioned is Mike Bellotti. We have repeatedly made the case here on BN about acceptable criteria for our next football coach, and Bellotti clearly does not fit. We are not going to waste another 3+ years with a retread coming out of the broadcasting booth who has been out of the game for several years. Bellotti's most recent gig in college was as the AD of Oregon, after being their OC or head coach for 18 years. What allegiance do you think he is going to have to UCLA football and the school's history now, other than to the paycheck? Bellotti might have made sense as the replacement for Bob Toledo a decade ago. He also had his chance at the UCLA job when Dorrell was fired, but he let U.C.L.A. twist in the wind a while before saying no.

Some could argue that Bellotti would be a safe hire. Another word for safe is conservative, or uninspiring. A lot like punting. Basically, Bellotti is Terry Donahue. Bellotti is not going to energize the fan base, restore our faith in Bruin football, and get people to start buying tickets again, ala Mike Leach and WSU. He had a few good years a while back while riding Nike money in Oregon and with Chip Kelly as his OC, advantages he won't have in Westwood. Sure Bellotti might make a serviceable coach for a couple years, but we are not in the market for a short term serviceable coach. This program needs an overhaul from the ground up, and a 61 (in 2 weeks) year old coach with no new ideas is the wrong choice. No way do you hire coach with the plan that he is here for 3-4 years to set up shop for a longer term replacement. That is giving up already. Bellotti's best years are behind him. Time has moved on and so has U.C.L.A. Wrong time, wrong person, wrong hire.

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It's Monday morning, Bruins.

We still don't have a football coach. But we still have the same Athletic Director. And we still have an athletic department in shambles:

Graphic via: Fire Dan Guerrero Group, Join it Save UCLA Athletics Today.

Call the Chancellor today and every day. Email the Chancellor today and every day. Let him know that Bruins fans are tired of the debacle that is Chianti Dan. We need better. We deserve better.

Phone: 310-825-2151
E-mail: chancellor@ucla.edu
Fax: 310-206-6030

U.S. mail address:
UCLA Chancellor's Office
Box 951405, 2147 Murphy Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1405

Contact Chancellor Gene Block's office today and ask him to step in and stop Dan Guerrero from further embarrassing UCLA in what has already been a publicly humiliating search process.

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