FanHouse DewayneWalker

If Mediocrity had a football team, its mascot would most likely wear a giant foam Mike Stoops head

Ahhh, mediocre college football. Three words that go together like turkey, gravy, and stuffing.

While the majority of space here at FanHouse and on every other college football publication will be focused on the Top 25, season after season a huge slice of the college football fan pie (mmmm...fan pie) find themselves supporting a team who would most aptly be described as thoroughly mediocre, at best. I'd venture to guess that for every legit contender, there are probably three teams with a couple of flaws so glaring that only those blinded by the partisanship of homerdom can pretend their team's downsides won't inevitably sabotage any hopes of playing in a bowl of even moderate respectability.

And therein lies one of the most cruel realities of the college football landscape: winning 6 or 7 games is no small feat, and yet every year coaches and players around the country will be abused for achieving that very milestone. Of course, when you play in a conference like the Pac 10 -- who rewards its third place finisher with a December 31 game in El Paso's Sun Bowl -- can you really be that surprised when fans and pundits are critical of barely topping out above .500?

Who from the Pac 10 will slide to the middle of the pack in 2008? Here's a quick rundown of the leading candidates for Pacific time zone mediocrity this season.

Few things in life are as heartwarming as a lifelong bond between father and son. Playing catch in the backyard. Going fishing. Hell, getting a little homework help. But then young men eventually grow up and gain independence and make decisions that take them away from their fathers.

Nowhere is that more public than in the recruiting game. Many times a player will stick with his father (see Luke Bellotti playing at Oregon for his father Mike Bellotti or quarterback Cody Hawkins heading to Colorado to play for his old man). But while blood may be thicker than water, sometimes blood doesn't have the pull it should.

Last year, Georgia coach Mark Richt's son Jon Richt pledged to play quarterback for Clemson over his fathers' Dawgs. No doubt a tough decision for a closeknit family like that. The separation continues this year as it is rumored UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker's son Kevan, a receiver prospect, will not stick with dear old dad at UCLA but instead play for the Oregon State Beavers.

The upshot to all of this is that while recruiting is a competitive, sometimes nasty business, coaches recruiting a fellow coaches' son must tone down his pitch which can only help but improve relations between coaches.

Just minutes after UCLA announced that it would have a head coaching vacancy in its football program, its leading candidate turned down the job.

Boise State head coach Chris Petersen, identified this morning by the Los Angeles Times as the Bruins' top pick, told the Idaho Statesman that he is not interested in Karl Dorrell's old job.

Peterson told the paper that he has been contacted by one school--but was not interested--and would not say whether that was in addition to the interest from Westwood.

The difference in cost of living should be enough to make someone like Petersen want to stay in Boise, where a $850,000 salary would be the equivalent of more than $1.5 million in Los Angeles.

All of a sudden it seems like Los Angeles has become the Capitol City of College Football. Six years ago, the local papers asked whether the local title of "football school" had shifted to Westwood as UCLA competed for conference titles and challenged for a potential national championship. The USC Trojans have come back from the brink and have claimed five straight Pac Ten Titles and now the Bruins are looking for one of their own.

Oh, and P.S., we know that we're a Trojan fan at heart, so no need to remind us of the potential risks that poses for analyzing our school's second-biggest rival...

WHY THEY'LL WIN

UCLA has one of the best defenses in the country. Coached by DeWayne Walker, the Bruin Defense has done what no school had in five years--hold the USC offense to less than ten points in an upset victory last year. The Bruin offense brings under-rated running-back Chris Markey to the table and will sport a duo of experienced quarterbacks in Ben Olson and Pat Cowan with big-game experience. The pressure is off Head Coach Karl Dorrell after beating USC in 2006 and now the Bruins can focus on winning again, week in and week out.

WHY THEY'LL LOSE

UCLA is still a "basketball school" no matter what the Sons of Westwood may tell you. Unless you slept through the month of December--or like most UCLA fans were already focused on College Basketball--you missed the San Francisco Emerald Nuts Bowl, where Florida State--who had combined for three total rushing yards earlier in the season with Miami--ran roughshod over the Bruin defense. The Bruins will have to figure out how to bring their "A" game week in and week out if they want to win in the Pac Ten. Practice reports show that the Bruin offense is struggling to learn the West Coast offense. UCLA also has to travel to the Coliseum this year, where no team has won in more than half a decade.

Last Year: 6-7, unranked

Fans Are: Into basketball.

Expectations: Win nine games and beat USC.

Questions:

1. How in the world did UCLA beat USC again?

In one word: DEFENSE. The Bruins brought in a new defensive coordinator for 2006--DeWayne Walker--and had two weeks to scheme for what had become a rather predictable Trojan offensive system. On the other side of the ball, the Bruins' most productive play was backup quarterback Pat Cowan scrambling for his life.

The Bruins, however, will have to travel to the Coliseum this year, where they lost 66-19 two years ago.

2. Is there a quarterback controversey in the works?

Last year, Brigham Young transfer Ben Olson started the season for the Bruins, giving the Sons of Westwood high expectations on his reputation as "Southpaw Jesus"... Olson got injured midway through the season and was replaced by Pat Cowan.

Cowan then did the unthinkable and led UCLA to a win over cross-town rival USC, who had been poised to play for the BCS Title against Ohio State. Cowan then topped himself in unthinkability when he made Jeff Bowden look like an offensive genius during the Bruins beat-down from Florida State in the Emerald Nuts Bowl.

Head coach Karl Dorrell had consistently said that if Olson were healthy he'd play...so those who are hoping for more Cowan heroics in 2007 may have to cool their heels.

3. Who are those new guys on the sidelines?

UCLA had a major blood-letting on its offensive coaching staff this off-season. Dorrell told Offensive coordinator Jim Svoboda in January, "you're fired!" Offensive line coach Jim Svoboda then left for the NFL and wide receivers coach D.J. McCarthy then left for greener pastures at Louisiana State.

Nebraska's Jay Norvell takes over for Svoboda in 2007 and Bob Connelly takes over the offensive line--each the fourth to hold the position in Dorrell's five-year tenure in Westwood.

Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker knows that the UCLA Bruins are going to count on his unit to make up for the team's offensive shortcomings.

But if that doesn't happen, Walker cannot say he wasn't warned. When he approached USC Coach Pete Carroll before taking the job, the Trojan warned Walker that the Bruins' defense was "soft" and needed a major upgrade before being worthy of Walker's skills.

Had the Trojan Marching Band been asked about the UCLA "D", they would have played "Tusk"--the Fleetwood Mac song whose revised lyrics chant, "U - C - L - A Sucks!"

But while the Band's lyrics can be shunned as simply a matter of opinion, Carroll has the facts to back up the smack talk. The last two seasons, the Bruin defense ranked 106 and 113 out of 117 NCAA Division 1-A teams...and playing Carroll'd offensively-minded Trojans each year didn't help those numbers a bit.