Here's hoping your school isn't using whiskey as mouthwash thinking about who it woke up next to this morning
Themes
USC Soars Late, Pulls Shocker
Tallahassee Lincoln kids love to flirt, and they're never lacking for suitors. But when push comes to shove, the vast majority of them break hearts and stick with the hometown Seminoles. So it came as a complete shock to many people when highly regarded cornerback T.J. Bryant cast his lot with Pete Carroll and USC.
USC lost out on Alabama linebacker Jerrell Harris, but did pull in Bryant, Michigan linebacker Nick Perry and Los Angeles linebacker Uona Kavienga throughout the second half of the day to slide into 7th place in the Rivals.com rankings. It's been a great month of recruiting overall as USC recently got a pledge from the nation's top player for 2009 in quarterback Matt Barkley along with several other preliminary top 100 recruits. Damn.
Back To The Future
As expertly stated by EDSBS, the top of the recruiting rankings have a certain 1985 feel. Alabama, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Miami ... thank heaven for moth balls.
Miscellany
Notre Dame has a great deal to prove on the field after last year's disaster and two consecutive BCS flops. However, the Irish were magnificent in holding together their recruiting class and finding some decent guys in the trenches (at least on defense, anyway). The same can be said for UCLA after the departure of coach Karl Dorrell.
Were it not for all the other wackiness in College Football this season, the collapses of California and Oregon Football would be among this year's major story lines. As both teams were poised to take over the number-one ranking in the country, their quarterbacks suffered injuries which sent their seasons on a downward spiral.
Oregon infamously refused to disclose the status of Dennis Dixon's knee during the bye week between games against Arizona State and Arizona, only to have their national championship hopes dislocated against the Wildcats.
But hiding a quarterback injury wasn't exclusive to the Ducks. California quarterback Nate Longshore played the nearly the whole season with a chipped bone in his ankle--hobbling him ever since the Bears beat the Ducks. Bears coach Jeff Tedford admitted yesterday, "There's a little chip in the back part of it there. I didn't get that it was a broken ankle. But Nate had talked to me about a little chip that was in the back there."
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.
A press conference is scheduled for later this afternoon, but the release is already in the public domain. Guerrero remarks that, "at the end of the day, the focus has to be on results and I felt that a change was in the best interest for the future of our program."
In his official reaction, Dorrell politely thanked Guerrero for the opportunity and adds, "I am proud of what the program accomplished during my five years, especially in the areas of academics, citizenship and recruiting."
Spurning the advances of former Bruin Rick Neuheisel, UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero has narrowed his list of candidates for the football head coaching job to three.
According to both localpapers, the next football coach in Westwood will be Boise State's Chris Petersen, Texas Tech's Mike Leach or the NFL Network's Steve Mariucci. Petersen is said to be the favorite, but the notoriously stingy University may opt for Mariucci, as he has no contract that needs to be bought out.
There's only one little problem: Guerrero has yet to dump current head coach Karl Dorrell. In fact, Dorrell is quoted in the University's official press release regarding the Las Vegas Bowl, saying, "UCLA is extremely happy to be playing in the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl." I guess he has a point, because the way this season went, Dorrell should be happy to be in a bowl at all!
Given his 5-1 record against Dorrell, it should come as little surprise that USC coach Pete Carroll is coming across as Karl's greatest fan, imploring fans and the University to, "Give him a friggin' break."
Ben Olson may well be starting at quarterback again for UCLA, but he won't be wearing Bruin Blue.
Last year during the lead up to the cross-town rivalry, USC Coach Pete Carroll said he'd propose to UCLA coach Karl Dorrell that the teams both wear home uniforms as they did until UCLA moved to the Rose Bowl in 1982, as seen in this 1969 throwback photo.
Although it seemed unlikely as their season unraveled earlier this month, the UCLA Bruins are still in the running for the Rose Bowl Game after defeating the beleaguered Oregon Ducks in Pasadena 16-0.
For the first half of the game, it looked like neither injury-riddled team wanted to win the ballgame. Converted wide receiver Osaar Rashaan completed none of his 7 passes in the start, resulting in Karl Dorrell bringing "emergency substitute" Ben Olson off the bench at haltime--providing a spark to make the UCLA offense look merely mediocre. Meanwhile, the Bruin defense showed just how important Dennis Dixon was to the Oregon Ducks.
If UCLA beats USC, Oregon beats Oregon State and Arizona defeats Arizona State next Saturday, the Bruins will have the tiebreaker in the four-way race, sending the 7-5 Bruins to the Rose Bowl Game, Oregon to the Holiday Bowl, USC to the Sun Bowl and Arizona State to San Francisco's Emerald Bowl.
Then again, the Oregon loss puts USC in the drivers' seat for the Rose Bowl game--win and they're in. Even if the Trojans lose to UCLA, they could back in to the Rose Bowl is Oregon and Arizona State also lose.
If anyone is having a rougher week than USC head coach Pete Carroll, it is UCLA coach Karl Dorrell. While Carroll was taking accountability for the Trojans' loss to Stanford with alumni on Monday, the Bruin head coach went into hiding.
According to the Los Angeles Times, " Requests to interview Dorrell on Monday night were turned away with the explanation that he could not be located."
When Olson went down against winless Notre Dame, Dorrell was faced with three bad choices--play walkon McLeod Bethel-Thomspon, switch Osaar Rasshan back to the quarterback position he played for his first two years in Westwood or take the red shirt off of highly-touted frosh Chris Forcier.
If Cowan cannot recover in time for the Bruins' October 20 matchup with California, Dorrell will have to make the same decision again--and have some explaining to do if he diverts from the course chosen against the Irish.
Starting QB Ben Olson has been suffering from headaches all week since getting battered by the Utah Utes and the effects were apparently too much for Southpaw Jesus. As a result, Head coach Karl Dorrell has to give a new meaning to "second choice" in Westwood as he must rely on his backup quarterback for the second season in a row.
As for Cowan, he seems to have recovered from a preseason hamstring injury which sidelined him during fall camp.
Just a year and a half into the marriage between UCLA football head coach Karl Dorrell and transfer quarterback Ben Olson, the relationship seems to be on the rocks.
More reminiscent of a marriage going on its tenth year, Olson is denying Dorrell his services on account of "headaches."
Dorrell tells the Los Angeles Times, "Ben has a headache and he's had this headache since Saturday night," and that backup quarterback Pat Cowan has been leading the Bruins in practice.
Given that only Nebraska's Sam Keller spent more time on the carpet than Olson on Saturday, some are speculating that the headaches may be related to a concussion which may have Olson on the sideline for more than one night.
Here's hoping your school isn't using whiskey as mouthwash thinking about who it woke up next to this morning
Were it not for all the other wackiness in College Football this season, the collapses of California and Oregon Football would be among this year's major story lines. As both teams were poised to take over the number-one ranking in the country, their quarterbacks suffered injuries which sent their seasons on a downward spiral.
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