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Pac 10 Preview: Exercises in Mediocrity

Posted: Aug 11th 2008 9:08PM by Kyle Bunch (author feed)
Filed under: Arizona, California, Oregon State, UCLA, Pac 10

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.

Continue Reading Pac 10 Preview: Exercises in Mediocrity

UCLA Offense Takes Another Hit

Posted: Jun 25th 2008 9:39AM by Sean Hawkins (author feed)
Filed under: UCLA Football, Pac 10

0 COMMENTS

The UCLA offense is a little thin these days, what with starting quarterback Patrick Cowan and backup Ben Olson already nursing various injuries. Cowan is actually lost for the entire 2008 season after tearing his ACL, and Olson suffered a broken right foot late in spring ball and should miss most of the off-season training sessions. But now the offensive line has joined in, as projected starting right tackle Sean Sheller could be on the shelf for some time.

According to the LA Times, Sheller was injured over the weekend while riding an ATV. He suffered an open wound on his left ankle as well as an undisclosed injury to his left knee. An MRI is pending on the knee to determine how much damage was actually done in the accident.

An interesting angle is that the LA Times also reports in the same story that UCLA gained a JC tackle in Donovan Edwards. Edwards is a late signee who could be eligible to play immediately this fall, pending summer school results.

The troubling thing for UCLA is what this does to an already-thin offensive line. It's bad enough when you are without a couple of QB's and it's only June. But the Bruins were already down to two returning starters up front with the "Micah" duo of Micah Reed at center and Micah Kia at left tackle. Overall eight of the top 10 listed on the offensive line depth chart didn't even play a single snap last year, so potentially losing Sheller isn't exactly good news.

Dorrell, UCLA QBs are MIA

Posted: Oct 9th 2007 12:57PM by Scott Olin Schmidt (author feed)
Filed under: UCLA Football, Pac 10, NCAA FB Injuries, Los Angeles

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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."

If we were Dorrell, we'd go into hiding, too. His starting quarterback Ben Olson has been lost for the season with a knee injury. Backup Pat Cowan was already sidelined with a similar injury.

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.

Cowan to Start for Bruins

Posted: Sep 21st 2007 12:54PM by Scott Olin Schmidt (author feed)
Filed under: UCLA Football, Washington Football, Pac 10, NCAA FB Injuries

1 COMMENT

The last time Patrick Cowan started a game at the Rose Bowl, his wild scrambling led the UCLA Bruins to a 13-9 victory over cross-town rival USC. On Saturday, he will try to dig back into his magic bag of tricks when he starts as the Bruin quarterback against the Washington Huskies.

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.

With his players suffering more concussions that Troy Aikman, Coach Dorrell has a new policy banning bloggers from writing about injuries during practice until he can comment.