LOS ANGELES -- Based on the inconsistent history of UCLA's football program, smart money would go against the undefeated Bruins overcoming the loss of starting quarterback Kevin Prince and winning the Rose Bowl this season.
Why? Well, let's start with the fact that UCLA has only represented the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl twice since Jan. 1, 1986 and the last time the Bruins played a bowl game in their own home stadium was Jan. 1, 1999, when they lost to Wisconsin, 38-31.
Then there's UCLA's poor track record in bowl games. In 29 postseason appearances, the Bruins are 13-15-1, including defeats in four of their last bowl games.
Want more? Just go back to last season when rookie coach Rick Neuheisel led UCLA to a 4-8 record, the program's worst in 20 years.
Perhaps Colorado coach Dan Hawkins somewhere internally knew his tenure was in trouble when he made the infamous 10-win prediction prior to this season.
That's what desperate coaches do to soothe a restless fan base. Smart ones just shut up and coach.
But two games into Hawkins' fourth season in Boulder, we're finding out Boise State isn't exactly the cradle of coaches and that it's time for the Hawkins experiment to end. The Buffaloes' latest embarrassment, a 54-38 drubbing at the hands of middle of the pact Mid-American Conference foe Toledo on Friday night at the Glass Bowl.
The UCLA Bruins are not supposed to win football games like this.
No way. Not on the road in front of a hostile Tennessee crowd of 102,239 in a game that featured a fourth-quarter goal-line stand by the Bruins and a couple of key late officiating calls that did not go in their favor.
This just does not happen for a Pac-10 football program in SEC land. But it did.
LOS ANGELES -- It's put up or shut up time for the Pac-10 Conference.
With three of the conference's top teams facing difficult games on the road -- highlighted by USC's national showdown at Ohio State - the strength of the Pac-10 will be under the spotlight this weekend.
And arguably, the most important matchup will take place in SEC territory when UCLA second-year coach Rick Neuheisel leads the Bruins into Knoxville to battle Tennessee first-year coach Lane Kiffin and the Volunteers.
Even first-year Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott, who's new to the game when it comes to improving the perception of West Coast football, said,: "Strong out-of-conference matchups capture the public's imagination."
LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach Pete Carroll -- touched on the uncertainty of the Trojans this season.
USC received 28 of the 32 votes with California receiving three while third-place Oregon collected one vote. The Trojans will be breaking in a new quarterback and several new defenders since 11 players were taken in the NFL Draft. Perhaps this is the year another school emerges and takes the crown out of Los Angeles, but they approached Thursday precariously and with respect. There were no declarations that USC is going down or the reign is over -- not even from UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel.
What had Neuheisel so upset is that Carroll voted against Neuheisel's proposal to allow coaches to have their children with them on the sidelines during games. Neuheisel explained on the video that the Pac-10 has a rule that children aren't permitted on the sidelines during games, but Neuheisel wanted a waiver for coaches' children, because he thinks fathers and sons can bond on the sidelines during games. Neuheisel said the proposal was put to a vote at a meeting of Pac-10 coaches, and that the vote was 9-1, with only Carroll opposed.
In the fall of 2004, I moved to the United States Virgin Islands to practice law. Within a month, I'd embarked upon a pudding strike to protest the lack of availability of the NFL Sunday Ticket. (DirecTV didn't service the island at all and it was impossible to watch my Tennessee Titans play at any sports bar. Or any other team play for that matter that wasn't on regular broadcast networks.) So I decided the only responsible solution to that dilemma was to embark upon a pudding strike.
Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.
Zed's Dead, But Not The Spread -- Great find from Smart Football of UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel discussing in great detail the spread offense and UCLA's decision not to run it. Smart Football has his response as well, synthesizing Neuheisel's main arguments and where he gets confused before making the conclusion that the term has "quickly lost all use as a meaningful and descriptive term".
Two Seattle Times reporters have won one of journalism's most prestigious awards for documenting the dozens of crimes committed by Washington's 2001 Rose Bowl-winning team.
The reporters, Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry, were among the George Polk Award winners announced today. Armstrong and Perry wrote a four-part series that showed at least two dozen Washington players had been arrested, sometimes for violent felonies, while playing at Washington.
Sparring, because his father was a pugilist, get it? Good. In a bit of a red on red turned cardinal and gold on powder keg blue and gold moment, USC linebacker coach Ken Norton Jr. aired grievances this week with dear old alma mater UCLA. Reports the Los Angeles Times:
"If DeWayne leaves, I would consider several candidates for the defensive coordinator job. Kenny probably would have been among those considered, with no guarantees. However, his quotes in the paper say he is staying at USC, so we wish him well."
Translation: good luck ever getting hired by UCLA. Ahhh, catty man fights. Usually this stuff is so NFL.
LOS ANGELES -- Based on the inconsistent history of UCLA's football program, smart money would go against the undefeated Bruins overcoming the loss of starting quarterback Kevin Prince and winning the Rose Bowl this season.
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LOS ANGELES -- It's put up or shut up time for the 
LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach 
For the last month, a video was available on 
Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, 
Two Seattle Times reporters have won one of journalism's most prestigious awards for documenting the dozens of crimes committed by Washington's 2001 Rose Bowl-winning team.
Sparring, because his father was a pugilist, get it? Good. In a bit of a red on red turned cardinal and gold on powder keg blue and gold moment, USC linebacker coach 
