Bruins Rebirth

I have never been considered a big fan of Rick Neuheisel the coach. The guy who walked on at UCLA and then became their starting QB I liked, but the coach who has brought on NCAA scrutiny at his two previous stops, Colorado and Washington, and then got his dream job without warranting it (something that has become the trend in Los Angeles) is not someone I care for. So when Neuheisel, who only won 11 games in his first two years in Westwood, apologized to the crowd after the Bruins got hammered 35-0 at home to Stanford in week two, I rolled my eyes. Once again the Bruins were going to be an afterthought in both the Pac 10 race and in the national picture.

But then something clicked with the new offense brought in over the summer in an attempt to improve the team's poor rush attack. Despite having passing game wiz Norm Chow as offensive coordinator and being in position to recruit from the great stable of California high school quarterbacks, the Bruins decided to take a look at what Nevada does with their founding version of the "Pistol" attack. Nevada coach Chris Ault--who is already a college football hall of famer--developed the formation in 2004. Ault took the spread attack and added a power run game dimension. His offense in 2009 became the first in college football history to produce three 1,000y rushers in QB Colin Kaepernick and RBs Luke Lippincott and Vai Taua. Alabama is now using the offense at times with success while James Madison used the Pistol to upset Virginia Tech on the same day that Neuheisel was apologizing. For the Bruins it took a few weeks to master the attack and get their offensive line healthy enough to block quality defenses. Beginning with game three they bounced Houston from the top 25 with a 31-13 win and then last week shocked Texas with 34-12 beating, wearing down the Longhorns defense in the second half. The win was the first over a ranked opponent on the road since 2001. Soph RB Johnathan Franklin has been the breakout star of the Bruins ground game in rushing for 409y. He led the Bruins last year with just 560y total. Meanwhile QB Kevin Prince averages just 71y passing per game as UCLA resembles the old days of coaches Pepper Rodgers and Dick Vermeil, when their offense featured backs like Kermit Johnson, Wendell Tyler, Theotis Brown and Freeman McNeil.

Lost in the praise for the Pistol offense has been the play of a young and aggressive defense. Coach Chuck Bullough's stop unit held Houston to 360y, more than 200y less than their average, and then gave no quarter to the Longhorns. The Bruins allowed short passes, but hammered the receivers upon completion. And, of course, Texas could not run the ball but UCLA cannot get credit for that--the Longhorns can't run the ball against anyone. Not one of the top seven tacklers for UCLA are seniors, while the offense is also loaded with underclassmen. There should be no reason for anyone to apologize for the rest of the year and in 2011.

Power Shift

Within three years of Alabama being put on probation, with scholarship losses, in 2001, SEC West rivals Auburn and LSU turned in glorious seasons with Louisiana State winning a share of a national title in 2003 and Auburn enjoying a 13-0 season in 2004. Coincidence? Maybe, but it is clear that the two sets of Tigers did benefit from their rival's self-inflicted misfortune. When a major power slumps, others benefit.

Who stands to gain the most from the recent sanctions leveled onto the Southern California program? The obvious answer is nearby UCLA, who has always gone head-to-toe with the Trojans for many of the star players produced by area high schools. Typically the Trojans win those battles, but the tide had turned a bit in recent years and coach Rick Neuheisel can smell blood. But the Bruins need to win, and win soon, to attract the type of player that was attracted to the great success enjoyed by USC the past 10 years. If the Bruins are indeed one of the programs gaining a major boost from this situation, we may not see the major bowl they gain for a couple of years. California, Oregon, and Oregon State may be the programs better suited to vault themselves up the rankings with help from USC's troubles. Also look out for Arizona and Stanford, two programs on the rise that may be able to cash in on better recruits and a better record against USC to move into the Top 10. It is not just a boost in recruiting that these squads hope to enjoy but more chances to beat the Trojans.

The other situation to monitor is with the national recruits who have recently chosen between powerhouses like USC, Florida and Ohio State. USC's woes will help all of those programs, plus Notre Dame, who not only has a better chance to reverse a horrible recent record against their longtime rivals but can possibly pluck an additional star recruit who may have been headed to the land of Troy.

Of course, these sanctions do not guarantee years of agony for USC fans. USC is still allowed to play games with all of the talent currently on the roster. If coach Lane Kiffin wants a model to follow he should look at the Miami Hurricanes of Butch Davis from the mid-to-late 1990s. After a similar hit from the NCAA Miami definitely dropped from their standing among the game's elite, which helped Florida and Florida State in the top 3 and Syracuse in the Big East. But Davis still recruited well and played the kids, who grew into the powerhouse program that would win nine games in each of the 1998 and 1999 campaigns before running off 46 wins with a national title from 2000-03. For Kiffin to do as well he needs to not only make the limited number of scholarships work, but also recruit more four-year players than normal. Play the kids and keep the kids. It worked for Miami.

Pac 10 Update

It will be a tale of injured QBs at the Rose Bowl this weekend for the marquee Pac 10 match-up. UCLA (0-1; 3-1) QB Kevin Prince returns to the starting lineup after breaking his jaw in game two of the season. Prince’s play is crucial for UCLA’s chances as he can better exploit a banged up Oregon (2-0; 4-1) D secondary which has lost DBs Walter Thurmond and Willie Glasper for the season and is hoping to get back injured S T.J. Ward for this game. CB Anthony Gildon will need to step up as he began the season third string before moving up thanks to injuries to Thurmond and Glasper. The Ducks have not faced a QB who could exploit this issue and have to pressure Prince so that he does not have a big game. For the Ducks, QB Jeremiah Masoli is also hurt and sub Nate Costa—himself returning from torn ACL suffered in August of 2008--gets the start. Oregon goes through multiple QBs on an annual basis and Costa is a good one so look for the Ducks to remain aggressive on O with Costa running less than Masoli but throwing downfield more.

Forecasting the playing future of suspended Ducks RB LeGarrette Blount became a bit easier this week as coach Chip Kelly opened the door for a Blount return. In September he and Costa formed an awesome scout team combination. By November we might be saying the same thing about Masoli and the team’s leading rusher LaMichael James.

After Midnight

Wish I could say I watched UCLA’s 23-9 victory over Kansas State live after midnight Eastern time. Actually, I watched it pretty much at the time the sun was coming up over the Atlantic Ocean.

Here’s what occurred: Arizona State’s win over Louisiana-Monroe—shown live on Fox Sports Arizona—pushed back the start of a tape delayed UCLA game. After a long day of watching Nebraska give away a win to Virginia Tech, Notre Dame try to give away a win to Michigan State, and other adventures by California, Penn State, Iowa, Army, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, I was too bushed to do anything but dub my own version of the taped action from the Rose Bowl. It was an interesting match-up of two coaches—Rick Neuheisel and Bill Snyder—who used to battle each other annually at Colorado and K-State respectively.

A police and handcuffs nightmare—was I under arrest for posting lousy game picks in Week 2?—awoke me at 3:30 a.m. MST, so I rolled tape of the second half. Kansas State back Daniel Thomas, a former JC performer, crafted some nice spurts running the ball on an eight-minute TD drive in the third quarter to pull the Wildcats within 13-9.

But from that moment on, the Bruins’s defense really sparkled and ended with six sacks as they protected their 23-9 lead built on Kai Forbath’s field goal and WR Terrance Austin’s long reception of a perfect crossing-pattern TD pass from Kevin Craft, last year’s highly-limited QB who played well last night in place of Kevin Prince, who broke his jaw last week at Tennessee.

UCLA’s defense, which has a hole or two, plays with energy and could help steal an extra win or two in the Pac-10 this year.

Bob Boyles