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Scouts Inc. writers Antonio Williams and Bob Gibbons spent some summer days in the desert watching young basketball prospects play all day in the Reebok Summer Championships and the adidas Super 64 last week.
Of note to UCLA fans was the performance of potential future Bruin, 6-9 Renardo Sidney of Artesia High School, playing on the LA Dream Team in the Reebok tournament. The Dream Team lost to King of the Court, 61-54, in the quarterfinals of the RBK Create or Finish Cup. According to the Scouts.com report, "Sidney disappointed with his effort and energy, finishing with 12 points (4-13 FG) and 10 rebounds. At one juncture during the game, with the score knotted at 50 and 2 minutes left on the clock, Sidney found himself on the bench, atypical for a player billed as the best in his class. His sub-par [effort] has left doubts about his status as the nation’s No. 1 junior."
Things went better for four other potential future Bruins in the adidas Super 64, playing for Pump-n-Run Elite against Playaz Basketball Club at the Cox Pavilion on the UNLV campus: "Pump-n-Run was led by the future backcourt for UCLA, 6-4 SG Jrue Holiday (North Hollywood, Calif.), who scored 18 points while 6-3 PG Jerime Anderson (Anaheim, Calif.) Had 13 points. Class of 2009 prospects twins David and Travis Wear, both from Santa Ana, Calif. impressed with their play, as did North Carolina-recruit 6-2 PG Larry Drew, Jr. (Woodland Hills, Calif.), son of former NBA player and current Atlanta Hawks assistant Larry Drew." Pump-n-Run lost in overtime, 90-88.
 How much have Ben Olson and Patrick Cowan learned from Jay Norvell? How effective will Kai Forbath be as a replacement for Justin Medlock? Will Nikola Dragovic and Tom Blake be able to fill Justin Hickman’s shoes?
Those are only some of the questions that may start to be answered on August 18, when UCLA debuts its 2007 football team at a free scrimmage at Drake Stadium(capacity: 11,142; pictured above) on campus, beginning at 11:00 a.m.
The gates will open at 9:30 a.m. and the scrimmage will comprise about 80 plays from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with autographs available on the field from 12:30-1:00 p.m.
UCLA has a plethora of promotions going on during the day:
>> The first 2,500 attendees will receive a free team poster, distributed at the Drake Stadium gate at the top of Bruin Walk, near Young Drive.
>> Free Fall Scrimmage Rosters will be distributed for the scrimmage and 100 of these will be selected for free prizes.
>> Two new fan-outreach programs will be available: the Bruin Kids Club, presented by Mattel’s Children’s Hospital for those aged 13 and younger and the Bruin Locker Room, a program of e-mail updates and promotional offers (free).
>> Purchasers of season tickets for football, men’s basketball or women’s basketball will receive a free duffle bag.
Parking is $8 on campus with Lots 4 (off Sunset), 6 and 7 (off Westwood Boulevard) available. The roof level of Lot 8 is also a good option.
Tracy Pierson of Scout.com reported that UCLA received a verbal commitment from Valencia junior-to-be cornerback Marlon Pollard, beating out most of the Pac-10, including Cal, Oregon, USC and Washington, along with Colorado.
He is listed at 6-0 and 149 pounds and had 15 tackles for Valencia during his sophomore season, according to Scout.com. He’s also a sprinter and jumper for the Vikings track team, training under former Bruin and Olympic gold medal winner Sherri Howard at Valencia. He has the school sophomore class records in the high jump (6-2), long jump (21-4) and triple jump (43-11).
It’s UCLA’s first verbal commitment for its 2009 class.
 UCLA’s men’s soccer team, which reached the national final before losing to UC Santa Barbara amid snowy conditions in St. Louis last season, has been ranked no. 1 in the nation in a pre-season poll by College Soccer News.
CSN wrote of the top-ranked Bruins:
"Make no mistake about it, this team is loaded with talent and top-notch competitive experience. Begin with the fact that nine starters are back from the 2006 team that advanced to the national championship match. Sophomore forward David Estrada (12g, 4a, pictured right), junior midfielders Sal Zizzo (7g, 9a) and Tony Beltran (0g, 1a), sophomore midfielder Kyle Nakazawa (4g, 8a), and senior defender Mike Zaher are among the prime timers who return. Consider the fact that defender Brandon Owens and forward Maxwell Griffin (5g, 1a) return after sustaining injuries in 2006. Look at the high level of competitive play that many of the Bruins have engaged in since the end of the 2006 season. Throw in the fact that players often improve the most between their freshman and sophomore seasons which bodes well for the young Bruins. Add in the fact that UCLA will feature one of the countries premier goalkeepers in sophomore Brian Perk and it is clear that Jorge Salcedo’s UCLA Bruins have what it takes to win it all in 2007."
Zizzo has left UCLA to sign with Hannover 96 of the German Bundesliga, but all the others will return. Everyone will find out how good the Bruins actually are right away as UCLA opens with three ranked opponents on the road: no. 11 Notre Dame on August 31 at Bloomington, Indiana; at no. 8 Indiana on September 2, and at no. 21 Creighton on September 8.
Behind the Bruins in the pre-season poll are Duke, UC Santa Barbara, Wake Forest and Santa Clara in the top five, then Virginia, SMU, Indiana, Maryland and New Mexico.
UCLA has won four NCAA soccer titles, the last in 2002.
 "Today wasn't the day for us. We didn't show up. You can't win them all."
Especially in pouring rain. Bruin sophomore Nicole Leach, already the bronze medalist in the 400-meter hurdles, ran the anchor leg for the U.S. in the 4x400-meter relay at the Pan American Games in Rio on Saturday, holding on for a bronze medal.
The U.S. track & field team, one of the weakest ever sent to a Pan American Games, had a women’s foursome of Debbie Dunn, Angel Perkins (from Cerritos), Latonia Wilson and Leach in the relay, none of whom even made the final in the U.S. 400 m championships in June. Leach was third in the 400 m hurdles final. Former Bruin Monique Henderson, who would have been the anchor, was injured during the 400 meter races.
In the race in Rio, Leach had a slight lead at the final exchange, not nearly enough to hold off Pan Am 400-meter bronze medalist Indira Terrero of Cuba and three-time Pan Am gold medalist Ana Guevara of Mexico, who passed Leach to take first and second. Leach crossed the line in third in 3:27.84.
Leach leaves Rio with two bronzes and will now concentrate on the IAAF World Track & Field Championships in Osaka, Japan, that will start on August 25.
For an interesting look at the anti-American sentiment that plagued the U.S. team all during the Pan American Games, check out one of Leach's diary entries for the UCLA Bruins.com website.
Rivals.com posted a note that Mountain Ridge (Phoenix, Arizona) High School punter Jeff Locke, a three-star prospect, has made a verbal commitment to attend UCLA.
He’s the no. 3-rated kicker on the Rivals list and no. 17 on their list of Arizona prospects. He reportedly chose the Bruins over Arizona State, Washington State, Wisconsin, South Carolina and others.
If correct, it’s UCLA’s 23rd verbal commitment in a fine recruiting class currently ranked second in the nation by Rivals, with Notre Dame listed at no. 1.
UCLA’s incumbent punter, Aaron Perez, will be a junior this coming season.
An ESPN.com survey of 15 college football experts, including 14 who work for ESPN, named USC as the no. 1 college football program of the last decade, spanning the period of 1997-2006.
UCLA was the no. 3 program listed from the Pac-10 at no. 27, with Oregon at 17th. Behind the Bruins were California (35), Oregon State (37), Arizona State (41), Washington State (43), Washington (52), Arizona (71) and Stanford (82).
The Bruins were named to the top 25 on two of the 15 ballots, both times at no. 21, by ESPN The Magazine’s Bruce Feldman and by Joe Schad, one of ESPN’s college football reporters. USC was first on nine ballots and never lower than seventh.
Ivan Maisel, writing on ESPN.com commented, "you could make the case that USC didn't dominate the decade long enough to deserve to be No. 1. But the most interesting observation to come out of this ranking is the realization that none of the teams has been dominant for 10 years. Bob Stoops has made No. 5 Oklahoma into a power over his eight seasons, but in the two years before his arrival, the Sooners won a total of nine games.
"No. 4 Florida endured the moderate three-year dip under Ron Zook. The only team that can make a good case for 10 consecutive successful seasons is Ohio State, which is No. 2. The Buckeyes, however, have one fewer national championship than the Trojans, and their four seasons under John Cooper in this decade produced a lot of wins, but not enough of them in big games."
So a decade that starts out 6-5 (under John Robinson), then 8-5, 6-6, 5-7 (with Paul Hackett), and finishes 6-6, 11-2, 12-1, 13-0, 12-1 and 11-2 (with Pete Carroll) equates to domination. By that standard, UCLA’s basketball squad will probably be the nation’s top basketball program over the past decade after three more years, which will still include the last three seasons under Steve Lavin.
Are you kidding? I'm jogging a "Script Ohio" right now!
 A lot was made of LSU coach Les Miles’s comments in front of a booster group in New Orleans in late June at yesterday’s Pac-10 Football Media Day. According to a July 1 report by Carl DuBois in the Baton Rouge Advocate, Miles said:
"I can tell you that I would like nothing better than to play USC for the title.
"I can tell you this, they have a much easier road to travel. They’re going to play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkeley and Stanford - some real juggernauts - and they’re going to end up, it would be my guess, in some position so if they win a game or two, that they’ll end up in the title [game]. I would like that path for us.
"I think the SEC provides much stiffer competition."
It’s nice for Miles to stick up for his conference, but he should at least disclose that he doesn’t know much about what he’s talking about. As a head coach at Oklahoma State (2001-04) and at LSU (2005-06), he’s played a grand total of four games against Pac-10 teams. His OSU teams were 1-1 against UCLA and his LSU teams beat Arizona State with a miracle fourth-quarter comeback in 2005, 35-31, and then crushed Arizona, 45-3 last season.
Going back to his days as an assistant coach, Miles’s teams had a good but not great record of 13-8 against Pac-10 opponents. When he was at Michigan during two tours of duty, those teams were 9-2 against the Pac-10, losing only to USC and Washington in the Rose Bowl. But in his five years as an assistant at Colorado, his teams were 4-6 against the Pac-10 including two drubbings by UCLA squads (1982, 1984) on which Karl Dorrell was a receiver.
Just our hunch, but what Miles was really doing in that speech in New Orleans wasn’t promoting his conference, but covering his backside. Although his team is favored to win the SEC, Miles is telling the faithful that if they don’t make it to the BCS Championship game, it’ll be because they play in such a tough conference.
Balderdash. LSU has Mississippi State, Middle Tennessee State, a home game with South Carolina and a trip to New Orleans to play Tulane as four of its first five games, along with a hard game at home against Virginia Tech on September 8. Then they have four hard games with Florida at home, at Kentucky (not that hard), home to Auburn and at Alabama (with an extra week to prepare) and then finish with Louisiana Tech, at Mississippi and home to Arkansas.
With Virginia Tech, Florida and Auburn at home, Miles has nothing to complain about. He just has to stop making excuses and win.
Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen began yesterday’s Pac-10 Football Media Day noting that 31 All-Pac-10 players would be returning for this season: 11 of the first team and 20 from the second team.
And a conference football attendance record was set for the second consecutive year with more than 3.6 million going to Pac-10 games, an average of more than 56,000 a game. Hansen noted that the average was larger than several of the conference’s stadiums!
The sixth-place Pac-10 team will play in a new bowl game for this year only, the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth on December 31, before a new agreement for the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl kicks in for the following two years for the sixth and seventh-place teams.
And the usually droll Hansen got off a good line before leaving the stage: "We have no plans to expand the Pac-10 at this time, unlike the Big Ten which is trying to get to12 so it isn’t 11."
A rules seminar that preceded the media session noted the return to most of the timing rules which existed prior to last season. Pac-10 Coordinator of Officials Dave Cutaia noted that the NCAA calculated that an average game had 19 less plays in 2006 than in 2005!
Cutaia also said that an average of 14.79 penalties were called per game in 2006 and that the most frequently-called infractions were for (1) false start, 211 times; (2) offensive holding, 163 times and (3) defensive pass interference, 89 times.
It’s also quite likely that the NCAA will adopt, in the next few years, a time-between-plays rule like the NFL’s, which permits 40 seconds between most plays but allows only 25 seconds after a stoppage such as a called or television time-out.
"We’re really expecting a great season. Our football team has enjoyed an upbeat off-season and we have the intention of really putting together a great team. Everything has been upbeat and along with the expectation about being the top team in country adds to the fun and build-up and all. We will go for it see what we can put together."
That was Pete Carroll’s take on the 2007 football season at USC at yesterday’s Pac-10 Football Media Day. He knows he has a powerful team and he knows that everyone else knows it as well. So he didn’t beat it into the ground.
Asked about the large perceived gap between USC and the rest of the conference, Carroll demurred: "Gap? Our toughest games by far were in the conference. This is an extraordinary conference with tremendous offenses and excellent football players. If you look at our score spreads [margin of victory], it’s obvious that the best teams we play are in this conference."
He and quarterback John David Booty were asked about what to look for on this year’s team with Booty excited about receivers Patrick Turner and Vidal Hazelton and Carroll enthused about a new fullback. "Stanley Havili is really a good football player," Carroll said. "We feel good about the position. We have three guys in an aspect of our offense we were a couple dimensions down [last year] from where we want to be."
Booty said that, especially for the players who had been in the program during the Leinart-Bush-White days, a two-loss season like last year’s 11-2 is motivation to do better. He was happy about the large number of new players, especially at the skill positions, who can make big plays this season.
A final wrap on Pac-10 Football Media Day still to come. . .
Arizona’s Mike Stoops is widely considered to be on a hot seat in Tucson with a 12-24 record in his first three years there. Arizona State’s Dennis Erickson is in his first year to try and make Arizona State a championship contender again.
Stoops noted that the Wildcats have "shown we can beat a top five or ten team; we’ve played stronger against top half of our conference than against our bottom half, which shows our lack of consistency."
Nevertheless, he thinks things are about to get better for his team, which was 6-6 last year but returns 19 starters. "I’m excited for our football team. We’re healthy, we have great experience; by far and away this is the most experienced and talented team we’ve had.
"If we can keep [quarterback] Willie [Tuitama] at the start and finish during the season, our chances of winning [will] go up considerably."
Erickson was perhaps the most relaxed coach of the day, cracking joke after joke with a deadpan delivery. "The strength of our offensive football team is our offensive front," he said. "Five of the six have already graduated; it took me three years after I played to graduate and that was at Montana State, the Harvard of the mountains." The media in the room roared with laughter.
Asked about the conditions in Tempe, Erickson said "I’m just finding out about the heat and it is an advantage for us. It’s hot, so we’ve got to play golf early in the morning."
Of the Sun Devils (7-6, 17 starters returning), he said "For us to be successful, we have to run the football. We have to develop at the skill positions, especially at wide out where we’re unproven. Defensively, it’s a question mark for us; we’ve got to become good on defense." He does have Rudy Carpenter returning at quarteback, however.
Erickson was more serious about the conference race: "whoever is best on defense will win the league because of the depth and the quarterbacks coming back." And he wants to be a part of that race; his most telling comment was his last: "when you get to 60 years old, [you get] impatient ,so maybe we can get some things done this year."
Arizona State was picked for fourth in the writer’s poll while Arizona was projected in seventh.
More to come on Pac-10 Football Media Day . . . tomorrow!
New Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh impressed everyone with his enthusiasm and quick wit while Cal coach Jeff Tedford sounded like a coach tired of missing opportunities to finally get Cal back to the Rose Bowl.
The youthful-looking Harbaugh, 42, broke up the media attending his session by saying "I’m tremendously excited and enthusiastic to get season started. Now I have to make good on all those promises I made in the interview process!
"We are going to do it with a committed group of seniors who are tired of getting their butts kicked." Stanford was 1-11 last season, but returns 17 starters, of whom 13 are seniors.
Harbaugh demurred on any follow-up on his comment that this coming season would be Pete Carroll’s last at USC as he would be going to the NFL, saying "that ground’s been plowed." But he couldn’t stop there and said "USC is not only best team in country, they may be best team in history of college football!"
He and quarterback T.C. Ostrander both talked about changing the culture of losing at Stanford in football. Ostrander emphasized that "confidence is really the thing. It’s not always being the better athlete or having the fastest guys, but you have to have all guys on same page at same time." Harbaugh concurred and said "I’m banking on those seniors. We will play UCLA on September 1 and we will expect to win." Stanford was picked for last in the conference again by the media panel.
Cal coach Tedford said "We have lots of experience back and we have what it takes to compete for a championship."
The Bears were 10-3 last season, tied USC for the conference title and have 14 returning starters, including All-American receiver and returner DeSean Jackson and quarterback Nate Longshore. "This is the first time [in Tedford’s tenure] that we will have a quarterback come back and play for us who played the previous year. We have a lot of confidence in Nate; he’s very, very smart and tough. He’s like a coach on the field." Tedford also thinks there won’t be much drop-off at running back with Justin Forsett stepping in to fill in for Marshawn Lynch.
Following up on the Les Miles theme, Tedford also noted Cal’s September 1 opener against SEC power Tennessee (a 35-18 loss last season in Knoxville), to be played at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. "It’s not about revenge, but about redemption. But it’s on ourselves to reach our full potential.
"We can be successful any given Saturday, but we have to bring our "A" game each and every week to be successful." About Miles specifically, Tedford said "He’s welcome to his opinion. Our motivation is to win a conference championship and a national championship."
Cal is picked for second in the conference by the writers and has Oregon State and USC at home this season, but must travel to Oregon and UCLA.
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
Oregon’s Mike Bellotti was very clear: "We are as excited about this season as we were disappointed by the end of last season. There was some introspection by coaches and players on how to be better. We had a good ‘clear the air’ meeting this spring."
After starting 7-2 (including a gift "win" in Eugene over Oklahoma), the Ducks lost their last four games, including a 38-8 drubbing by BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl to finish 7-6. Oregon has 14 starters returning, including quarterback Dennis Dixon, who played baseball during the spring and summer and will only return to Eugene on Friday.
Bellotti feels the offense won’t miss a beat with the introduction of Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator after Gary Crowton left for LSU. Kelly’s specialty is the spread offense, essentially the same program as run by Crowton. "On defense, we have holes to fill and we need leadership in the defensive front," Bellotti said. He emphasized that the "turnover-takeaway margin is the most important element in winning or losing."
Asked about LSU coach Les Miles’ comments about how LSU’s road through the SEC to get to a national championship game will be much harder than USC’s road through the Pac-10, Bellotti said "There’s always a perception problem [with the Pac-10]. The reality is that the SEC is tremendous conference and that area feels football is biggest thing in the world.
"I would take the Pac-10 in any one game, though. We have creative coaching and can throw the ball in this conference and that’s a great equalizer."
The Ducks were picked for sixth in the conference by the media panel.
Oregon State is expected to be a contender in the conference race with 17 starters back from a 10-4 season that included a home win against USC. Unfortunately, the funeral for football services coordinator Jim Gilstrap, who passed away last Friday at age 65, was held today and no one from OSU was able to attend the Pac-10 Football Media Day event.
The Beavers were picked for fifth by the media panel.
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
At the Pac-10 Football Media Day, Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham sounded positive about the Huskies’ chances this season while Washington State coach Bill Doba didn’t seem as sure.
Willingham acknowledged that his team (5-7 last year, 12 starters returning) will be a lot different without all-everything quarterback Isaiah Stanback, but he was excited about the possibilities with redshirt freshman Jake Locker at the controls.
"One of the cores of our football team will be our front seven if everyone’s healthy," he said. "Our team starting to understand the character it takes to be a champion. If we can master that, I like where we will finish."
On the conference race, Willingham saw positives in the attention that having a "dominant team from a national standpoint" brings, but also emphasized that "there’s not a weak link in the conference; you have to be ready to play your best football every week. Even USC had a couple of close calls [in games they won], so things could have been different [last year]. We’re excited, we like our chances." Washington was picked for ninth by the media panel.
Washington State’s Doba noted that the Cougars (6-6 last year, 14 starters returning) "had some key injuries in the last three games in which we struggled. The seniors made a new commitment and they want to win. We had excellent leadership throughout spring ball."
Entering his fifth year as the WSU head coach, Doba gave the frankest assessment of his team of any coach in the conference: "Our defensive front is solid, our linebackers are solid, our kicking is solid. We have to find a couple of corners and I’m scared to death about our offensive line."
Quarterback Alex Brink is back and Doba noted that "this league is great for quarterbacks. Its grass basketball. People throw the ball and you had better be ready to defend all kinds of formations."
On the conference race, Doba said "USC has to beat themselves, to be quite honest about it, or have really bad luck. They are solid defensively and offensively. The rest of the league is pretty even; it’s a toss up. The key is staying healthy."
The Cougars were picked for eighth by the media panel.
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
USC was unanimously selected by a 39-member media panel to win its fifth straight Pac-10 Conference football championship. It’s the fifth year in a row that the Trojans have been selected and they have won the last four titles.
That’s nowhere close to a record, however. USC was picked to win the conference for 18 years in a row from 1965-82 and won 10 times. The last time UCLA was picked to win was in 1998 (and the Bruins did win, going undefeated in the conference).
For the 2007 season, California was picked for second with 323 points with UCLA trailing in third (305), followed by Arizona State (242), Oregon State (237), Oregon (226), Arizona with 162, then Washington State (115) in eighth, Washington ninth (98) and Stanford tenth (47).
The media day program was lengthy, with more than 100 writers, photographers and free-loaders on site. An entire room was devoted to the distribution of piles of media guides from the ten schools and the Pac-10. The combined weight was so heavy that many writers brought wheeled luggage with them to store it all.
There was also a nice media gift, a sort of padded backpack which was handy for all of the media guides if you didn’t bring your own wheelbarrow.
And, of course, there were plenty of refreshments, with two continental breakfast stations and two lines for the buffet lunch. The buffet was a carbo-loaders delight and included caesar salad, a mixed green salad, a breaded and baked chicken dish, penne marinara, garlic bread and rolls and a choice of cannoli or cake (or both). There wasn’t much for the house staff to take back at the end of the event.
Pac-10 Associate Commissioner Jim Muldoon ended the mass session by reminding the media that Pac-10 Basketball Media Day wasn’t far off: November 1.
More to come on Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
After the mass session ended at Thursday’s Pac-10 Football Media Day, each school’s coach and attending player met with the media in smaller, one-on-one sessions in an adjacent meeting room. UCLA coach Karl Dorrell sat at a round table surrounded by local media for more than an hour, answering some questions about football and a lot about the Eric Scott situation.
On the Scott issue, Dorrell suggested that once the facts of the case are exposed, the case will "go away." There were lots of whispers among those looking on about reports that the residence that was entered by Scott, Jesus DeAlba and Timothy Williams was that of a relative of DeAlba.
On football, Dorrell was asked about how much of a role he will have with the offense during the season since he took a larger role with some of the play-calling last season, Dorrell was firm: "Jay [Norvell] will call the plays."
Bruce Davis told reporters that he would be lining up on the wide side of the field consistently this year, away from the tight end, to try and get a better shot at rushing the quarterback. He’s quite confident in the play of Nikola Dragovic and UC Davis transfer Tom Blake to replace Justin Hickman at the other end spot.
In addition, Davis said that freshman Brian Price from Crenshaw and sophomore Jerzy Siewierski could be key contributors behind starting tackles Kevin Brown and Brigham Harwell.
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
Senior defensive end Bruce Davis was asked about the differences going into the defense’s second year with coordinator DeWayne Walker at Pac-10 Football Media Day on Thursday:
"We’re lot more comfortable about his system and how to play it. I can understand it and we’ve added new things and we’ve all bought into his system.
"We’re a more mature football team now and everyone is working for one cause. We all trust each other. The communications are much better than in recent years and we know what we have to do to win games now.
"We have 25 seniors now and we know each other very well. We lost some games we shouldn’t have [last season] and we don’t want to go out there and do that again. There’s nothing in college football we haven’t seen and we’re ready to play for each other.
Asked about what will make the difference this season, he added "We’re going to outwork everybody in the country.
You don’t have to be the best team in the country each Saturday; you have to be the best team against who you play each Saturday."
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
UCLA coach Karl Dorrell was asked about the high expectations for this UCLA team with 20 returning starters and a win over USC last season at Pac-10 Football Media Day:
>> "It still comes down to whether we are mature enough to handle that kind of information [high pre-season rankings]. This team has the maturity to do it.
"The coaching staff and players are in place to be a very good football team. We told the team, ‘you’re not going to sneak up on anybody, you’re going to have to perform’ and they have reacted to that stress and pressure. They did a tremendous job this summer and they understand that expectation."
>> Dorrell underlined that last year’s USC game was "a great win for us and does a lot for our program. It’s a great feeling to be able to beat them in the Rose Bowl when they’re supposed to be on their way to the national championship game. It wasn’t pretty by any means, but we have the W in the win column and that does a lot for our confidence
"We know we can play with anyone, and to get what you want to get, you have to know that."
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
The most-discussed coach on Football Media Day was LSU's Les Miles, who said a few weeks ago that he’d love to meet USC for the national championship, but that LSU has a much harder road through the SEC than USC does facing schools like Washington, Stanford and UCLA.
So UCLA coach Karl Dorrell was asked if he appreciated being labeled as one of the "pansies from the Pac-10"!
"This is a competitive environment in college football and this just draws attention to the impression that this conference needs to continue to improve our reputation.
"For people to say there’s one school in this conference [USC] and there’s everybody else, we don’t like that impression. It makes us want to make us do our job better.
"Our measuring stick is the bowl games and I’m one of the teams who lost last year. We have to do a better job, me included, because I lost mine last year, to get the reputation and credibility of the conference up."
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
UCLA coach Karl Dorrell was effusive in his praise for new offensive coordinator Jay Norvell during his session at Pac-10 Football Media Day:
>> "I am excited to bring Jay here. We tried to get him before when he was in the NFL but it just didn’t work out.
"This time he was excited to come to UCLA and put his stamp on a great program. We have a good offensive foundation and we speak the same language to a T, the same terminology. My expectations are my expectations."
>> Dorrell recalled that he trumpeted the upcoming improvement in the UCLA defense last season with the arrival of then-new defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker. He expects the same for the offense with Norvell. "They have very similar attributes: he’s a strong communicator, he’s very demanding, he’s very well organized and he is going to get in people’s faces."
>> On the Bruin offense, Dorrell said that "quarterback play is going to really be important. The quarterback has to be able to handle a lot of information and both Ben Olson and Patrick Cowan have extensive playing experience. They can handle what it takes to perform at the level we’re looking for."
>> Dorrell also stressed that the addition of Joe Cowan (injured last year) will help significantly in the passing game.
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said he and his team "have great expectations for this coming season, to be a strong factor in the conference race."
In his appearance at Pac-10 Football Media Day, Dorrell shared the podium with returning senior defensive end Bruce Davis. Dorrell, as is his style, was quietly confident:
>> "We should be a factor in winning the conference."
>> On the arrest of assistant coach Eric Scott: "I placed him on administrative leave yesterday in view of an allegation out there against him. We have to figure out what are the factors involved; we can't really comment much on what has happened.
"I’m the kind of guy and the players and coaches know this, that says players and coaches are accountable at UCLA. We are all held to same standard. We’re going to find out more about this case and issues as it unfolds.
"Based on the information I received from Eric and his attorney, I am very optimistic about how this will be uncovered."
>> "I’ll be acting as receivers coach. I have been most of my career, so I can do that. I do know our offense so if it gets to that point [where Scott is not available], I can do it. In the meantime, we’ll let the process take its course."
>> It’s not going to affect his team or what our expectations are of this program this year. [Today] is about UCLA and our opportunity to go great things this year."
More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .
UCLA issued the following statement concerning wide receivers coach Eric Scott, arrested yesterday:
UCLA assistant football coach Eric Scott has been placed on administrative leave, head coach Karl Dorrell announced this afternoon.
"I have decided to place Eric on administrative leave while the matter is being investigated," said Dorrell. "We will continue to gather information regarding the case and will make a determination on Eric’s status at the appropriate time."
On other incidents in Scott’s background, Dorrell said, "Eric is the kind of young man, given his background, that knows his purpose in life is to help kids. He has helped so many kids over the last seven years graduate at Crenshaw and go on to college.
"I knew he had some rough spots growing up, coming from his inner-city neighborhood. He lost three brothers to violence, so yes, I knew he had some issues in his background. Some other information has surfaced during this investigation that I was not aware of. Eric was placed on probation and fulfilled his obligations for those issues.
"When you look at the big picture with Eric Scott -- given the positive impact he had on young people in high school, the fine work that he did as an intern in our office last year and the fact that he was a UCLA graduate, we felt that the hiring of Eric was giving a good young man a chance to make a career for himself."
 UCLA striker Sal Zizzo, named All-American as a sophomore last season, signed a contract with Hannover 96 of the German Bundesliga, ending his UCLA soccer career and beginning his professional career.
Zizzo had seven goals (third on the team) and nine assists (team leader) for the Bruins last season, one in which they reached the national title game before losing to UC Santa Barbara. He’s the third UCLA player to leave for the German Bundesliga in the last two years, joining Benny Feilhaber (who joined Hamburger SV in 2005) and Kamani Hill (to VfL Wolfsburg in 2006).
What about the MLS? UCLA is the leader among all schools with 18 former Bruins on 2007 opening day rosters and 46 players all told in the history of the league.
 At the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, ex-Bruin Sheena Johnson won a gold medal in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, edging Jamaican Nickiesha Wilson, 54.64 to 54.84.
Bruin sophomore (and current NCAA champion) Nicole Leach won the bronze medal in third at 54.97.
Another Bruin NCAA champion, long jumper Rhonda Watkins of Trinidad & Tobago didn’t fare as well. One of the favorites going in, she finished fifth with an ordinary jump of 21-1.
Former Bruin Monique Henderson, an Olympic gold medalist in the 1,600-meter relay in Athens, finished a disappointing sixth in the 400 meters in 52.28.
We received a lot of comments on the post about the arrest of UCLA assistant coach Eric Scott this morning. Some were well written, some were not and some used language not appropriate for a family newspaper or its Web site. Those posts were deleted.
We’re all for your opinions, even those which are sarcastic or biting. But let’s leave the profanity and hate comments in between the ears and not on the lips or fingertips. Thanks to all in advance for your cooperation.
In other football new s, senior safeties Chris Horton (pictured right) and Dennis Keyes have been nominated for the Jim Thorpe Award by the Oklahoma City-based Jim Thorpe Association. The award is given annually to the top defensive back in the nation and will be awarded on December 6.
Among the other candidates are pre-season All-America picks Aqib Talib, a junior cornerback from Kansas; junior free safety Kenny Phillips of Miami and senior strong safety Tom Zbikowski of Notre Dame.
The following notice was sent to news media at 11:14 a.m. this morning:
"The UCLA Athletic Department is currently gathering information regarding the situation involving assistant football coach Eric Scott. Until we have all of the facts available to us, it is premature for us to comment."
So, stay tuned.
Much-sought-after quarterback Kevin Prince may be ready to make a verbal commitment to UCLA, according to a story by Rivals.com national writer Jeremy Crabtree.
Prince will be a senior this coming season at Crespi High School in Encino and has been rated a three-star prospect with excellent size (6-2, 185) and speed, making him a run and pass threat from the quarterback position.
Teammate Joseph Fauria, a tight end who committed to Notre Dame, said "He’s going to UCLA. We all know that. He’s just waiting on the offer."
Prince told Rivals, "It’s really between Washington and UCLA. Washington has offered, but UCLA hasn’t yet. I’m supposed to meet with Coach [Karl] Dorrell when he comes back from vacation to discuss whether or not they’re going to offer me. I’m going on my [Mormon] mission out of high school. If they offered me, I would come in part of the class of 2010. They’re trying to figure out if that’s something they want to do."
Prince noted that his father went to UCLA and therefore he grew up as a Bruins fan. Prince's teammate, safety E.J. Woods, has reportedly already made a verbal commitment to UCLA.
The Bruins can commit to a scholarship for Prince, but since he won’t enroll for two years after high school, he won’t count against the total for next season. UCLA is believed to have about 25 scholarships to offer and is reported to have 22 verbal commitments to date.
 If you woke up to the morning news program on KCBS-2, you heard that UCLA wide receivers coach Eric Scott was arrested, along with two other men on a charge of burglary.
CBS2 reported that L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call to a residence on the 1100 block of Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk yesterday and found Scott and two other men engaged in burglarizing a house. All three were arrested. Scott was released on $50,000 bail.
Brian Dohn, reporting in the Los Angeles Daily News, noted that Scott was booked at 1:07 p.m., posted bond and was released at 9:25 p.m. The other two men with Scott were identified as Jesus DeAlba and Timothy Williams.
Scott, 32, was set to start his first season as wide receivers coach and has already had a large hand in helping Bruin recruiting in the South Los Angeles area.
 The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) picks Academic All-American teams in 12 sports and has at-large nominations to cover all other sports.
While UCLA has had many Academic All-Americans, it’s amazing to note how many, as CoSIDA released a list of the top 30 schools in all-time Academic All-Americas, from 1952 to 2007. The top 10:
1. Nebraska, 252
2. Notre Dame, 191
3. Penn State, 138
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 134
5. Augustana College, 122
6. Stanford, 121
7. Bucknell, 114
8. UCLA, 108
9. Illinois Wesleyan, 106
10. Emory, 105
If you eliminate the non-Football Bowl Subdivision programs, UCLA ranks fifth and the rest of the top ten "major" programs would be Texas, Ohio State, Florida, Michigan State and Georgia.
The only other Pac-10 school in the all-time top 30 was Arizona (78). You can draw your own conclusions . . .
In the ESPN 150 list of the top prep football prospects in America, compiled by Scouts Inc., UCLA has commitments from five listed players:
No. 51: QB Nick Crissman (Huntington Beach Edison)
No. 58: RB Aundra Dean (Katy HS of Katy, Texas)
No. 66: S E. J. Woods (Encino Crespi)
No. 70: CB Anthony Dye (Corona Santiago)
No. 118: LB Uona Kavienga (Hawthorne Leuzinger)
Where’s safety Rahim Moore (Dorsey) on this list?!?
The ESPN story noted that Miami (Florida) and Texas had the most verbal commitments from the list with eight each, followed by Notre Dame (7) and Oklahoma, Ohio State and Georgia with six each.
On Rivals.com, the review of the running backs category included a no. 2 ranking for Dean for "best inside runner" and a no. 2 for Birmingham High’s Milton Knox for "best in space."
Personally, I’d like to see a list of top players who can’t qualify for admission to the top 100 schools in the country as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. That would be the "Lost in Space" list . . .
Frank Burlison is one of the most experienced and respected basketball writers in the country. So when he writes, in the Los Angeles Daily News, that things look good for the Bruin basketball team, it’s worth noting.
Currently in Las Vegas watching several of the top high school summer tournaments now underway, Burlison asked a Pac-10 coach about the UCLA class coming to Westwood in the fall of 2008. "I really think UCLA has the best class in the country." And Burlison continued:
"And that coach – not identified because NCAA rules prohibit member coaches from commenting about ‘prospective student-athletes’ by name before they sign letters of intent – made that observation a day before Jrue Holiday and Jerime Anderson turned in marvelous performances while leading the Southern California-based Pump-N-run Elite team to an 88-74 victory over the Atlantic Celtics on Monday evening during the adidas Super 64 Tournament in Cox Pavilion."
Burlison praised Holiday, saying "[UCLA coach Ben] Howland would be hard-pressed to keep him out of the starting line-up this coming November, much less a year from November when he’ll be eligible for the Bruins." Howland was present along with more than 100 other coaches.
Here's reader Erkki Corpuz's tribute to the 2008 class, also shown on BruinReportOnline:
Bruin senior center Lorenzo Mata has changed his "public" name to Mata-Real.
It’s his full-name as Real is the family name of his mother and Hispanic tradition always includes both the father’s and mother’s name in the full name of children.
Now you know.
 Before he came to UCLA, John Wooden taught English and coached basketball at Central High School in South Bend, Indiana from 1934-43, interrupted by Naval service during World War II. And although South Bend is home to Notre Dame, it hasn’t forgotten the Wizard.
Our correspondent The Kook noted that Wooden was honored with the naming of the walkway around what used to be the Central High campus. It’s now the Central High Apartments.
The ceremony was led by South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke and WNDU Television interviewed one of Wooden’s Central High players, Jim Powers. "He is well spoken, soft spoken, he’s just absolutely the epitome of what a coach of any kind should be," he said.
Wooden, now 96, did not attend the ceremony. How good a coach was he? In 11 seasons at Dayton High School in Kentucky and then at Central, he had a 218-42 (.838) record before moving on to Indiana State and then UCLA.
 UCLA track & field star Nicole Leach, NCAA champion in the 400-meter hurdles, is in Rio de Janeiro for the Pan American Games along with a host of other Bruins. She’s contributing a diary to the UCLA Bruins.com site and filed this entry a couple of days ago:
"When I got back [from a sightseeing tour], I ran into Jonathan (Williams) again and we went to see the USA women's basketball team play Argentina that night. The two of us made a ‘not so smart’ decision. When we decided to leave the basketball arena we couldn't find the bus back to the village. We eventually ran into a lady who's on the staff of the Pan Am committee and she told us she would give us a ride back to where we were staying. Of course we rode back with her and fortunately we made it back safely, but looking back, we both came to the conclusion that we wouldn't do that again."
That’s life on the road. Leach and ex-Bruin Sheena Johnson both won their semifinals in the 400-meter hurdles and are favorites in the final scheduled for Wednesday. Former Bruin 400-meter hurdler Jonathan Williams will run for his native Belize at the Games.
Another former Bruin, discus thrower Suzy Powell, who is currently the American Record holder, had a poor meet throwing 193-10 for fourth place yesterday after coming in as one of the favorites.
 UCLA junior tight end Logan Paulsen was named as one of 32 players on the John Mackey Award Watch List by the Nassau County (N.Y.) Sports Commission. The award is given annually to the best tight end in the nation in mid-December.
After Marcedes Lewis won the award after the 2005 season, tight end was considered a potential weakness for the Bruins in 2006, but Paulsen -- a sophomore -- did well, starting all 13 games and catching 27 passes for 331 yards.
As for the Mackey Award, the likely recipient is pretty clear: Notre Dame senior John Carlson, who caught 47 passes for 634 yards and four touchdowns last season. At 6-6 and 259 pounds, he has the size, strength and speed to be a successful NFL tight end.
And while Paulsen may not have the best statistics among the nationâs tight ends, he may lead in most hair!
The Pacific-10 Conference confirmed arrangements with two lower-tier bowl games for two of its lower-finishing teams today.
>> The San Diego Country Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl will take the seventh-place Pac-10 team in 2008 and sixth-place team in 2009, to be matched against the Mountain West Conference runner-up.
The game had previously matched Mountain West teams against an at-large opponent in 2005 and 2006. The bowl organizers hope to have the Naval Academy come to San Diego in 2007 if the Midshipmen are bowl-eligible.
>> The Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl will match the sixth-place Pac-10 team in 2008 against a Western Athletic Conference team and the seventh-place team in 2009, also against a WAC team.
The kicker is that if the University of Hawaii is bowl-eligible, it will be the WAC rep in that game. Good for ticket sales, bad for the Pac-10 team which goes there. But it's still Hawaii.
The good thing for the Pac-10 is that it now has seven bowl tie-ins. And the bowls aren’t bad, except for the second-place team. While the SEC has four New Year’s Day (or later) slots, the Big Ten has three and the Big 12 has two or three, depending on the BCS line-up, the Pac-10 has one: the Rose Bowl. And the second-place team goes to a game – the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl – which is played mid-week between Christmas and New Year’s, hardly in college football’s prime time.
The Pac-10's third-place team goes to the Vitalis Sun Bowl in El Paso and the fourth and fifth-place teams go to the Pioneer Purevision Las Vegas Bowl and Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.
Ire about this arrangement led to the posting of a FireTomHansen.com Web site a few years ago, which hasn’t been updated in a while. But according to one Pac-10 administrator we spoke with, bowl arrangements aren’t easy to change and although the conference has looked, it hasn’t found an opportunity that helps the Conference and excites the bowl organizers since Pac-10 teams are notoriously poor travelers across the country. The next opportunity to do something about this might be in the negotiations for a "plus-1" game as part of the BCS to start in 2011.
 Fund-raising has begun in earnest to raise perhaps $100 million for the renovation of Pauley Pavilion with a goal of competing the work in time for the 2010-11 season in honor of John Wooden’s 100th birthday (he was born on October 14, 1910).
A whole list of projects has been drawn up, including – first and foremost – a change in the seating rise at both ends of the basketball court to bring fans closer to the endlines and increase the intensity of the atmosphere in the arena.
Additional programs which are on the list for development by highly-respected HOK Architects include renovations to the locker rooms, additional court spaces for practice, a complete restructuring of the concession stands and restrooms, the installation of a grand entrance on the north side of the building (the side which faces the Intramural Field), a Bruin store, a basketball-themed Hall of Fame exhibit and advanced media facilities.
Bruin officials said that the roofline is not likely to be changed, but that the renovations will likely keep the basketball team out of Pauley Pavilion for one season. Where would the Bruins go?
Preliminary discussions with potential venues such as Staples Center and The Forum have taken place, but internal discussions are also underway as to whether UCLA could use the year away from Pauley to be "Southern California’s team" and play some games at a variety of venues, including the Honda Center in Anaheim – site of the Wooden Classic – and the Long Beach Arena. That’s a decision that will not be made until the fund-raising is completed and the actual construction schedule is set.
And no, no UCLA home games are contemplated to be played at USC’s Galen Center!
At the height of the Bob Toledo Era, UCLA sold about 37,000 season tickets for football.
Last year, coming off a 10-2 season with more miracles than an entire season at Lourdes, the Bruins sold 43,000, including students and faculty seating. "We renewed those seats at about a 90% clip," said UCLA Director of Marketing Scott Mitchell, "which is historically high for us.
"But we’re on a pace now – comparing week-against-week sales from a year ago – of about 6,500 tickets ahead at this date. So we could be at 50,000 season tickets or beyond and that’s our goal."
That would be an all-time record for UCLA and a sure sign of what fans expect from the Bruins this coming season on the field.
"The Notre Dame game has had a lot to do with it," noted Mitchell. "We’ve used that game to try and expand our reach into the community. And the success of the UCLA basketball team has helped and even USC’s success [in football] has helped."
With regard to USC, Mitchell pointed out that as ticket availability for USC games has dried up almost completely, fans who want to see college football have an outlet: UCLA. And – like the Notre Dame game this season – tickets for the USC game will be part of packages in the future.
 When a world-renowned soccer club which brings in revenues of about $307 million a year goes on the road, it goes first class.
So it was with Chelsea F.C. from London, which spent the last two weeks training at UCLA in preparation for its two exhibition games at the Home Depot Center, including the 1-0 win over the Galaxy in David Beckham’s debut on Saturday evening.
But for their training period, Chelsea spent – in addition to its rental agreement – about $225,000 in improvements to the North Athletic Field and to what had been two locker rooms in Pauley Pavilion.
The field was graded in order to lower the crown and the entire field was re-sodded at a cost of more than $150,000. In Pauley, the visitors locker room and the old soccer locker room were both re-carpeted and lockers which dated from the 1970s were removed and new lockers made of dark wood, with individual safes, were installed. The shower facilities were also renovated with a temporary wall that separated the older locker rooms removed. Those improvements added about $75,000 to the tab.
A new wall that will re-split the two locker spaces will likely be installed before the basketball season begins, but teams visiting Pauley Pavilion in the future can thank Chelsea for a much nicer space to get ready to face the Bruins.
 The last 700 seats available for season purchase for UCLA men’s basketball games in Pauley Pavilion went on sale this weekend in the first-ever "Select-A-Seat" program that opened to the public today at noon.
It was actually the third day in a row that the Bruin Athletic Department’s marketing staff met with basketball season ticket holders at Pauley Pavilion. Current season-seat holders who are also donors to the Wooden Athletic Fund were invited to visit on Friday and season-ticket holders who are not donors were welcomed on Saturday. By the time Gate 1 at Pauley Pavilion was opened today for the Select-A-Seat program, 500 tickets remained, all on the upper level (300s) and mostly behind the basket in sections 308 and 309.
Season seats in the upper level were priced at $567 each, but some also required a donation of $850 to the Wooden Athletic Fund. About 400 seats remained available at the end of the event.
The first man in line asked not to be identified, but showed up at 9:30 a.m. and was first to register for four tickets in section 301. Asked why he came so early and bought so quickly, he noted that he’s been attending Bruin homes games for 43 years and then explained, "UCLA is back.
"It’s back to the way it was under the Wizard [John Wooden] as far as I am concerned. We have a man [Ben Howland] who can coach and who is a great recruiter.
"I’m disturbed to see empty seats [at UCLA home games], especially with the type of team that we will have on the floor this season. Eventually, it’s going to be like is was with the Wizard; it’s going to be impossible to get a seat for any game. That’s why I had to come early."
Joy and Cyndi Cruz from West Hills (pictured) came to buy season tickets again after having given them up during the Lavin Era. "The team is back and so we’re back," said Cyndi. They’ll be in section 316 for the coming season.
UCLA officials indicated that the maximum number of season tickets which can be sold is about 10,000, leaving aside student tickets and those reserved for visiting teams.
Fans wanting to buy floor-level or mid-level seats are now required to make a $5,500 donation to the Wooden Athletic Fund, up from $3,500 when the initial season-ticket sales brochure was distributed in June.
 SI.com posted a story today by Mike Farrell of Rivals.com reviewing a change in the attitude of quarterbacks in their college choices.
Of special interest to Farrell was that top-rated quarterback prospects are committing to schools which have little history of sending quarterbacks to the NFL, but which now have offensive coordinators who do. Example: E.J. Manuel of Virginia Beach (Va.) Bayside HS who is on his way to Florida State, the new home of Jimbo Fisher as offensive coordinator. Fisher just finished a stint with LSU, and sent JaMarcus Russell to the NFL as the overall top draft pick. And there’s Blaine Gibbert of Ballwin (Mo.) Parkway West, who committed to Nebraska and NFL offensive guru Bill Callahan (and, up to last year, new UCLA offensive coordinator Jay Norvell).
Of the other top-ten quarterbacks, Farrell noted that Nick Crissman of Huntington Beach Edison (pictured) is on his way to UCLA, a program without a quarterback currently on an NFL roster. But, "The Bruins have done very well sending first-rounders to the NFL in the past (Troy Aikman, Tommy Maddox, Cade McNown), but they haven’t fared well of late." He added, however that "UCLA and Texas A&M are also programs that can offer early playing time to a quarterback that fits the system."
Not sure about that last item. The West Coast offense is notoriously hard to learn, is tremendously dependent on developing good timing with a specific group of receivers. Both Crissman and this year’s recruit Chris Forcier (San Diego St. Augustine) are more than likely to redshirt and then maybe hold the clipboard for a year. Don’t forget that Ben Olson and Patrick Cowan will be at the controls through the end of the 2008 season.
[Credit: Los Angeles Times photo]
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the 33rd annual Silicon Valley/Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star football game held at San Jose State on Wednesday night, noting that the "passing combination of quarterback Nick Goodspeed (Palo Alto graduate) to David Martini (Los Gatos) was impressive."
Turns out that Martini – 6-2, 195 – plans to walk-on at UCLA this fall and try to make a team which has a plethora of wide receivers. He had five catches for 80 yards in the all-star game.
He was an All-NorCal selection by NorCalPreps.com, but was not ranked by Rivals.com. He caught 54 passes for 1,211 yards and 12 touchdowns during his senior year and was expected to attend an Ivy League school.
First Lindy Vivas, now Karen Moe Humphreys.
The University of California (Berkeley) agreed to a $3.5 million settlement with Moe Humphreys, a UCLA Kinesiology grad who won a national AIAW butterfly title while a Bruin, who went on to become the Cal women’s swim coach and later assistant athletic director for student services before being dismissed in 2004.
She sued Cal in a gender discrimination case, according to the Associated Press, "saying she lost her job in retaliation for complaining about the treatment of women by the university’s athletic department."
Cal admitted no liability in the settlement and Moe Humphreys will be reinstated (that will be interesting . . .) and receive back salary and benefits from the time of her dismissal in addition to the settlement amount. As part of the agreement, she will retire early next year upon reaching 30 years of service with the university.
"I am really thrilled to be reinstated, and I am happy to recover most of our legal costs," she told the AP.
Olympic fans will remember Moe as a gold medalist in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich in the 200-meter butterfly. She also competed in the 1976 Games, finishing fourth in the same event behind three East German women of now-dubious chemical purity. She won 18 U.S. national championships, set seven American records and two world records.
We got a couple of doozies this week:
 >> Reader R.B. writes: "I just find it strange that USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Notre Dame, LSU, Florida, Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan, Florida State, Miami over the years have had a lot of African Americans play that position but at UCLA the seem not to be able to ever recruit one. Is it me? I don't think so. I think the UCLA alums want to keep that position white and the coaches get it. Even the black coach. I'm a film screenwriter/director . . . and I have been saying for years, UCLA always finds a way not to have a BLACK Q.B. And by the way, when was the last time they had a Q.B. that was a gamer. I believe that the school has made it clear, they want a white signal caller . . . Where am I going wrong on this?"
I think this is a little bit much. It’s true that there haven’t been many African-American quarterbacks at UCLA, but the answer is not none. Long-time Bruin fans still shiver at the memory of what could have been with Bill Bolden, a versatile athlete who followed the Gary Beban Era as the starter in the 1968 season against Pittsburgh with a 63-7 win. He broke his leg in that game and never recovered.
UCLA had another black quarterback who played in a reserve role in 1979 in Bernard Quarles and has one who’s currently no. 3 on the depth chart in Osaar Rasshan from Garey High School in Pomona (pictured). Like Drew Bennett before him, he’s also working out at wide receiver in order to give him an opportunity for more playing time. In a recent summer scrimmage, one observer told us he was "uncoverable."
As to UCLA alumni not wanting a black quarterback, it’s irrelevant to recruiting. You may rest assured that alumni preferences are not taken into consideration where recruiting is concerned. If so, UCLA would have admitted Cal star running back Russell White, who went to Crespi and was a prep All-American.
>> Reader Peter writes: "Didn’t Jackie Robinson also go to Pasadena City College? Along with Shav Glick?"
Correct on both counts so far as we know. Robinson’s career is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that baseball was the worst of the four sports he lettered in at UCLA.
>> Reader Peter adds: "Are we playing Tennessee at home in 2008?"
Yes, on September 6. The other home games are Fresno State on August 30, Arizona on September 27, Washington State on October 4, Stanford on October 18 and USC on December 6.
>> Regarding our post about the future of the Rose Bowl, reader KathyR wrote: "Obviously, the writers never sat in the seats and watched a game. Torture. I’, 5'8" and my knees press hard into the seat in front of me. It was bad before, but after the last seat shakeup it became almost comic. Unless you’re in seat 14 with your knees in the ears of the guy in front of you. That’s not terribly funny." | |
