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 Sacks.
Sacks and the things that go with them will be the key to UCLA’s opener against the Cardinal in Palo Alto on Saturday.
Jim Harbaugh will debut as the coach of the Cardinal in Stanford Stadium in the first of eight home games for Stanford this season. While he is considered to be an astute offensive mind, if quarterback T.C. Ostrander spends most of his afternoon running away from Bruin defensive ends Bruce Davis and Nikola Dragovic, Stanford isn’t going to get very far.
The Cardinal has three starters back from an offensive line that gave up 50 sacks last season and averaged 2.1 yards per rushing attempt. Ostrander started the last five games of the season and completed less than 48% of his passes.
At the same time, UCLA needs to keep quarterback Ben Olson upright. With Patrick Cowan lost for most of the season with a torn hamstring, Olson needs good protection from the Bruin offensive line. That shouldn’t be a problem as Stanford returns six of its front seven from last year, a unit that had only 14 sacks for the entire season.
Worth watching for:
>> Player rotation: Weather.com is forecasting a hot day in Palo Alto, with temperatures reaching 85 degrees when the game starts at 90 degrees near game’s end.
>> Osaar a star: While UCLA has a very capable receiving corps, former quarterback (and emergency quarterback for this game) Osaar Rashaan has the makings of a game breaker. At 6-4 and 216 pounds, he’ll be a load for any linebacker or safety who would have to cover him as a slot receiver.
>> Too close for comfort: UCLA always seems to play Stanford close, no matter how good or bad the Cardinal is. Last year’s 31-0 final score is deceiving; it was a 7-0 game at halftime and only 14-0 at the end of three quarters. In 2005, the Bruins needed a miracle comeback led by Drew Olson to eke out a 30-27 win in overtime. In the last 15 UCLA-Stanford games played in Palo Alto, seven have been decided by a touchdown or less and the Cardinal has won three of the last four games against UCLA at home.
Worth watching after:
Following the game broadcast on FSN Prime Ticket, "Bruins Live" will air at about 4 p.m., followed by a Fox Sports "In My Own Words" documentary with Bruin head coach Karl Dorrell at about 4:30 p.m. Dorrell was interviewed by FSN’s Michael Eaves for the program.
 The seemingly endless "watch lists" of potential award winners in a dizzying variety of categories shows a total of ten different Bruins who are being "watched" for 19 different awards:
>> Bednarik Award (defensive player of the year): Bruce Davis, Chris Horton.
>> Butkus Award (linebacker): Reggie Carter, Christian Taylor.
>> Hendricks Award (defensive end): Bruce Davis.
>> Lombardi Award (lineman): Bruce Davis, Brigham Harwell, Shannon Tevaga, Christian Taylor.
>> Lott Trophy (defensive "IMPACT" player of the year): Bruce Davis, Chris Horton.
>> Mackey Award (tight ends): Logan Paulsen.
>> Maxwell Award (player of the year): Chris Markey, Chris Horton.
>> Nagurski Trophy (defensive player of the year): Bruce Davis.
>> Rimington Award (center): Chris Joseph.
>> Thorpe Award (defensive back): Chris Horton, Dennis Keyes.
>> Walker Award (running back): Chris Markey.
Bruce Davis had the most individual nominations with five, followed by safety Chris Horton with four.
 The UCLA football team’s third opponent, Utah, lost both its starting quarterback and tailback during last night’s 24-7 road loss at Oregon State and both will probably be out for the September 15 game against the Bruins.
Quarterback Brian Johnson will apparently be out three weeks after suffered a separated right shoulder during the first half of the game. He completed 8-13 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown. Senior Tommy Grady replaced Johnson and was only 9-24 for 59 yards in the second half.
Tailback Matt Asiata left the game on a cart after four carries and 16 yards gained and will be out for the season with a broken right leg. The Associated Press reported that Asiata was scheduled for surgery today.
In addition, tight end Colt Sampson will be out for at least four weeks with a sprained left knee.
Utah’s next game is against Air Force at home on September 8, with the Bruins coming to Salt Lake City the following week.
UCLA men's soccer team went into its season opener against no. 9 Notre Dame as the consensus no. 1-ranked team in America. That’s probably over.
Trailing 1-0 for most of the game thanks to a Joseph Lapira goal in the first half for the Irish, Chance Myers scored a tying goal with 38 seconds to play in regulation, but the Bruins lost, 2-1, on a goal by Alex Yoshinaga just three minutes into the overtime period.
The game was played in Bloomington, Indiana as part of the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic.
UCLA will face no. 7 Indiana in the concluding game of the tournament on Sunday.
The UCLA Sports Information Office sent a note about the first of many college basketball preview magazines that will rank UCLA no. 1 going into the 2007-08 season:
"Lindy's College Basketball magazine hit the newsstands today and has selected the UCLA Bruins as its preseason number one team.
"The Bruins' frontcourt was also chosen as the best in the nation. Returning starters junior Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (8.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and senior Lorenzo Mata-Real (6.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg) welcome in the nation's High School Player of the Year, Kevin Love (6-10, 260, Lake Oswego, OR). UCLA also retains the services of junior Alfred Aboya (4.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and sophomores James Keefe (1.0 ppg, 1.6 rpg) and Nikola Dragovic (1.8 ppg, 1.2 rpg).
"UCLA's backcourt was rated the sixth-best in the country. The Bruins return two junior starters the in the backcourt in Darren Collison (12.7 ppg, 5.7 apg) and Josh Shipp (13.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg). UCLA will also have junior Michael Roll (4.9 ppg, 1.4 rpg) and sophomore Russell Westbrook (3.4 ppg, 0.7 apg) available, both of whom have considerable experience in big games.
"While the Bruins were picked to repeat as Pacific-10 Conference champions, Collison was also selected as the Pac-10 Player of the Year while Love was named the Newcomer of the Year.
"In ranking the positions, Collison was rated the number two point guard behind Michigan State's Drew Neitzel while Love was rated the number seven power forward (and the number two incoming freshman behind Kansas State's Michael Beasley). Mbah a Moute was rated the eighth-best small forward while Shipp was selected as the 14th-ranked shooting guard."
At the risk of running another list of meaningless pre-season awards, Kirk Herbstreit’s "Herbie" list is a preview of what the lead ESPN analyst is going to be saying during the season. Three Bruins made his lists:
>> UCLA defensive end Bruce Davis no. 7 on his list of "The Sack Masters";
>> Linebacker Reggie Carter was no. 3 on the list of "All Over the Field" outline linebackers and is on the list of "Players Who Don’t Get Enough Respect."
>> Offensive guard Shannon Tevaga was listed on the "All-Uni Team" described as "What a College Football Team Should Look Like."
Carter, especially, is gaining some notice among analysts as a player who’s looked to for a breakout season in 2007.
The betting lines are showing UCLA as an increasing favorite over Stanford on Saturday. The lines started at 15 1/2 points for the Bruins, but are now up to 17, depending on where you shop. With an over-under line of 47, UCLA projects to a 32-15 winner.
That doesn’t impress CBS Sportsline.com senior writer Dennis Dodd, who picked the Bruins in his national top ten during the spring season, but picked Stanford to beat UCLA this week.
Ouch.
 ESPN.com has come out with its list of the top 150 basketball recruits in the nation and the Bruins’ class of 2007 has four spots . . . in the top 35!
>> No. 4: Guard Jrue Holiday (North Hollywood Campbell Hall)
>> No. 21: Guard Malcolm Lee (Riverside J.W. North)
>> No. 33: Forward Drew Gordon (San Jose Archbishop Mitty)
>> No. 35: Guard Jerime Anderson (Anaheim Canyon)
And in an interesting development for 2008, prep ace Eric Sondheimer of The Times has reported that 6-10 Renardo Sidney (pictured) is leaving Artesia High School for City power Fairfax. "He's going to change the landscape in the City," Woodland Hills Taft Coach Derrick Taylor told Sondheimer. "No one matches up with him."
Fairfax and coach Harvey Kitani are no strangers to UCLA basketball. The school sent two current Bruins – junior Josh Shipp and freshman Chace Stanback – to Westwood. Will Sidney be the third?
At the 2007 Wooden Classic, the opening game will feature (?) San Diego State and St. Mary’s with the Bruins and Davidson in the second game on December 8.
[Photo credit: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times]
If a lot of the players on the pre-season All-Southland football team in The Times looked familiar, it’s no mistake. The selections have a blue and gold tinge to them.
An astonishing eight of the 23 players on the list (35%) are committed to UCLA, the most on any such team in memory:
>> Milton Knox, RB (Birmingham)
>> Kermonte Bateman, WR (Crenshaw)
>> Damien Holmes, DE (Colton)
>> Datone Jones, DE (Compton)
>> Uona Kaveinga, LB (Leuzinger)
>> Rahim Moore, DB (Dorsey)
>> E.J. Woods, DB (Crespi)
>> Aaron Hester, DB (Dominguez)
USC also didn’t do badly, with eight of the 23 on the list.
Defensive end Tom Blake, linebacker Josh Edwards and offensive guard Micah Reed got cheers from their teammates on Spaulding Field on Wednesday as head coach Karl Dorrell announced that each has been selected to receive a one-year scholarship.
"Those are the three that we announced today, that the team is excited about," said Dorrell. "It’s unfortunate; I don’t have enough to go around for everybody. I will keep in mind the other walk-ons in our program that have done a great job: [defensive back] Chris Meadows, [quarterback] McLeod Bethel-Thompson, those guys have done a great job [and] Trevor Theriot, our fullback. Those three guys are worth mentioning, but I just don’t have enough at this point in time; but they’ll be the next that we’re looking to."
Dorrell noted that the possibility of a scholarship award is " something we recruit with with our walk-ons."
On the field, quarterback Ben Olson looked sharp and Patrick Cowan's hamstring has improved enough that he was able to walk along the sideline without crutches. The Bruin first-team offense and defense practiced with amplified crowd noise for about 17 minutes, probably a lot louder that they will hear at Stanford this weekend.
The Bruins will leave on Friday around noon, but will concentrate on meetings upon arrival in Palo Alto on Friday and will not have a walk-through at Stanford Stadium prior to gameday.
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