I checked up on the campus rag this AM to see if they had anything positive to say about the weekend...I was expecting something along the lines of:

"Yes, we lost, but the weather sure was great!  And if the game had been 59 minutes long, we would have won!  Yay UCLA!"

Instead, I actually encountered what I could only describe as reality:

The UCLA defense played one of the most inspired games I've ever seen a defense play. It made a Notre Dame offense loaded with weapons look like a flustered high school team.

And Pat Cowan - making his second career start in one of the most pressured situations conceivable - played like a warrior, making big play after big play when the Bruins needed them most.

And for 57 minutes and 40 seconds, Karl Dorrell and the UCLA coaching staff called a great game, putting their players in a position to win a game that nobody gave them a chance to win.

But what happened in the last two minutes and 20 seconds was gut-wrenching, painful and, above all, irritating.

After 57 minutes and 40 seconds of being smart, the UCLA coaching staff decided to sacrifice smart for 'safe.' The coaches decided that rather than try to win the game, they would try not to lose it.

Wow.  Reality has finally set in, I guess.  I'd disagree a little bit with Cowan making big play after big play.  Cowan had a couple of shots to make some plays on the outside in single coverage, and didn't convert.  He played well, but I wouldn't exactly say he made play after play.