Spaulding Roundup: Presley Followup (Bitter TrOJan Spin) & Other Notes

Some football news and notes to wrap up this Friday. First let’s start with the Presley news. Here are Morrell’s comments via Dohn’s report:

"I want to be remembered as a pioneer," Presley said. "I want to be one of the first to go in and help build things back to where it used to be. I want to bring the rivalry back to how it was. I want to be a part of that."

Presley will play in the Under Armour All-America game Jan. 4 in Orlando, Fla., then will attend his first UCLA class the next day. Entering school in January allows him to participate in spring practice, and gives him a better chance to play in 2009.

"I wanted to make my own path," said the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Presley, who had 35 catches for 604 yards as a senior. "The easy way was to go to 'SC. I loved it up there. All the players up there, they live like kings, walking around campus with their chests out, everybody knows them, and all the bowl games. But it really wouldn't make me happy seeing a (bowl) ring on my finger if I didn't do anything to get that ring.

"I wanted to be someone who starts something, and be part of something big."

Works for us MP.

If you are wondering how the Trojies have been reacting, look no further than Dan Weber’s (the Trojan shill from the Press Enterprise) post in which he launches a snarky and petty attack on Morrell:

True joy abounds in Westwood. The Monopoly is over in 2010, we hear now from the posters. The Bruins are back.

And indeed, Presley, in comments to the Daily News' Brian Dohn, does seem to have switched his commitment. He says he's always liked UCLA.

A more definitive take would seem to be that Presley can count to 3 and realized at USC next year, that's where he'd be behind starter Anthony McCoy and last year's top tight end in the nation, treu freshman Blake Ayles.

Hard to blame him.

So there you go. The Trojan spin parroted here by Weber is that Presley was afraid of competition. Of course Dan didn’t bother to include in his blog post inconvenient facts that UCLA will be loaded at TE next year with the return of Logan Paulsen and Ryan Moya. Not to mention we also have Cory Harkey waiting in the wings as a talented TE and also Jeff Miller emerged as a decent contributor this past season. Weber also didn’t mention anything about that fact that how Chow is well known for featuring TE in his dynamic offense, and how there are uncertainties in the Trojan program about how viable their new no name OC is going to perform in the coming years (after their offense underperformed under Sarkasian and Kiffin since Chow’s departure from South Central).

Nope we get none of the relevant facts from Weber, instead we get a bitter and not so transparent snark attack from the Trojan pov on a traditional news outlet. Perhaps, garbage like this is not all that surprising from Weber. After all this is the game guy who just days ago tried to dismiss Ben Ball warrior’s freshman class as “overrated” and was surprised to find out that our team can run. In other words Weber in just few days have proven himself to be either completely clueless or a plain moron when it comes to opining on UCLA athletics. Guess can’t blame him for losing his brain cells because it’s a natural result from covering a physical genius like Pete Carroll.

Anyway let Dan Webers of the world be bitter and clueless because if they keep this kind of “reporting” it will probably result to even more bankruptcies killing all these traditional news outlets.

Going back to our recruiting, Ryan Taylor, the recently committed JUCO OL is all set to enroll at UCLA this spring. From Dohn:

Taylor, who played at Tyler (Tex.) Junior College, said he was told he would play left guard at UCLA. The 6-foot-4, 290-pounder will enter school in the spring, which will allow him to participate in spring practice.

That is outstanding news. Ryan is signing his LOI today. Congrats Ryan.

This is shaping up to be the most exciting spring football camp in Westwood for years. Can’t wait.

GO BRUINS.