Seniors & Freshmen

The ongoing transition and rebuilding of UCLA football program is evident in the game notes posted on the official site. Saturday’s game will mark the last time 20 Bruin seniors will take the field:

The game on Saturday will mark the final home game for 20 Bruin seniors (16 active) --- RB Kahlil Bell, DL Tom Blake, LB Joshua Edwards, WR Marcus Everett, OL Scott Glicksberg, WR Ryan Graves, LB John Hale, DL Brigham Harwell, DB Bret Lockett, DB Chris Meadows, DL Chase Moline, DB Michael Norris, QB Ben Olson, P Aaron Perez, OL Micah Reed, DL Nathaniel Skaggs. Injured retired seniors include QB Patrick Cowan, OL Chris Johnson, DB Robert Kibble and DL Ken Lombard.

We have chronicled the tough times Olson and Cowan have had to endure during last couple of years. While we will always what kind of careers these kids could have had if they could have played their entire four-five years under a good football coach, kids like Bell, Everett, and Harwell are going to leave Westwood on a high note in my book given the guts and courage they have shown battling though various coaching personnel and injury issues.

We talked about the great game Norris had last Friday night. I thought it was really cool when it was Patrick Cowan (who has been traveling with the team as a graduate student assistant) who was one of the first guy to come by and pat him on the back. Norris has been playing his heart out as has been Lockett whose tackling (along with the tackling of rest of the Bruin defense) has steadily improved this season showing no sign of quitting despite the frustrating losses. All of these guys have been battling away even though it would have been easy for them to quit under their fourth OC in four years and mounting frustrating losses.  Hopefully they get to leave on an incredible high on Saturday channeling the most recent legend in Bruin Nation:

UCLA's Eric McNeal Interception vs. USC (via jtthirtyfour)

Again here is to Bell, Harwell, Lockett or any one of those 29 seniors leaving Rose Bowl as an eternal hero like Eric McPick.

While the seniors are moving on, lot of youngsters (I mean lots of them) are just getting started:

UCLA has played a total of 22 freshmen this season, 11 true freshmen and 11 redshirt freshmen and 11 have started at least one game. They have combined to make 53 starts (S Rahim Moore - 11; TE Cory Harkey - 6; WR Taylor Embree -8 ; OL Jeff Baca - 7; DL Datone Jones - 2; OL Mike Harris - 4; LB Steve Sloan - 9; LB Akeem Ayers - 3; OT/TE Nate Chandler - 2; S Tony Dye - 1; TB Derrick Coleman - 1). Eight started the Oregon State game, six started at Washington and five at Arizona State.


UCLA has played a total of 11 true freshmen (seven offense, four defense) so far this season. The Bruins played seven freshmen in the 2008 season-opening game against Tennessee --- LB Sean Westgate; S Rahim Moore; TE Cory Harkey; WR Taylor Embree; S; Tony Dye; WR Antwan Moutra; WR Nelson Rosario. RB Aundre Dean made his debut versus BYU. TB Derrick Coleman, OT Jeff Baca and DE Datone Jones debuted versus Arizona.

Here is to these freshmen experiencing the kind of high this freshman QB experienced in 1994:

1995 UCLA vs. USC Football (via jtthirtyfour)

NO FEAR from Number 18. NO FEAR.

You can read rest of the game notes on our official site here.

BEAT ’SC.

GO BRUINS.