I Froze For The Bruins

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

This day is finally over. Throughout my long road history with the Bruins, I have never been in a "snow bowl". So before I get underway with this post, I would like to mention that UCLA has seen it all this year from the golden sun of the Rose Bowl and the Orange horizon at Neyland, to the surreal frozen Martin Stadium. This is definitely one of my favorite seasons... even with all the losses. 

Anyways, after the long, boring drive from Spokane’s Pine forests to the bland, boring, and depressing rolling snow covered farmlands of the Palouse, I decided to go into the stadium really early this time around. I whipped out my iPhone and captured this scene; (All photos taken by yours truly)

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Personally, I’m in a love/hate relationship with Martin Stadium. I think that this is the definition of old-school, college atmosphere football. It is so intimate, and close knit with the town and campus that it just seems to "sink" right in to its place (For those who have been there, you know what I’m talking about).

I’ll go down to my seat, and do some analysis after the jump.

This is my favorite picture right here:

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Snow... on the seat. Notice the snow on the floor as well. By the 2nd quarter, the floors and steps were are solid in ice. I counted 3 people, including an usher, that slipped and got a stinger or something.

This is the view from my seat; apparently they had some snow!

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The actual UCLA "section" (if you could call 10-20 people a section) was in the south-west corner of the end-zone, and it had the worst view of the game (all TD’s except for KP’s run were on my end), and it was a terrible angle when I walked over there before the game.

Anyways, when all the players came out, much like how the Punt Returners beckoned the Tennessee band to make more noise, they taunted Nature by doing this:

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I mean, I had a T-Shirt, and my 2 layer parka on, and I might have frostbite on my extremities. These guys are just crazy.

OK, enough of that, let’s get to the game. Martin Stadium wasn’t very loud, which is pretty easy to explain, but then the claps were all muffled out by the sounds of gloves hitting together, and I was disappointed at the lack of the electric venue that I was used to. So when Ayers picked that pass, I was the only person on my side of the stadium to stand up and cheer. I was outnumbered, but it was around 1-1000 Bruin to Coug ratio, as opposed to the 1-100 Bruin to Vol ratio. Really misleading.

Then Prince hits Embree, behind all the coverage. I was not exactly excited... it was a combination of a flashback, and hypothermia coming on; I saw Kahlil Bell’s run on the first play from scrimmage and then I saw Dwight Tardy just demolishing the UCLA Defense... bad memories.

Then everyone knows how this game ended up... UCLA played UCLA from last year’s reincarnation and UCLA won. Very funny to watch and almost depressing when I had to cheer for WSU getting a first down.

A few thoughts before I get into next week;

• My HB buddy Nick Crissman got to play today, which made everyone back home happy. His alma-mater isn’t doing too bad right?
• I was proud of Craig Sheppard making his last carry of his life count, wait I take that back, he’ll get a bunch in the last two games while we run out the clock.
• Prince looks like a different guy, he is really comfortable
• I think the game ball goes to Chane Moline, he had an outstanding game in the air and on the ground, conducting his "power" across the goal line three times, and getting a game high 7 receptions for 60 yards
• I am no longer nervous watching the Offense. It is almost fun watching the Bruins now.

So lets talk ASU. The devils got whooped by the Ducks today, the defense made plays, but the offense isn’t at the PAC 9 level (Winks). Osweiler got yanked, so Szakacsy got in and he looked exactly like Osaar Rashaan in his U of A game. Really just overrated fluff and luck to get even close to a TD.

The defense averaged something like 172 YPG and gave up 190 in the first quarter. The Devils punted 8 times in this game. That is really alarming, because if the defense is always on the field, they will slowly start losing their speed that they are known for... eventually leading to more open plays.

What I expect, at least right now, is for UCLA to get stopped for a little while, but then ASU will start tiring after the 2nd quarter. It will be up to KP to keep the ASU defense on the field for as long as possible, and the ASU offense on the field as little as possible. The former is harder than the latter. That is all.

13-9