Keeping The Faith

Bumped. Countdown clock is up. 370 more days till we meet Chetey Petey's classless thugs in our house. GO BRUINS. -N

I HAVE FAITH IN THIS TEAM.

I HAVE FAITH IN UCLA HEAD FOOTBALL COACH RICK NEUHEISEL.

I HAVE FAITH IN THE BRUINS.

Let’s get a countdown clock up for next year’s game. Let’s count the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, and freaking heartbeats until we get these guys back on our front lawn.

I’M SERIOUS...

Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, ‘cause the trophies to end all trophies are an ashen-haired noggin mounted over Rick Neuheisel’s fireplace and a white horse-skin rug on the floor below it.

I watched the game with a family of Bruins, and one person — a 40-year-alum whom I truly love and respect — was so frustrated that he actually wanted CRN to be FIRED because they thought CRN brought on Pom-Pom’s move on us and embarrassed us more.

This same Bruin alum was so heartbroken that didn’t want us to go to a Bowl game and get extra practice because they thought we would just embarrass ourselves.

Another Bruin called in via cellphone from a sports bar and wanted NC fired. Not making this up, people. MY watching compatriots were LIVID.

And me, you ask? I was PUMPED.

Not happy, hell NO. No "moral victory" glow here. NO WAY.

But I was ready to suit up and run through a plate-glass window for CRN, and go shoulder-block first into the first Trojan beer-belly gut I could find. Shoot, Ms. M was ready to slash the Humanitarian’s tires herself.

I couldn’t help but wonder when was the last time we thought we had such a good shot at nailing these cheaters that we would get this PISSED OFF.

Now mind you, moral victories suck. They suck colostomy bags.

Am I disappointed? SURE I AM.

Do I think we shouldn’t have gone Dorellian in the past-50 punt, that Jet Ski should have gotten into the game sooner, that Knox would have torn their ain’t-what-they-used-to-be LBs up? HELL YES (albeit with the disclaimer about JetSki’s fumble proving WHY we were gun-shy…. man, get some stickum…)!

But CRN proved one thing to me in last night’s game against the Trojans. If nothing else, one thing was proven to me beyond a sliver of a shadow of a doubt.

RICK. HATES. THE. TROJANS.

Rick hates the Trojans with the fury and conflagration of a thousand suns. Hates them so much that he would never throw God’s Gift to ESPN under a bus, not if it meant he’d have to sacrifice the opportunity to get behind the wheel and DRIVE that bus right over both of Petey’s faces, and then go fishtail-skidding over his nether regions.

And that’s damn well how it SHOULD be.

I am PROUD of this team. The outcome was not ideal, but the improvement was REAL.

Our D, inconsistent most of the year, played them tough for most of the game, keeping the outcome in doubt up until Pour-it-on Pete was shocked — SHOCKED — we wouldn’t go down without a fight. He was mortally offended that we didn’t just bow down and kiss his effing ring like he was the GD Pope.

And that’s how we played all night, dang it.

Alterraun Verner played and fought with toughness and HONOR from the get-go. So proud my 8-year-old math whiz of a son wears his jersey while watching the games.

Reggie Carter got in there and mixed things up all night… and while I don’t condone unnecessary violence, look who was the first one across the filed when the benches cleared. #51 went out with HONOR.

Brian Price scared the holy crap out of them, and still, disrupted them after a TrOJan player rolled over his knee in the 2nd half. Nothing but HONOR.

The "C-Train" Chane Moline did what he was asked to do to the bets of his limited abilities. Sorry, folks — C-Moline is NOT a tailback, is NOT a speed back, is NOT a breakaway runner…. but he is tough, reliable, and WILL FIGHT for every inch of turf and daylight he can find. And I will not ask for any more of a Bruin than that. An HONORABLE warrior on the field.

Kevin Craft???  Last year, he was running for his life.  Last night, he was running to keep us IN THE GAME.  Kevin Craft, ladies and gentlemen.  Hope the reports earlier this year that he wants to be graduate assistant are true, as I would love to see if he really can teach HEART.   Craft played with HONOR.

And Poodle Pete?  Not all that hard to believe he was so classless -- after all, it's not like his students go to class.

Granted, did a lot of our offensive weapons take themselves out of the game? Heck yes… but think of where they were just 2 months ago:

Kevin Prince couldn’t chew solid food. A year ago, he couldn’t run due to a knee injury. NOW? Two picks aside, PRINCE IMPROVED THIS SEASON. With another year under CRN and NC — aka Kirk and Spock — he will continue to grow and improve. HE WILL BE BACK.

Nelson Rosario? We didn’t know WTF he could give us as recently as September, and he grew into a featured receiver, a possibly legit #1 receiver. Did the pressure get to him? Probably. BUT HE WILL BE BACK.

Johnathan Franklin? The guy goes BACKWARD, picks up a lateral OFF THE GROUND, and STILL runs 25+ yards?!?!?  That play and the fumble encapsulates his season — an abundance of talent, an absence of grip. He, along with the other backs, will hopefully learn that you can only get on the field by proving you can help the TEAM stay on the field. I have abundant faith that the running backs will learn, and that THEY WILL BE BACK.

For those who might be losing faith, consider this: we are losing seniors that are quality, all-conference types — Carter and Verner. Others who give their all, but will be hard-pressed to play on Sundays — Moya, Moline, Siewerski, the Bosworths. Others who were maddeningly inconsistent with asinine penalties or drops weighing down their considerable talent — Paulsen, Austin.

Now think of how many notable juniors we have… Price and, uh, hmmm…

There’s a reason we started sophs and freshmen galore. WE NEEDED TO. The breakout-junior cupboard is a bit thin on both sides of the ball. The young talent is THERE, and reinforcements are ON THE WAY.

Just look at how far we’ve come. TWO MORE WINS. A clear starter at QB. A growing stable of backs. A developing core on the O-line. A talented young secondary led by the best thief living in L.A. since George Clooney raided 3 Vegas casinos in one night..

The saintly facade of Pope Petey the Worst is weakening. In just 2 years, Rick got under his skin and shoved bamboo under his fingernails. "Just compete" Pete couldn’t stand that someone dared to do it to him. Tell Aaron Eckhart that Prickly Pete wants to take over the role of Two-Face in the next Batman/ Dark Knight movie, and he’ll do it without CGI.

I want a Bowl Game. i don’t care if it’s with James Cameron’s Dances with Smurfs-turf in Idaho, or in the desert of New Mexico, or at some podunk high school field in rural Pennsylvania. And I will beg and plead to Ms. M to let me go to it, because I want to be there and see what another 3 weeks of practice can do for this team.

Think about it BruinsNation. The TrOJans had:
(1) a bye week
(2) home-field advantage
(3) more depth at every position imaginable
(4) an opponent with one less day of normal practice due to the holiday…

… and even after they "poured it on", THAT WAS THE BEST THEY COULD DO?!?

That was all they had? They needed us to give them the ball four times to beat us by three scores?

Start the countdown for next year. I have never been so pumped up after a LOSS than I am RIGHT NOW.

Payback is a bitch. And next year, they’re OURS.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock…

M