Spaulding Roundup: Pac-10 Media Day, Freshmen Speed & Injury Notes

Pac-10 Media Day is today. We got an invitation to attend it earlier this week but we all decided to take a pass because of time issues and the fact that these events never really amount to much except for usual soundbites and preseason predictions that we have been reading through this off-season. Nevertheless, if you guys are interested in following it, you can keep track via their official where they will stream it live and allows fans to "participate" by "tweeting their questions to: http://twitter.com/pac10." 

Hey perhaps all of you can tweet questions about whether Pac-10 as a conference is plannint to something concrete about the scandals after scandals coming out of U$C*. I am not going to hold my breath on whether they will actually respond to those questions.  So knock yourself out if you are up for it and let us know if we missed out on something totally earth shattering.

As for our team BruinJD already blogged about Ryan Moya and Logan Paulson being named to Mackey watch list. That is pretty cool. Let's hope both of those guys can stay healthy (crossing fingers/knocking on wood). Meanwhile, the team is going to be without couple of freshman LBs during the training camp:

Taniela Maka, a linebacker from Long Beach Jordan High, said he will not enroll at UCLA because of an academic issue. He plans to enroll in January.

"I just need to get a better SAT score," Maka said. "I don't think it will be a problem. I only have to add 60 points."

Maka will attend most of UCLA's practices while he prepares for the SATs.

"(Graduate assistant) Coach (Clark) Lea actually wants me to come up there and watch," Maka said.

Linebacker Jared Koster said he has a sports hernia injury and likely will undergo surgery to repair it. Koster isn't expected be enrolled for the fall quarter.

Instead, the plan is for him to be enrolled in January.

Good luck to Taniela and Jared. Also per Dohn "defensive end Chinonso Anyanwu has a hip injury that likely will require surgery and keep him out at the start of training camp." He always brings good news. Doesn't he? (j/k). Well, I wouldn't get discouraged about this kind of news. 

This kind of attrition is fairly normal at this time of the year. The good news is that we will have Taniel and Jared next year and oh BTW Tony Dye, who was suffering from a bit of turf toe, should be all right.  I will end this round up with some exciting news though.

According to his home town paper, Damien Thigpen is wasting no time display his speed at UCLA:

When UCLA tested its football players last week in the 40-yard dash, Damien Thigpen was nervous.

It had been two years since he had run a time in the 40 in large part because he was already known for his quickness.

But now, he was an incoming college freshman facing fellow speedsters and he wasn’t sure how he stacked up.

On his first run, he clocked in at 4.31 seconds. That drew some attention, but on his second run, he generated even more chatter — recording a personal-best 4.28. The facial expressions from onlookers told Thigpen he had done something impressive when he crossed the finish line.
The only thing was he didn’t initially know was how impressive the time was. It wasn’t the best time among freshmen or running backs. It was the best time of anyone on the team.

Thigpen was shocked. He had enjoyed plenty of success as a multiple state track champion hurdler at Stonewall Jackson, but this was something new and unexpected.
"I was excited that I had run that fast,"  Thigpen said. "I was on cloud nine."

Man, I can't wait to see this kid, Randall Carroll, Presley and other youngsters at the Rose Bowl. Can't wait.

GO BRUINS.