The second worst columnist in the Los Angeles area (second to Bill Splashme) is back. Marcia Smith from the OC Register is back in business with a writeup on CRN. I am not going to provide any links because she is one of those idiots who doesn't deserve any. Her latest column starts with trademark Marcia idiocy:

The novelty of golden boy has faded. The whimsy in his blue eyes, dream-big boom in the voice and the cockiness that this new-kid-back-on-the-block displayed by taking aim early at crosstown rival USC have almost vanished as well.

WTF does CRN's "blue eyes" have anything to do with UCLA football?

Anyway, to no one's surprise her column is mostly useless. Although she was able to slip in one interesting story (while showing her Trojan colors by taking another insulting shot at CRN):

Neuheisel, a former Bruin quarterback, appeared a coach no longer consumed by the glory of his own homecoming or by his own enthusiasm over being hired to coach Division I football after controversy-checkered stops at Colorado and Washington. He emerges a wiser man set on proving himself a capable architect for UCLA's ambitious rebuilding.

His players can see this. They noticed the change Sunday night when Neuheisel gathered the players for an hour-long team meeting – the first to open fall camp – inside the Acosta Sports Training near Spalding Field.

"Coach showed up wearing a suit, black coat, white shirt and black tie, which was kind of strange since he always wears UCLA coaching clothes," recalled sophomore wide receiver Nelson Rosario.

The players howled at the sight of slick Rick before he calmed them down at addressed them sternly.

"Bet you're wondering why I'm wearing this," Neuheisel told them, lifting his lapels and cuing up a slideshow.

He presented the players with images of the Bruin teams who played in past postseasons. He showed off how the coaches and players arrived in suits, dressed appropriately for their success.

Notice how she is peddling Colorado/Washington story into CRN's second year at UCLA while slipping in "Slick Rick." Guess that's the kind of class we can expect from a joke columnist from a joke paper.

Still I thought the story re. showing up in a suit in the team meeting to make a point about history of previous UCLA coaches and players was very interesting. I remember hearing stories like that when CRN was an assistant under Donahue when he was always doing little something to fire up the players before big games.

Obviously we are going to need lot more than suits to get to where we are. But as always it's always refreshing to hear how CRN is trying to get his players fired up and reminding them of UCLA football tradition every opportunity he gets. UCLA football always had tradition. The problem was before Neuheisel got here no one was doing much to remind our players about it and subsequently create expectations to live up to it.

GO BRUINS.