Spaulding Roundup: Pre-season Honors For Moore/Forbath & Other UCLA Football Notes
by Nestor on May 5, 2010 5:24 AM PDT
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PrintLet's start the roundup on this Humpday with another pre-season award watch list. This time it's Rahim Moore and Kai Forbath's turn, who were listed as first-team pre-season All-Americans by NationalChamps.net:
Forbath, the Lou Groza Award winner and consensus All-America place kicker in 2009, led the nation in field goals per game (2.15) last season, making 28 of 31 attempts, including all 25 tries inside 50 yards.
Moore, who has started all 25 games of his Bruin career, led the nation with 10 interceptions a year ago, one shy of the UCLA school record. His 10 interceptions were the most by a player in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division IA) since 2003.
UCLA was the only Pac-10 school to have two first-team selections, with Stanford and Oregon State having one each. UCLA was one of just five schools nationally to have two first-team selections, with Georgia, Miami, Oklahoma and Pittsburgh being the others.
Wanted to offer couple of quick observations here. I noted the other day that Rahim Moore was also listed as a late first round draft pick in a ridiculously early projection last week. I would think Moore is not paying attention to those listings all that much. Moore is one of the more gifted athletes Bruins have been blessed to have in their defensive backfield. However, I still think he has more work to do. While he is an amazing ball hawking safety, I think he can take another step forward in the area of helping out with run defense. Moore needs to work on getting stronger and more physical this coming season.
As for Forbath, all I can say if anyone wants to take him for granted they should watch a replay of some of the bowl games from this past season during when a number of teams had their offensive strategies shackled due to horrible/uncertain kicking game. Of course this also means I hope our coaches don't get too dependent on him either and get vanilla in the red zone thinking they have 3 points already in their pocket. Hopefully Forbath would be more occupied with kicking extra points and get in his share of GWers next season.
Speaking of honors, Logan Paulsen and Trevor Theriot were named to National Football Foundation 2010 Hampshire Honor Society Membership. This select group is comprised of college football players in their final year of eligibility from all divisions of play who maintained a 3.2 GPA or better. Paulsen (3.45) and Theriot (3.25) are representing UCLA on the list. Congrats to both of them although I still don't get how a smart kid like Paulsen committed all those dumb penalties on the field. Aaagh.
MJD was never frustrating to watch. The most exciting Bruin football player from this decade is making his mark in the NFL. The New York Times recently listed him as one of the 5 best running backs in the League with the following tagline:
Bowling ball bruiser who can also go the distance at any moment.
In case you were wondering, Mr. Kardashian didn't make the top-10.
Can you imagine if Norm Chow had someone like MJD to work with in Westwood? Well this year Chow will have some a good mix of RBs to work with. Derrick Coleman is hoping to emerge from this group and he is liking the new revolver formation in the Bruin offense:
No UCLA running back had a better spring than Derrick Coleman. He was the best offensive player in the spring game and was the most consistent tailback during the 15 practices. He said he noticed both good and bad when it came to blocking in the pistol formation.
"Throughout the whole training camp I've seen a lot more gaps and holes opening," Coleman said. "I can get there and be explosive. I think they're opening a lot faster than they did before.
"I'm actually liking this offense."
That was from Adam Maya, who took a snarky potshot at the Bruin OL based just on the spring game performance. Maya also discovered through his hard-hitting reporting that Bruins are recruiting some JC quarterback out of the Bay Area. Bell story is just another data point to note for those who come here to question our track-record. Darius Bell was discussed here more than two weeks ago before it popped up on the radars of UCLA "beat reporters," who often seems more content with sleeping on the job and taking snarky pot shots (in the case of Trogans like Maya) instead of actually paying attention to what is going on in the world of Bruin athletics.
Lastly, CollegeFootballNews.com has an early 2010 "preview" with "way too early bowl predictions." According to their "staff" UCLA will not be making any bowl appearances this coming season and the Trogans are headed to the Rose Bowl (against Wisconsin). Again, I kind of like this for now and I hope this kind of prediction is the norm for this off-season. Objectively we can't get upset. These guys who are taking a very surface view on various teams see a 7 win UCLA squad playing without Brian Price, ATV, Reggie Carter, its stud freshman OL (XSF) and a rebuilt OL. So there are lot of reasons to doubt us. I think it will make it that much more fun if our team keeps making incremental improvement from this past season and keep us on our path back to where we belong.
Offseason predictions like this one and that power rating from Ted Miller will keep bandwagoning losers out of BN. That is more than fine with us.
GO BRUINS.
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Bell
It almost seems like a good thing now that Nottingham flip flopped over to the farm. He is just not mobile enough to exist within our revolver packages. If things keep looking good for Bell considering his academics we seemed to have found a perfect QB for this recruiting class.
Agree on laying low
We really haven’t done anything to earn any team-based preseason accolades and rankings. You are right Nestor that it’s better to be under-rated/below the radar at this point, which will hopefully cause teams to overlook us and hopefully motivate our guys to give the extra effort.
Those following the team know we are headed in the right direction: the coaching and the talent are all coming together. But we have to prove it on the field…
by RealisticBruinFan on May 5, 2010 8:52 AM PDT reply actions
I really wasn't expecting Kai to come back
He’s an amazing kicker and I’m sure his goal for this year is perfection. He’s the one that should have a pre-season first round draft projection.
This year, our field goal kicking is going to be a wonderful gift from Kai Forbath and I hope everyone appreciates it.
Rahim on first team all-American?
I think Kai truly deserves the honor, but I think Rahim is a little bit over-rated. I am not saying Rahim is not a good player. In fact, he is. If you look at the films, half of the interceptions were tossed directly into Rahim’s hands or deflected into his hands. I would be more impressed if the interceptions were truly INTERCEPTED. Again, I am not knocking Rahim.
Ummm...what are you talking about?
You don’t get TEN interceptions because QBs just happen to throw the ball at him.
Rahim was at the right place at the right time, and that’s not luck when you do it TEN friggin’ times.
What does “truly” intercepted mean? Sorry, that’s rubbish.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Montana and Rice were not great players
If you look at the films, 60 percent of Rice’s “catches” were tossed directly into his hands!
WRs, RBs and TEs were in the right place in 90 percent of Montana’s throws!
Sorry NNL … your comment set it up too easy. Of course I am not comparing those two legends to Moore. But your argument here is not very strong. Moore has room to improve but he has emerged as a very good college player flashing potential of future greatness.
Cheesy way of backing off your evaluation...
“I would be more impressed if the interceptions were truly INTERCEPTED. Again, I am not knocking Rahim.”
You state a premise that Rahim’s 10 interceptions were not INTERCEPTIONS (due to some concept of physics trajectory?) and then cheesily try to downplay your conjecture by saying you’re not knocking Rahim?
What in your logic would be considered a knock?
To your point about ‘real’ interceptions, the reason that Rahim made his was because he was:
1) in the right place at the right time (intelligent player)
2) played off the defender (ball hawk)
3) took a deflection (opportunist)
These are all traits looked for in the DBs recently drafted - one of the highest picked was Mr. Berry from Tenn. And who had the better head-to-head game last fall???
And finally, if not Rahim - then what player from your extensive film viewing should be in his stead?
by C.T. in Boston on May 6, 2010 3:41 AM PDT up reply actions
Just because
Rahim’s picks weren’t from jumping routes and running the ball back for pick 6’s doesn’t mean they were just lucky.
Honesly
I think you guys are giving NNL a bit of a hard time. The wording is off, but I can somewhat understand what you are saying. He is not overrated, but his numbers were inflated or padded. You can say he was in the right place at the right time, and that is intelligent play (and that when given the opportunity he makes the catch), but there were a few interceptions that were thrown when there wasn’t a receiver within 15 yards and he only had to move 2 yards from the time the ball was thrown.
I think what NNL means by truly INTERCEPTED is to be right on a receiver and play for the ball and win it. Like he did in the bowl game against temple (I think it was). He make is share of these, and the absence of these is not an issue to me, it takes quick reflexes to catch the deflections he got this year.
I believe that Moore is one of the top safeties in the country, but I also think that NNL has a shred of a point, just didn’t get it across clearly. Rahim probably earned 8 or so of his 10 INTs last year (though he still made the catch and WAS in the right place at the right time). I would never say overrated, but I might agree with inflated.
In addition, why is there not a single video on youtube featuring the play of Rahim Moore. I just searched and there are only his interviews and some stuff from this spring. I looked just now and could not find any video of ANY of his INTs to try to link the ones where the ball just fell in his hands or the ones where he flat earned it (I really want to say it was against Temple).
Well we were just having fun with his comment
I think I understood what he meant but it was just awkwardly worded. Its all good on my end.
Again, sorry, but not a good comment
Rahim is not a corner. He is a safety.
It’s not his job to be right on a receiver on every play, which makes the fact that he had TEN interceptions even more impressive.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Rahim also got unlucky with the Tenn pick
that was called back at the end of the game to give Tenn another chance.
by bornagainbruin on May 6, 2010 12:35 PM PDT up reply actions
The comment
about not a corner would apply more if he was the strong safety. The free safety is responsible for pass coverage including watching the quarterback and responding to throws as well as providing double coverage on receivers. So he should be covering people and being in position to get interceptions.
I agree that he also had a few called back, but don’t try to say that my points are not valid. He got some really easy ones that had nothing to do with his ability as well, that is all I am saying. I take nothing away from Rahim, he is fantastic, LOVE the guy, wouldn’t take anyone else in the country over him, dream unrealistically about hims staying his senior year, legitimately earns interceptions like a machine. That said, he had a few gift wrapped for him.
We'll just disagree and it's cool
Luck favors the prepared.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Way too early bowl predictions indeed!
Last season’s HIGHLY ACCURATE predictions. Take special note of the BCS game.
If the Linebacking corps can remain healthy, I think Moore’s contribution can be bigger than last season. I see the linebacking corps speed as negating what I saw as the major weakness last season – running backs getting into the second level (Arizona, Stanford, and Oregon come to mind). If so I hope Moore can be freed up to be reign more chaos on opponents (and allows CCB to blitz more). Of course for me all of this assumes that Glenn Love starts.
57 or 58 reasons to think Forbath is the best kicker in the nation
The 57 or 58 reasons why Kai Forbath is the best, yes the very best, kicker in the whole wide nation—that 57 or 58 yard field goal he kicked in the Spring Game at the Rose Bowl. Yes!
Nestor You Have A Hot Hand...I bow
glad to hear about logan and theriot on the awards
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