[Updated] Latest On (Injured) Jeff Baca: Still Ineligible For The Season
by Nestor on Aug 25, 2010 7:26 PM PDT
in Football
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PrintSo our "suddenly seasoned" OL is officially on the verge of losing a two year starter in Jeff Baca for the season. It's not a done deal yet but things are not looking too hot for Jeff. NCAA denied Baca's appeal according to reports this afternoon. He might still have other options to further appeal that decision but it's not clear what recourse he is going to have for the time being. Here is what Coach Rick Neuheisel had to say about his OL:
"Unfortunately, he got a little over his skis in terms of what he took in his spring quarter and it blew up on him. He's trying to be a (physical) science major - and that's a very difficult major - and he took two upper division classes and he got over his skis. I know there were other factors that led to the poor quarter, but it's unfortunate that quarter schools have a little harder road to hoe in terms of how units you have to pass. There aren't two-unit classes, only four-unit. And we bear the brunt of it. But everybody knows the challenges, and we're not going to cry about it now."
Well from my understanding Baca was a physiological science major which doesn't entail taking ball room dancing courses or Senora Ross's Spanish class. Apparently he dropped a course last spring quarter which left him short of required credits for the spring quarter and the NCAA requirements for a school year. Baca from my understanding tried to make up those credits by taking additional summer courses but it's unclear whether they were enough to get him back in line. Don't have enough facts to make comment on that.
Now, physiological sciences is a pretty brutal major (I say that as someone who hated being in South Campus - just ask tasser10). I think the mistake here was on Baca's part not informing his academic adviser that he was dropping a course (at the time) and I also think responsibility lies with academic adviser (and CRN) for not ensuring all his student athletes were taking care of their minimum course requirements. As much as I support CRN, I am not sympathetic to the quarter argument because well schools like Stanford and Washington (which to my knowledge are also on quarter system) are not making an issue out of it. So we should let that point go.
In any event, it's crying over spilled milk at this point. Note Baca has been in a walking boot for weeks now because of a stress reaction and it is uncertain how much he was going to be able to contribute. So the depth chart is not going to change much at this point from this. What Baca needs to do is to make sure he doesn't make this mistake ever again and I also think he owes an apology to rest of his team-mates for letting them down. Meanwhile, CRN and UCLA administration needs to take a close look at our academic support system to ensure this kind of mistakes doesn't take place again.
The situation is not fun. Yet, I am pretty sure no one is going to feel sorry for us. Feeling sorry for ourselves here and freaking out over it here and on other Bruin online communities is not going to help the matter either. Let's hope the guys really lock down, focus and get behind whichever QB is leading the team in Manhattan in less than two weeks. For now the Bruins have no choice but to regroup, rally and carry on.
GO BRUINS.
UPDATE (N): Peter Yoon has comments from Baca on ESPNLA:
"I'm disappointed in myself, mostly," Baca said. "And I'm disappointed because I let the team down." [...]
"I wanted to become a doctor and that was my goal when I came in here," Baca said. "I took some very tough courses and I didn't do as well as I wanted to. They say we're student athletes. Student first, athlete second and that's kind of how I wanted to approach this. I didn't get it done."
Nicely done Jeff. Yoon confirms that Baca made up the missing units during summer school and that is why the program thought he had a "strong case" for his appeal. In any event since Baca has been dealing with a stress fracture it looks like he is leaning towards redshirting this season:
"Coming off an injury, I think I would help the team after a redshirt year more than I would if I missed three games and came in with no training camp," he said. "I wouldn't be in shape. And chemistry. You can't just throw a guy in there."
Read rest of Yoon's report here. We will be rooting for him. GO BRUINS.
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Thank god this is happening this season
and not in either of the last two or we wouldn’t have anyone up front. That said, I agree with about everything you said. Several people here need to tighten things up because this shouldn’t happen and it’s not worth making excuses. This isn’t something that happened because it’s UCLA and not some other school. This is something that needs to be taken care of regardless of what school we’re talking about.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Aug 25, 2010 2:34 PM PDT reply actions
phy sci
No excuse for not being on top of things, but gotta love our athletes for challenging themselves. Unless things have changed from back in my day – phy sci is no joke. I took it to prep for med school and it was rough getting through it. Always had a lot of respect for the athletes in my classes.
We're marching on to victory to conquer all the rest ...
by MichiBruin on Aug 25, 2010 2:41 PM PDT via mobile reply actions
Lol yeah....
I was also a physio major, never would have done if I played any sports. Kid is brave for trying. At UCLA its a very intense course load. I don’t think there was ever an “easy” class in the entire major.
Funny part is, in dental school all physiology or basic science classes were a joke when compared to under grad.
+1
When I hit dental school the science classes were way easier than any other courses. Anatomy was a bitch but everything else was a cinch.
My son went to Wisconsin and he says whenever he came into a new class and saw the jocks he new it was an easy A. I’m not so sure that would have happened at UCLA. Maybe that’s why he chose Madison over Dad’s alma Mater.
Stanford
Stanford may be on the quarter system, but they also have major grade inflation, and a very relaxed drop procedure…. they used to allow students to drop the class AFTER the final. Don’t know about now. If had a B average at Stanford, you were way below the curve.
This season should be interesting.
Yeah
I actually made that point about Stanford “drop” policy few days ago when discussion Baca as well. It’s a fair point.
Is this more common for private schools?
Or am I hallucinating?
Either way, I feel confident that our OL will be improved and take positive strides, just like last year. This is a process. Success doesn’t just happen overnight.
Not sure if it is common at private schools
I heard about the class dropping policies specifically with Stanford. That was at least during while we were in school in the 90s. Looks like it might still be in play to date. Not sure about other private schools though.
Private schools..
Way more student friendly.
Private schools and grad schools are indeed student friendly, in my experience
After UCLA, I went to USD for law school and Rockhurst College (the Loyola equivalent in Kansas City) for my MBA. One third flunked out of law school the first year, but everyone knew and expected that. I knew of only one kid who flunked out after the first year, and he was smart enough but turned into a really major (and really tragic) alcoholic. In MBA school, no one flunked out. You were welcome as long as your checking account had funds in it. And it was major news if you didn’t get an A. My GPA went up exponentially after I got out of UCLA.
I don't think that's the case anymore
I looked at Stanford’s registrar’s website several months ago and their rules seemed very similar to UCLA’s. Whether those rules are strictly adhered to might be a different matter.
by SuperBruinMan on Aug 25, 2010 4:39 PM PDT up reply actions
Ed Kezerian
Before he retired, wasn’t one of his major duties to ensure the eligibility of enrolled players? And if so, I guess no one’s doing it now?
I made this same point in my post on the denial of Baca's appeal in the Fanpost section.
Does anyone know the answer? Has Ed. K. been replaced? Or is there less review of academic issues than in year’s past?
by orlandobruin on Aug 25, 2010 4:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Also I feel terrible for Baca
I had the double in Biz Econ and English only to think I could specialize in Computer Science too. Little did I know it was ridiculous and I had to petition out of the specialization just to graduate. If someone (a friend, definitely not my economics counselor who did nothing for me) didn’t tell me this near Christmastime, I would have graduated the following fall at best, since it takes time to process. Really hard to blame Baca, and it’s just terrible all around. What a shame
How about these people?
Academic & Student Services:
Asst. Athletic Director – Academic & Student Services: Dr. Christina Rivera, UC Irvine ‘96
Director of Student – Athlete Counseling: Mike Casillas, UCLA ’89 , Football, M. Basketball
Assistant Director of Student Services: Ric Coy, Simpson College ’88
Student-Athlete Counselor: Aaron Giacosa, UCLA ’04, M/W Soccer, M/W Water Polo, W. Basketball, Gymnastics, Baseball
Student-Athlete Counselor: Linda Lassiter, UCLA ’98, M/W Volleyball, M/W Golf, W. Rowing, W. Swimming & Diving, M/W Tennis
Student-Athlete Counselor: Joanne Suechika, UCLA ’75, M/W Cross Country, Rowing, Softball, M/W Track & Field
Football Academic Coordinator: Tim Anderson, Nebraska-Omaha ’03
Assistant Director of Academic Services: Kenny Donaldson, UCLA ’97
Learning Specialist: Ja’Nae Davis, Arizona ’04
Learning Specialist: Sabrina Youmans, UC San Diego ’90
Eligibility Coordinator: Nicholas Thornton, UCLA ’05
Staff Associate: Kevin Chen, UCLA ’10
Tim Anderson took over from Ed K.? Football academic coordinator and Eligibility coordinator are both fairly young.
Double Major
Student-athletes, particularly the athletes that take their academics seriously, work as hard as those who have more than one major. The time they dedicate to their schooling and athletic duties take up majority of their time. During my time at UCLA, I had classmates who were pursuing their North and South campus majors. They certainly didn’t have a lot of time to waste neither.
Of course, with enough dedication it can be done. Christopher Joseph, a Rhodes Scholar, graduated with high honors. ATV, if not mistaken, was a Mathematics major; no small feat considering we have a top program (Terence Tao, anyone?). Countless student-athletes have done it. I feel for Baca, and my hope is that the NCAA comes to its senses. I am hoping he pursues his dream of attending medical school, too.
I don't feel sorry for him
but I admire that he is taking responsibility and not making excuses.
If he ends up redshirting, that’s a stronger line for next year giving (hopefully) a 3-year starter the time to pick teams apart.
Scattered comments
Although Stanford allows students to drop (withdraw) very late in the term and petition to remove bad grades from their transcripts when the class is repeated, the students pay so much money that there is strong incentive not to do that often.
As far as grade inflation all I can say is: I teach at Stanford and I give C’s and D’s – and nobody’s fired me yet.
I, too, don’t feel sorry for Baca – he’s trying to do something especially difficult and had set backs – that’s life. More importantly, as BritBruin sez: he is taking responsibility and not making excuses. I get a lot of kids who expect everything to turn out their way; when it doesn’t they go whining to someone to fix it for them. One thing I can say for college athletes – these young men and women have a sense of responsibility and know that whining isn’t the answer.
student athletes
The discussion about Stanford is mostly regarding student athletes – and they don’t have that incentive, outside of meeting their requirements to play.
I agree with the last paragraph.
My point was
there is a high price for over-using Stanford’s generous policies on dropping classes and repeating classes so, in practice, these policies don’t offer students much of an advantage over being subject to the UC policies (the fact that student athletes pay an additional price for dropping too many classes just means the ‘advantage’ is even smaller )
Also, the Stanford ‘grade inflation’ doesn’t really exist (at least no more than it does in Universities in general), so student athletes at Stanford don’t get ‘automatic passes’ any more than they do at, say, UCLA.
BTW: since Stanford athletes have higher academic standards than those at most Universities they tend to care more about their educations. In fact, Harbaugh tells his players to pick real majors (ie. what they want to study) b/c when he was playing for Michigan, he wanted to study engineering and was told that players couldn’t major in it. [Pac-10 student athletes really are students]
by KnudsenRockne on Aug 26, 2010 11:33 AM PDT up reply actions
Senora Ross to Harbaugh
“cual es su DEAL???”
by britishbruin on Aug 26, 2010 12:09 PM PDT up reply actions
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