Bruin Bites: Mike Leach Job Watch, Morgan Breslin Profile, Mike Moser is Mad, Alyssia Brewer a Bruin, and UCLA Joins Cooking and Science

It's been relatively quiet at BN this weekend, with our Bruins taking the weekend off before getting ready to take on the Arizona Mildcats Wildcats in their first game following Mike Stoops' firing.  Instead we saw some other Pac-12 action, the main event being last night's shoot out in Eugene, with the Duckies, with their back-up running back and back-up QB, dropping the Devils 41-27.

With that, let's turn to the weekend edition of your Bruin Bites round-up of bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:

• As mentioned in last weekend's edition of Bruin Bites, former UCLA star and color-barrier destroyer (gee, funny how Bruins have a habit of doing that) Kenny Washington was honored by his high school alma mater.  This week, the L.A. Times has a nice piece (which kills me to say since it was written by Splashme; I suppose even a broken clock is right twice a day, right?) talking about Washington's life, the memorial game event, with some quotes from members of his family. Always nice to read about a great man and great Bruin.
• Sticking with football, UCLA commit and current Diablo Valley College defensive end Morgan Breslin was profiled in his school's student newspaper, the Diablo Valley Inquirer.  Breslin talks about what led to his decision to go to UCLA over Boise State, how he got through some injury set-backs, and his thoughts on how to play the game.
• Also on the football front, SB Nation's Bill Connelly has a "Mike Leach Job Watch" where he breaks down all the various places that have been rumored to be the next destination for the swashbuckling coach.  Connelly goes through each rumored destination and discusses how likely it is for Leach to land there for the 2012-13 season.  His conclusion is that Leach most likely ends up in Tucson.  No matter who is coaching UCLA next season, if that's true, they better get ready to defend an all out air-raid.

• Switching over to basketball, the L.A. Times' Ben Bolch has a season preview of Ben Howland's squad. In it, he discusses UCLA playing on a road show the entire season and the various components of the squad, noting that UCLA will have to replace both wings with the departure of Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt to not being paid and not playing basketball the NBA.
• The funny thing about the departure of Tyler Honeycutt is that UCLA has a ready-made do-it-all replacement in highly-recruited 6'8" small forward Mike Moser.  Oh, wait, Moser transferred?  Hmm, doesn't that suck for UCLA?  Moser, being tired of spending time riding Ben Howland's bench and not getting any playing time (while lazy bums like Dragovic started regularly), transferred to UNLV.  Can't blame the kid when you're wrongly stuck behind a loser like the Belgrade Bricklayer (which he alluded to in an interview in 2010 discussing how things were "predetermined" when he arrived in Westwood).  In any event, Moser has something of a chip on his shoulder, deciding to wear #43 because critics gave him a hard time for only playing 4.3 minutes per game at UCLA (in reality, he played 4.7, but close enough).  I hope Moser has a break-out season for the Running Rebels, because he seemed like a good kid who wanted a chance to play for the Bruins, and to remind Ben why sticking with the Serbian cancer no matter what was the dumbest decision he's made.
• Speaking of basketball transfers, former Tennessee forward Alyssia Brewer has decided to transfer to UCLA to join Cori Close's program.  The former Lady Volunteer will redshirt this season and play her senior season in 2012-13, giving the Lady Bruins an experienced player ready to go from the first game.  Welcome to Westwood Alyssia!
• In budget news, the L.A. Times has a discussion of the new $3 billion television deal that the Pac-12 just completed and the financial impact it will have for cash-strapped athletic departments, such as Cal.  Cal, needing to borrow money from the academic side of the university, still managed to make Jeff Tedford the highest paid University of California employee.  UCLA, on the other hand, is in the black, will be getting a major cash infusion from the television deal, and yet, we still aren't willing to pay top dollar for a big name, big time coach (read: Dan, offer to pay Urban a lot of money; at least freakin' ask!).  WTF Dan.
• Finally, turning to the academic side of UCLA, the Math Department, with a couple of other on-campus brainiac organizations, is hosting a neat (and public) lecture on where science and cooking come together (HT Bruinut).  It promises to be a delicious event for our fellow Bruins, which will talk about how cooking can be a tool to educate on a lot of scientific principles, something that will appeal to Bruins from both North Campus and South Campus. Despite what the schedule say (damn those typos!) the lecture will be on Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at the California NanoSystems Institute, near convenient parking at Lot 9.

Alright folks, those are your Bruin Bites for the tail-end of the weekend. We'll have all the news from our non-revenue programs (many in action this weekend) tomorrow, so for now, sit tight, catch some NFL action, and fire away with your thoughts, comments, and additions.

GO BRUINS