Football Open Thread: UCLA Meeting Illinois In the "Coachless" Bowl in San Francisco
by Nestor on Dec 4, 2011 6:40 PM PST
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PrintFor those who are in the Bay Area, if you don't have your New Year's plan locked down yet - Bruins are going up to NorCal:
The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl has extended an invitation to the UCLA Bruins to participate in the 2011 edition of that game, scheduled to be played on Saturday, December 31, 2011 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The game will be televised live on ESPN at 12:30 (PT). The Bruins (6-7) will face Big 10 team Illinois (6-6) New Year's Eve.
The last bowl game between the two was a 6-3 snooze fest in favor of the Bruins in El Paso (the Sun Bowl). There is also the twist of Coach Rick Neuheisel's greatest day as a Bruin - the win over Illinois in the 1984 Rose Bowl. The last time these two programs played each other was during KD's first two years when the Bruins' swept the series against a struggling Illinois program in 03 and in 04. Our overall record against the Illini is 6-5.
The matchup is set up for ridicule given both programs are on the market for now for a new football coach. However, the Bruins do have somewhat of a "fresh start" with interim coach Mike Johnson, and let's hope Johnson will take advantage of the practice opportunity to develop the underclassmen, and perhaps end the season on a good note.
May be, just may be by then the Bruins will also have a new coach in place, who can unify the fan base looking ahead to 2012. Speaking of the coaching search, we will have a reset in the morning. We are hearing some pathetic whispers about Steve Sarkisian being interested in coming to Westwood. The answer for Sark is a NO. Consider this is a Sunday night open thread.
GO BRUINS.
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Isn't Illinois on a 6 game losing streak after starting the season with a 6 game winning streak?
I heard the Sarkissian rumors on a local radio station a couple of days ago while driving. I almost crashed. The commentators talked about the “:great job” Sark had done.
Sad. Mediocrity does not constitute a great job or even a good job. It constitutes mediocrity.
Expectations are at an all time low in Westwood. And Chianti Dan is about ready to fulfill those expectations.
I think Chianti Dan
… is sometimes actually influenced by the suggestions coming from the idiots in local traditional media outlets.
Yeah, they did start 6-0, then
Zooked the 2nd half of their season.
"I'm not a psychopath, Anderson, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research." - Sherlock Holmes
Sark??? No fing way!!
Why the hell are we not going after Manny Diaz! Our future seems bleak right now. I used to live for our football and basketball games, now they are an afterthought. It’s so sad how bad things are with no hope in sight.
by pUSCies on Dec 4, 2011 6:04 PM PST via mobile reply actions
Manny Diaz Might Not Be A Bad Get
But I’m still holding out hope for a “big” name; despite our worthless AD who should have been cut loose like a week ago.
Los Angeles Rams and the UCLA Bruins!!!!!
by Minnesota Bruinfan on Dec 5, 2011 4:28 AM PST up reply actions
Scheduling snafu
Men’s bball game is on at same time with a 1pm tip-off at Cal.
maybe bball and fball can share a bus
Troy is burning
by bruinbasketball on Dec 4, 2011 6:14 PM PST up reply actions
You didn't get Dan's email
asking any fans carpooling up to the bay area to take a player with them, so the school can save enough money to lure a coach away from the venerable C-USA?
Don't worry, I'll bring embree ;)
but I might be 3 hrs late
Troy is burning
by bruinbasketball on Dec 4, 2011 10:30 PM PST up reply actions
Tough choice for NorCal Bruins
still able to stomach watching a UCLA team play in person: a probably-still-coachless football team, or a hopefully-still-not-appearing-to-be-coachless basketball team…
Roses are red, violets are blue...f*** $C.
I'd go with football in a heartbeat
I think our team is interesting to watch at times and still have lot of talent who play hard. As for hoops … LOLOLOL.
Plus it's just a regular season game.
Pretty easy decision.
by Kenneth Powers on Dec 4, 2011 7:24 PM PST up reply actions
Going with football
Johnson was so good in SF last year with Niners- oh wait, he wasn’t.
Anyway, certain teams, like Oregon, are seen as traveling well, which helps get them into more prestigious bowls.
We should try to set the stage with a decent turnout, so that when the team turns around (4 years after next DG hire), we can get into better bowls also.
To clarify
was basically just trying to say that neither choice is all that inspiring.
Roses are red, violets are blue...f*** $C.
Let's see what our AD does
A great AD anticipated the conflict, already has an agreement with Cal to move the BBall game to 5, and has arranged buses to take fans from football to the Cal gym
A good AD is on the phone to the Cal AD right now to move the BBall game to 5 and will call charter bus companies tomorrow during business hours.
A crappy pussbag of an AD blogs this week how exciting it will be for Bruin fans to flip back and forth between our two games on TV.
Whatcha gonna do, Chianti??? Option 1 is already gone, btw.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
Mmmm!
I’m going to fight hunger right now. The coachless bowl. That’s rich.
If you think about it...
The name of this “Bowl” …is the only thing Donut Dan obviously does well.
by GogetemBruins on Dec 4, 2011 11:15 PM PST up reply actions
Sun Bowl btw
was called the John Hancock Bowl back in ’91
also the 6-3 score is funny, because that was the score of the UCLA-Illinois regular season game in ’03 at the Rose Bowl as well.
we may have been 0-4 vs. USC when I was in school
but at least we were 2-0 vs. Illinois!
by Kenneth Powers on Dec 4, 2011 6:23 PM PST up reply actions
Ah, yes, the 6-3 game ...
The most boring football game ever played. I was there to see it with my own eyezzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Also, I motion to rename the bowl the Fight Sobriety Bowl.
Because that’s what I’ll be doing on New Year’s Eve.
I don't think that's going to be much of a fight
Especially with the Bruins on TV. Then again, better that than what I would have proposed: The “Don’t Kill Yourself” bowl.
Donut
will take anyone that comes calling at this point, i’m afraid. Don’t like the idea of Sarkisian. Let alone we might get stuck with Mike Johnson as semi-permanent interim coach…because then Donut wouldn’t have to do anymore searching
All this time I thought it was the "Fight Unger Bowl"
We have our own “Odd Couple” of Chianti and Block
From the official press release:
“We both appreciate and accept the invitation to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl,” said UCLA Director of Athletics Dan Guerrero. “Not only will our 18 seniors have the chance to end their collegiate careers on a high note, but both our entire team and our travel party will have the opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds of one of America’s greatest cities.”
http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/120411aab.html
Is there a wine tour in Napa, perhaps?
by Kenneth Powers on Dec 4, 2011 7:25 PM PST up reply actions
Hot Air Balloon upgrade also available.
Or is “Hot Air Balloon” also Dan’s new nickname?
by Bruined 4 Life on Dec 4, 2011 7:31 PM PST up reply actions
What horrible attendance
This game will have
it's a small stadium (relatively)
I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets decent turnout, given that it’s on NYE and SF is a good location.
by Kenneth Powers on Dec 4, 2011 7:16 PM PST up reply actions
They are saying that they had
Four of the previous five games have been sellouts, led by the standing-room-only 42,268 …
It's had pretty decent local turnout in the past
Then again Cal fans are very much ready to say goodbye to the place, so maybe not such good turnout this year.
Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. - R. Feynman
That might have been the ticket prices though
For single-game purchases, at least. $100 to see Cal/Utah. Really.
the bowl organizers have more realistic ideas re. ticket pricing.
formerly bruinhoo
his statement wasn't wrong either
if he had said “One team will end over .500!” that’d be different
but thanks for stopping by.
by Kenneth Powers on Dec 4, 2011 10:10 PM PST up reply actions
We can have a parade in the morning with toilet paper roses!
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
"The Stinking Rose" Bowl
Gilroy isn’t too far away either.
by Bruined 4 Life on Dec 4, 2011 7:00 PM PST up reply actions
OMG!!!!!
Did anyone see what they did to Boise State?
Dec 22 Las Vegas Bowl vs. Arizona State
I can’t stop laughing
Man, you'd think Petersen would be looking for a big city school in an AQ conference...
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
He will end up with a career like Pat Hill
Will win a lot of boring games, keep ending up in terrible bowls and then flame out. I guess he can go to Big East but then will have the team worn down through travel schedules and getting beat up regularly.
Whatever. It would have been cool to get him. But not going to think much about him when he eventually falls off the radar.
Chris Petersen can be the Larry Kehres of Division 1.
Winningest college coach in history by percentage (92.8%), but none in the big show.
Ya, they will not like playing games at 9-10am in the morning
just like the West Coast NFL teams hate it.
I heard from a reliable source
CP was too freaked out that he looks exactly like Bob Field
At the end of the day
If he doesn’t want to come here, then it’s no big deal to me. He can continue doing his thing in obscurity
Boise State is losin respect
Only one last second loss and they get busted down to the Spraypaint-Your-Car Bowl. This year should open CP’s eyes. People are moving on from waiting for them to go undefeated in a year with no AQ Conf alternatives. Meanwhile, PAC12 gets 2 BCS teams, one with 2 losses. Moving to the Big East will be a travel nightmare. If CP says no again, to $4M/yr, under these circumstances, how long will schools keep knocking on his door? Unless he is just terrified of living in LA (and based on our property prices, he’d be the only person alive who doesn’t want to live here), I don’t see how he says no.
I have no information about anything, just venting.
by BruinKing on Dec 4, 2011 11:25 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
I can't blame anyone for refusing to live in Los Angeles
Especially if it is someone whose career does not require it. Some people are far more comfortable in smaller college towns, like Chapel Hill, for instance, and you can’t buy that away from them.
My wife refuses to go back to Los Angeles. And you can see where I’ve been for 16 years.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
that. is. hilarious.
by Westwood is the best wood on Dec 4, 2011 8:36 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
Him and those jerseys and all of the fans..
..giving us the “O” face every time one of those skinny little kids in the ugly uniforms scores are really getting on my nerves.
One day, droogies, the work will turn back to where that pile of green crud from the soggy regions North of Eureka will be 0-and-everything and we resume mopping the Astro-turf with their pimpled asses.
Righty-right-right?
Recruiting 2013 - Hope someone from UCLA checks out Conner Manning
He’s QB-ing El Toro in the CIF-Southwest Division championship game at Angel Stadium Saturday at 2 pm. His team beat perennial champion La Habra last week. “El Toro uses a no-huddle, hurry-up spread offense.”
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl press release ...
UCLA’s 5-4 regular season conference record bettered that of 20 bowl-eligible teams.
Oooh, ooh, I want to play this game too!
“UCLA has given up fewer points per game than 23 division 1 teams!”
“UCLA has scored more points per game than 35 division 1 teams!”
Just the facts!
That's remarkable. That's really remarkable.
They have their PR guys working overtime, and that’s all they can come up with. This again makes me think of the guy who told me his job was to search tape for good material from Tim McCarver to use for Emmy nominations. He said it was about the longest week of his life trying to find anything good coming from that buffoon.
We should help these guys. How about “UCLA posted a two game winning streak over perennial powerhouses Cal and somebody else, and had several quarters in which they were pretty darn competitive.”
I expected them to release...
UCLA has a .625 winning percentage in the state of California this season going 5-3 in 8 games.
by Bruined 4 Life on Dec 4, 2011 7:48 PM PST up reply actions
more ...
We’re thrilled to bring UCLA back to San Francisco," Cavalli said. "The Bruins played in our 2006 game against Florida State, and we had a great experience with Dan Guerrero and the entire UCLA family. That 2006 game was a classic matchup of two premier programs that had never met before on the gridiron. It was also our first sellout and we anticipate another big crowd at AT&T Park on New Year’s Eve
Classic game that featured Lorenzo Booker torching a terrible defense all night long.
"I have one word for you...Be careful."
-Jose Guillen
hey, we won the first 45 min of that game
they sold beers in the stadium = memory gets kinda hazy after that
by Kenneth Powers on Dec 4, 2011 7:52 PM PST up reply actions
I was wondering if they were still together
it has been a while, and people of that level of talent don’t tend to stay together for long…
I was at that game
Where Karl embarassed the state of California
since bsu
Was completely screwed over by the bcs again (insert chuckle here), maybe cp will reconsider the offer.
So what, I’m hopeful.
by bruin578 on Dec 4, 2011 7:59 PM PST via iPhone app reply actions
In the News Release, Coach Johnson says ...
On behalf of the UCLA coaching staff and players, I want to express our excitement over being offered an opportunity to continue our season in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, the next few weeks will offer all of us associated with the Bruin football team an opportunity to grow, individually and collectively, as we prepare for the challenge that is ahead of us. I am very familiar with the Bay Area and know that all of us will enjoy our trip and the opportunity to compete again in a bowl game.
tweet of the day
PAC12 REPORT: Stanford receives Fiesta Bowl invite Oregon receives Rose Bowl invite Oregon State receives Google+ invite
The irony of this is almost astounding..
Forgive me for I have not perused the entire thread, but I hope you all appreciate the irony of this team — XCRN’s last one at UCLA (even though he is NOT the coach) — facing off against the Illini:
Neuheisel led the Bruins to a 45–9 victory over 4th-ranked and heavily-favored Illinois in the 1984 Rose Bowl, in which he was named the MVP; two of his four touchdown passes were caught by a sophomore wide receiver from San Diego named Karl Dorrell, later Neuheisel’s predecessor as the UCLA head football coach.4 The victory vaulted the Bruins, unranked through most of the season, into the top 25 in wire service polls. Much like his rise to stardom at UCLA, the road to the victory was a bumpy one. Neuheisel and two other players on the defensive side of the ball suffered from food poisoning hours before the Rose Bowl and it was unsure that Neuheisel would start. Neuheisel would end up starting the game. He also set an NCAA record that year for single game pass completion percentage (since broken) by completing 25 of 27 passes (92.6%) in a Pac-10 win over Washington. In 1998, Neuheisel was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
I had tickets to this but was not able to attend. So, instead, I got a couple of hoagies and went down to Newport and watched the game with my dad on his boat on one of those battery-powered 9" TVs.
Despite the substandard venue, it was a pure delight to my dad to see the Bruins roll over the Illini handily and kinda boded well for the New Year. (I was able to wed Mrs War Planner later in the year on the first day of the L.A. Olympics. We are still desperately in love.)
I hope the Bruins can gift wrap this one for XCRN as an homage to what he had meant to this university. He didn’t get the job done but it was not because hit heart wasn’t in the right place.
In a way, maybe this is some kind of healing salve for both XCRN and CTS. Good luck, XCRN and Karl. My memory of you guys as Bruins will always be that sunny New Year’s day at the Rose Bowl in 1984.
when the lines come out on this game
I bet Hunger will be heavily favored.
by Westwood is the best wood on Dec 4, 2011 8:39 PM PST via iPhone app reply actions 1 recs
No
Not if we find a way to make Josh Smith eligible for this game. Hunger doesn’t stand a chance.
by shipphappens on Dec 4, 2011 9:05 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Josh Smith on the Dan Patrick show
“When you’re at UCLA, you have to have your Hunger Bowl full”
Mike Johnson interested...
Don’t know if this has been mentioned already but it appears our interim coach is interested in the head coaching position.
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/story/_/id/7317687/interim-coach-mike-johnson-interested-ucla-bruins-job
So how about this for a crazy scenario…we win the bowl game by a large margin leading to a promotion and we then rehire “insert blank” as an offensive coordinator. Just kidding about that last part but the promotion looks more and more likely if we don’t get a hire soon.
Flounder Guerrerror's final candidates will be...
Mike Johnson – because all interim coaches at U.C.L.A. ALWAYS become legitimate candidates w. the Moron Center.
Al Golden – because Block-head likes him and Flounder wants the ability to blame his 3rd failed hire on the chancellor.
Tom Cable – because anybody that would HC the Raiders is desperate enough to work for Flounder
Dewayne Walker – because Flounder considered him a legitimate candidate in the last search and now he has 3 years of head coaching experience.
by beanandcheeseburrito on Dec 4, 2011 9:56 PM PST reply actions
Interesting tweet by SPORTSbyBrooking !!
When Dan Guerrero is inevitably banished to a face-saving NCAA politburo post in Indianapolis, UCLA will owe @BruinNation debt of gratitude
by MBRUIN on Dec 4, 2011 10:40 PM PST via mobile reply actions
Some are suggesting Norv Turner...
I would break down and cry if this happened. It would be awful
Jim Tressel?
Brett Pierce
From Bruinsball.com
Sources say former Ohio State Coach, Jim Tressel, was spotted at the Polo Lounge with UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero tonight. Furthermore, Arimide Olaniyan tweeted that he spotted Tressel on campus earlier today. Jim Tressel would be a HOME RUN hire in my opinion. He has been to several national championship games, and made Ohio State into the clear Big 10 power during his run as their head coach.
Follow us for twitter for constant updates.. https://twitter.com/#!/BruinsBall
interesting if true
Tressel is a grade A coach who comes with baggage. UCLA showed little trepidation in bringing in RN who was at best a C grade coach with baggage.
Neu's baggage was overrated and debunked.
Tressel’s baggage got him fired from one of the most high profile jobs in the country.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
Chianti wouldn't even look at Leach, who doesn't really have baggage
No way he looks at Tressel. I’d even say no way he should look at Tressel. There are plenty of other good coaches available without dirtying ourselves this way.
But I still believe Tressel did tell his AD what was going on with tattoo gate, and that he covered for tOSU and willingly took the fall.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
+1
He is a proven great HC. He consistently beat his rival almost every year. He had OSU in the national picture all the x. Home run for sure. I hope DG closes. HUGE win if he pulls it off. Patton had baggage too, so WTF. He was the most feared general by the Germans. Great successes many times have great issues too. Look at Steve Jobs or Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.
What is wrong with you guys?
Tressel was FIRED, fired because he LIED and cheated. There is a very good chance that sanctions would follow him wherever he is hired.
This isn’t just a little extra phone call or text message. The man covered up a blatant NCAA violation and lied about it to protect his star player. I want nothing to do with that.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Zooker-less Illini Team Ripe For The Taking
Despite everything, this game is set-up well for us. After going 6-0 to start the season, Illinois tanked big-time and even got beat by the goofy Gophers 27-7 which should tell you something.
Am glad we’re playing Illinois and not Iowa State (or even my alma mater, Iowa). I would have never heard the end of it from people back home.
Los Angeles Rams and the UCLA Bruins!!!!!
by Minnesota Bruinfan on Dec 5, 2011 4:35 AM PST reply actions
Lot of Positive Hype surrounding this Event! Jk
33. Kraft Fight Hunger (Dec. 31): Illinois (6-6) vs. UCLA (6-7). Two teams with interim coaches meet in a baseball stadium on New Year’s Eve. One squad just lost six in a row, the other just lost 50-0 to its archrival. Is it 2012 yet?
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