For the first time since Washington State game, Bruins are heading into a game as favorites but don’t be fooled. The Huskies might be winless and are at the rock bottom point in their program’s history, but they are perfectly capable of pulling of a season making win this Saturday. Nathan Ware from DawgBlawg (Seattlepi.com) provides what I think are pretty good reasons why the Huskies can beat UCLA this weekend:

1. UCLA QB Kevin Craft has struggled mightily. Craft has thrown 7 interceptions in the past two games and his confidence is shot.

2. UCLA's best weapons are WR Taylor Embree, WR Terrence Austin, and TE Ryan Mora. However, UW is getting their best cornerback back from injury (Meshpin Forrester) and Craft's struggles have compromised the effectiveness of UCLA's excellent skill position players.

3. UCLA's offensive line has been the Achilles' heel of the team. The Bruins haven't been able to run the ball and they've allowed 27 sacks this season. UW's porous front seven will have a fighting chance. UCLA is last in the Pac-10 in rushing offense. That's right, they are worse than UW at running the ball.

4. UCLA's run defense – once thought to be a strength of the team – has allowed over 1000 yards in the past 4 games. Stopping the run is an effort-related task and this is a key sign that the Bruins are beginning the process of mailing in their season.

5. UCLA is as bad as UW at turning the ball over.

Nathan also goes on to provide psychological factors working in the Huskies favor:

Last weekend's ASU game was a turning point. The players were either going to continue to quit and let the season fade away or turn a corner against some beatable teams and scratch and claw their way to a win. What we saw on Saturday against the Sun Devils was that UW decided to keep pressing.

Granted, UW lost to ASU by 20 points but they did have a lead in the 3rd quarter and played the Devils tough. UCLA doesn't have a Rudy Carpenter-type-of-quarterback that can take over a game.

We saw more excitement on the sideline in the ASU game then we saw in all of the other games this season combined. Washington is sick and tired of being sick and tired.

UCLA is headed in the opposite direction. With 6 losses, their bowl hopes are all but lost. The team looks demoralized and appears to be where UW was 6 weeks ago. UW is simply catching UCLA at the right time.

The Bruins beat WSU and Stanford in the middle of the season but have been blown out in their last two games against Cal and OSU. UW played OSU better than UCLA.

UW realized their season was over after they lost to Stanford in game 4. The Huskies reeled off several demoralizing losses. UCLA is at the point in their season where UW was when they played Notre Dame a few weeks back. They, too, realize that their season is lost.

Rock bottom is still a few weeks away for the Bruins. Washington fans are experts in the experiment of rock bottom.

Well, I have always maintained emotion is a huge part of college football. I firmly believe it’s the emotion factor that separates college sports from the pro leagues. It would be a huge mistake for our players to underestimate the kind of emotion the Huskies will experience this Saturday taking on Neuheisel, given the history around these two programs (if you still cannot get enough of UCLA coache(s) returning to Seattle, check out two stories from the LAT here and here).

The only disagreement I have with Nathan is that the last two losses we have suffered were not as one sided as the scores indicates. And of course despite the losses, we still have a mathematical shot at a bowl game. However, he does have a point that our team looked deflated (from all the self inflicted implosion during four quarters).

To be fair Nathan also has a separate well thought out post on why the Huskies won’t beat UCLA, but the factors he outlined should be enough to get everyone worried about this weekend’s game. HT to John over at UW Dawg Pound for the link to DawgBlog.

Well for the Bruins to win this weekend, the formula should be simple. Craft and co will have to minimize mistakes on offense. From the official site:

• UCLA is 25-2 when it wins the turnover battle over the past five-plus seasons, including 5-0 (@Stanford, BYU, Oregon State, California, Oregon) in 2007 and 2-0 (WSU, Stanford) in 2008.
• It is 13-32 when it ties or loses the turnover battle over the last five-plus seasons, including 1-6 (beat Tennessee, lost to @BYU, Arizona, Fresno State, @Oregon, @Cal and Oregon State) in 2008.

And the Bruins will have to keep building on the improving defense from last few weeks:

• UCLA's defense has allowed opponent offenses to convert just 18 of the last 64 (28.1%) third down conversion attempts in the last five games.
• Oregon's 42 yards passing is the fewest allowed by the Bruin defense since Sept. 4, 2004, when the Bruins held Oklahoma State to 23 yards in the air.
• In a three-game span (Oregon, Stanford, California) UCLA allowed just 246 passing yards (21 completions in 54 attempts), including two games under 100 yards.
• Over the last five-plus seasons, the Bruins are 21-3 when they hold the opponent under 20 points, and had a 16-game winning streak snapped when they lost the Las Vegas Bowl, 17-16.

Now if the defense can hang in there and close out with a strong fourth quarter, while the offense can minimize mistakes, we will have a shot. Lot of “ifs” in this rebuilding season, but hey I will cling on to that hope.

CRN also provided this added reminder on how the Huskies can be tough at home:

The Bruins (3-6, 2-4 Pac-10) can't be caught sleeping in Seattle. Washington (0-9) hasn't won this season, but Rick Neuheisel doesn't want the Bruins thinking anything will be handed to them. He'll use BYU's rout against UCLA - since Washington nearly beat the Cougars - as motivation. However, Washington still had quarterback Jake Locker under center then.

"We'll talk about the game," Neuheisel said. "I don't know I'd call it dangerous. These teams are both fighting for the future. I think we have to have the right mindset. We can't certainly go in there thinking they're going to lay down because that won't be the case. This is going to be a very physical, tough-nosed game. I have great respect for that program. They're going to play with a great deal of pride. They've been right there a number of games.

They should've been in overtime with BYU, a team we got beat by 59-0. If that doesn't have our team understand what the mindset is in this game ..."

Yeah, I know Locker was in that game. He won’t be around this week. But given the state of our offense, we should be worried no matter who is quarterbacking the other team.

GO BRUINS.

So a huge game for the Bruin defense tomorrow. I didn’t get to watch the game against Cal but from it sounded (based on various observations and clips posted here on BN) the Bruin defense did a pretty good job in hanging in there against Cal’s explosive running attack, until the roof collapsed in fourth quarter from our unforced errors on the offensive side of the ball.

Well the Bruin defense will have another huge assignment tomorrow going up against Jacquizz Rodgers. Walker is scheming to defend Rodgers the same way he was scheming against Jahvid Best. He will try to keep Rodgers contained in a defensive "cage":

Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker says his front seven needs to build a cage. Each defender represents a section of the fence, assigned to a particular gap. Each must hold his ground, control that gap, and not just chase the ball.

"We can't let him out of the cage," Walker said of Rodgers. "You give him any creases, man, he's going to find those creases."

Harwell provided more details re. techniques necessary to build this "cage" around Rodgers:

At the snap, he engages the blocker head-on and hopefully pushes a yard or two into the backfield. If he leans to peak around his man, Rodgers might fly past on the other side. So he must wait and rely on peripheral vision to catch a glimpse of the tailback flashing by to the left or right.

"It happens so quickly," Harwell said. "Off the ball. One-two. When he commits, you try to rip off the block and make the tackle."

While the line constricts the gaps, the linebackers flow to their spots every bit as cautiously.

"You never like sitting and waiting because that's how you get blocked," Carter said. "But you've got to wait for him to pop out of the backfield."

At which point there remains one more task on the to-do list: Wrestling the Oregon State runner to the ground.

Easier said than done. Hopefully after a week off, the Bruin defense will be sharp and fresh out of the gate. If we are not seeing crisp and good tackling early on from our defense, the team will find itself in a hole again.

Right now it looks like Canfield will be starting tomorrow, who will not represent any drop off from Lyle Moevao. Canfield came off the bench to lead the Beavers in a come from behind win against the Beavers: 

"Sean getting to play and coming from behind and winning the game I think was very positive," Riley said.

The left-hander started the first nine games of the 2007 season before his injury against USC. After a setback during the summer, his shoulder has continued to improve.

"I don't think Sean is throwing with the same velocity he had a year ago," Riley said. "But he is getting closer."

Last season in a 40-14 loss to UCLA at Corvallis, Canfield completed 22 of 35 passes for 146 yards with two interceptions.

This fall, he has completed 20 of 30 for 257 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

I think no matter who starts at QB for the Beavers tomorrow, the defensive focus will have to start with containing the Beavers rushing attack. Not sure if the Bruin defense will be able to shut down Rodgers et al. If they can keep him under check, that will allow the defense to put some pressure on Oregon State’s QB to win the game with his arm.

Over at the offensive side, here is the latest on our OL:

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said freshman Jeff Baca would start at left tackle and Mike Harris would start at right tackle with Jake Dean at center. With the suspensions of Scott Glicksberg and Micah Reed (along with defensive tackle Jess Ward), the Bruins will start Darius Savage and Nick Ekbatani at the guard positions, and Brandon Bennett and Sonny Tevaga will be the backups.

"We've got answers for all that can happen (with injuries), but you hope you don't have to go to the answers," Neuheisel said. "You keep your fingers crossed."

Also fingers crossed for Craft. Hopefully the week off allowed him to put the Cal game out of his mind. I think if he comes out and looks for some easy completions to move the offense, it will be a huge boost for his confidence. One of the guys he might be looking out for is TE Ryan Moya:

Tight end Ryan Moya might be one of the best pure football players on UCLA's roster and having a breakout season, but he has been virtually missing the past two games.

Moya is second on the team with 31 catches for 298 yards and a team-high three touchdowns but has a combined three receptions for 27 yards in the past two games. Prior to that, he had at least three catches in every game and had a streak of three straight games with at least five catches and 52 yards.

"We'll still try to keep him involved," Neuheisel said. "He's a good player and made a lot of plays for us."

Well, I think Moya’s production has gone down a bit because the opposing defense have been keeping him under check (scouting his early season success) creating more opportunities for Austin, Embree and even Rosario (who BTW will not be available tomorrow). The key here again is for Craft to relax (just like he did during crunch time v Tennessee and Stanford) a bit and look for his best options. And sometimes that option might include using his mobility scramble for positive yardage instead of throwing it double coverage or just taking a sack.

Should be interesting how the team responds after stewing over a disappointing (but not surprising) loss two weeks ago. Here is to our boys being fired up and ready to go.

GO BRUINS.

The bye week is over. Bruins now have to start focusing on an opponent (they actually started the process last week) which is coming into the Rose Bowl on bit of a roll and with a goal of a return on New Year’s Day. Oregon State has won 3 in a row and 5 of their 6 games. If the win out rest of their games, the will win the Pac-10 and go to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1965.

They have been doing it this year with two key stars: QB Lyle Moevao RB Jacquizz Rogers.  Apparently Moevao hurt his shoulder a bit last weekend during their tough win against ASU. Backup Sean Canfield came in and help them pull out a close win. From Ted Miller over at WWL:

Oregon State coach Mike Riley told reporters Sunday that quarterback Lyle Moevao's shoulder is sore but he hasn't been ruled out of Saturday's game at UCLA.

Moevao was knocked out of the Arizona State game early in the second quarter. Backup Sean Canfield came on and led the Beavers to a 27-25 victory, completing 19 of 28 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns. Most important: He didn't allow a pick-six he threw just after halftime to Sun Devils safety Troy Nolan crush his confidence.

Calfield himself had suffered a shoulder injury which had kept him out most of this season. It will be interesting to see who Riley starts on Saturday, but it will not matter much per the LA Times:

No matter who starts at quarterback, the Beavers still have one of the conference's best running backs in Jacquizz Rodgers, who added to his league-leading rushing total with 133 yards against Arizona State.

"We all got a chance to see the 'SC game," Bruin receiver Terrence Austin said. "We know that they're a really good team."

For the Bruins to win on Saturday, they will need a huge game from an improving defense:

"The defense is supposed to hold up, and they're doing a real good job of it," UCLA receiver Terrence Austin said. "Coach Walker is out there pressing his guys every day in practice and it's showing up on Saturdays. I don't feel bad for them. I'm happy they're doing their job."

Through it all, Walker said his defense has not become discouraged or disheartened by the offense.

"If we keep improving like we are, at some point we'll be better than the two defenses we had," Walker said. "I'm not going to say we're trying to put a Band-Aid on and develop, but in the last four games I've seen where we're heading. If we can doing that the next four games and not lose any guys to injuries they'll know they got a lot better."

Walker already knows about defensive turnarounds at UCLA. He was hired after the 2005 season and turned a horrid defense into a confident, fast-moving unit that trimmed two touchdowns off the points-per-game average with the same collection of players in 2006, when UCLA yielded 19.9 points per game.

In addition to this season's offensive offense, inexperience is playing a factor. The Bruins replaced all-American defensive end Bruce Davis, middle linebacker Christian Taylor, cornerback Trey Brown and safeties Chris Horton and Dennis Keyes - each had at least two years of starting experience - from last year's team, and freshmen are playing a significant role.

True freshmen Rahim Moore (free safety) and Datone Jones (defensive end) are starting, and classmate Tony Dye is playing in the nickel package. Akeem Ayers and Steve Sloan - both redshirt freshmen - are starting linebackers.

I do believe the defense has been slowly improving this season as it has to deal with injuries and replacing the aforementioned seniors. They are going to have a tough challenge ahead of them this weekend against Jacquizz Rodgers. Hopefully they will be able to keep him contained and not allow him a lot of open space to explode out of at the Rose Bowl.

This is a huge game that can set the big picture tempo for rest of the season. If the Bruins can pull out a victory in this game, it could set them up for a memorable stretch run to close out CRN’s first season. We will have more on Oregon State later this week.

GO BRUINS.

Before getting into some of my specific impressions from yesterday’s thrilling win let’s quickly reset the big picture here a bit. We now have a record of 3-4 with a conference record of 2-2. Looking back at last 7 games, the loss that really hurts right now is the one against Fresno State. Given what we have now seen from Kevin Craft (more on his clutch second half below of course), I think we would have had a good shot at winning that game if we hadn’t turned the ball over in that last drive. If we had won that game we could have probably looked at a record of 4-3 (and if we had gotten lucky at Oregon) perhaps 5-2. 

Given what we have been through in terms of injury situation that pretty much wiped away an entire starting offense from last spring, lack of experienced talent in our roster , what the coaches have done is nothing short of remarkable. I am still not sure whether we are going to get to a bowl game this season. My brain tells me it’s a tall order since every game for this team will be a challenge. But it’s obvious now that when CRN and his players and coaches talk about "relentless optimism" and not giving up on this season, we are hearing more than just words:

Photo Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Time

So with that here are some thoughts from yesterday’s afternoon hear stopper.  For today though, I will start with the portion from yesterday’s notes that are disconcerting before going on to the positive/inspiring moments from yesterday’s resilient win.

I will break up my negative notes in two sections. First, talking about personnel related issues then raising question about decisions (just for discussion’s sake).

So let's start with the personnel issues. Here is my question that I think is on lot of people’s mind: can we afford to stick with Kahlil Bell as our starting tailback?

Let’s first look at the numbers from yesterday: Bell had 28 yards in 11 carries (2.5 avg), while Coleman rushed for 20 yards in 4 carries (5.0 avg). For the season now Bell has rushed for 187 yards in 71 carries (2.6 avg) and 5 TDs. While Coleman to date has rushed for 191 yards in 32 carries (6.0 avg) and 1 TD.

In terms of number, right now I think it is pretty clear who has been the more productive back at least when it comes to sustaining drives and getting us into more manageable 2nd and 3rd down situations at a more consistent level.  From what my eyes are seeing, it appears that Bell is playing injured. He still has the power to go straight up, but he is not as effective as he was before getting injured, when he tries to make his cuts. I have nothing but admiration and respect for the effort this kid is giving for this team and the leadership he brings to the table. But at the same time, I think we have to ask the question whether the coaches need to lessen his load a bit so that we can look at more productive options.

I think based on numbers at least it makes sense to increase the work load of Coleman a bit and also give Aundre Dean some good looks so that perhaps we can take advantage of the speed and power he brings to the table. Am I off here? One explanation I can think of about why Bell is getting more time is perhaps Chow and Palcic think he is a better option when it comes to providing Craft a little extra protection as he is more familiar with blocking schemes and in sync with our OL. They see the tapes lot more than I do and I will not question their eyes given their proven track record. However, I am still a little perplexed.

Staying on the theme of personnel issues, Bret Lockett was getting lit up against yesterday. I am sure you have seen the highlights Tele posted below and saw the block Gerhart made on the poor kid. Lockett at times looked helpless when it comes to providing help against the Stanford rushing attack. But Walker stayed with him yesterday:

After playing poorly last week at Oregon and nearly losing his job, Bruins senior strong safety Bret Lockett played so well Walker scrapped plans to use redshirt freshman Glenn Love to spell Lockett.

"It was probably the toughest week, this and the Tennessee week when I did not play (because of suspension)," Lockett said. "All the criticism and the people doubting me, but I just used it as motivation."

Lockett finished with three tackles and also forced a first-quarter fumble.

"I felt like he was playing well enough to where it was like, `OK, let's not break the rhythm,' because he's been ridiculed the whole season," Walker said. "For him to be having a little bit of success, in terms of doing his job, I thought that was important for his confidence."

I actually thought Walker had a good game scheme wise yesterday. Our tackling looked much better than it did against Oregon (and previous game) and he seemed to put our two monster DTs in best position to contain the Stanford running attack. Moreover, I think he deserves credit for the coverage our secondary provided the whole game, which completely shut down the Stanford passing game. Still that said, I would have love to see a little bit of Glenn Love at SS and see what the kid could do. It’s obvious Love can hit, as he showed in that hit during Stanford punt return leading to turnover. He is a physical player. I think it would be good to see him in there in the coming weeks and see what he can do. Again just my 2 cents because whenever I see an opposing TB bowling towards Lockett,  I think I am not the only one with a lump in my throat.

Those are the two personnel issues that stick out to me for now. Now let’s get to one specific decision from yesterday’s game. Here was the sequence after UCLA had a 1st and goal on the Stanford 6 yard line towards the end of 3^rd leading to a Forbath FG:

• 1st and Goal at STAN 6: Chris Forcier rush for a loss of 1 yard to the Stanf 7.      
• 2nd and Goal at STAN 7: Kevin Craft sacked for a loss of 3 yards to the Stanf 10.    
  
•  3rd and Goal at STAN 10: Kevin Craft rush for a loss of 1 yard to the Stanf 11.

I will never question Chow’s over all game scheme just like I have never called out Coach Howland’s game schemes. Chow had no peer when it comes to devising schemes. None (at least in college football). But honestly just in this specific case, those three plays left me confused. Perhaps it showed he is merely human. :-) I would have loved to hear his explanation for those calls and find out what his thought process was behind those calls. I don’t write that to be snarky at all. I am genuinely curious behind what he was thinking.

So those were the negatives. Let’s pivot from the negatives to yesterday’s heroes and great storylines, and the perfect transition is this guy:

Photo Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Uh yeah … count me in as one of those who got excited when Forcier was warming up on the sidelines.  I have been supportive of Kevin Craft all season and I more than understand how at this point it is probably the best decision on RN and Chow’s part to stick with this kid. But at the same time while watching the first half, the question kept popping in my head: could Forcier be any worse?

After KC fumbled in the first half, I don’t think I was the only one somewhat excited in reading CRN’s lips saying something like, "that’s it. We are going with Forcier." From CRN in today’s DN:

"There was a point in the game where I did consider it, and sometimes it gets the better of me because I'm an old quarterback and an old quarterback coach," Neuheisel said. " It was probably a little irrational on my part, but the kid, God bless him, he responded. His resiliency is one of the reasons why we're standing here with a victory. Norm calmed me down."

Two things here.  First, and 66 already noted this in his as usual brilliant observations, note how CRN had no problem checking his ego and deferring to Chow. For those who have been involved in leadership positions or observing effective executive decisions, that is pretty much perfect example of how an effective CiC takes in the feedback of his trusted advisors and has the instincts to overrule himself after careful insta-analysis. That’s good stuff. Second, going back to Chow, given how KC has his trust, I think rest of Bruin Nation should have the same faith in this kid who is doing as much as he can within his athletic ability to listen to his coaches.

More from Chow on that last play when Craft and Harkey did their impersonation of Montana to Clark:

The last play Craft made up was a scrambling throw to backup tight end Cory Harkey, a freshman who has had a bum ankle.

It came with 10 seconds left, it was for a seven-yard touchdown, and Chow said that if Craft hadn't trusted his instincts he might have settled for a receiver who was open on the one- or two-yard line.

"The initial read Kevin wasn't real patient with," Chow said. "The initial read would have gotten us four or five yards, and we needed seven. Kevin scrambled around and made that play. If he would always trust that instinct, he's a really good player."

And it’s not just Chow, who are believing in the Bruin QB:

"He's clutch," UCLA offensive lineman Nick Ekbatani said. "I really believe he's a clutch player. When it comes down to it and it's on the line, he's going to make plays. I love blocking for him."

Craft, the son of former San Diego State coach Tom Craft, could spend the game ripping his offensive linemen for ridiculously poor protection - they allowed seven sacks against Stanford - but he doesn't.

After a roughing-the-passer penalty, lineman Jeff Baca tried to help Craft up and make sure he was OK, and Craft flung his arm away.

Craft can take a hit and bounce back on his own.

What was even more impressive was how Craft handled himself after the game. Instead of being over exuberant, he was ice cold, composed and talked about how he needs to address all the issues from first half. To me that was even more impressive on how didn’t lose perspective despite the great win.

Speaking of instincts perhaps the coaches should think about getting Craft and co in the "hurry up" no-huddle mode all game? The results kind of speak for themselves. No?

In addition to Craft’s clutch turnaround there were other heroes in our offense. From the LA Times:

UCLA wide receiver Nelson Rosario, a freshman from Oceanside who has been slowed by a sore knee, had a career-high four catches for 71 yards. One catch came over the middle where he was unfazed by the hard tackle that came immediately, and another came during UCLA's game-winning touchdown drive.

"It feels so great," Rosario said. "I think I'll get more chances as I'm healthy, and when I make catches the quarterback will have more faith in me."

Another freshman, Taylor Embree, was on the receiving end of a 43-yard pass from Craft in the third quarter -- UCLA's longest gain on a pass play this season.

In addition to Rosario and Embree, huge props go out Terrence Austin. Austin was nothing short of a warrior, leading the team with 5 receptions (for 50 yards) and catching that huge TD of Craft’s shovel pass. There was also Chane Moline’s clutch run in that last drive when he rumbled up for 17 yards on 3rd and 1. Ryan Moya also came up big with not only a huge catch, but also to have the smart instinct to run up and hustle towards the sideline to save time on the clock.

Going back to game winning touchdown the LA Times has some interesting quotes from Micah Reed on what went on in the huddle:

"I told those guys, this was a moment we could look back on down the line," Reed said.

If hindsight is 20-20, Reed's foresight turned out to be 23-20 -- the numbers favoring UCLA on the scoreboard at the end.

Craft scrambled to his right and flipped a pass to Cory Harkey, who was in the back of the end zone.

"Micah told us," guard Scott Glicksberg said. "This was a chance to move forward as a team. This makes it easier to believe in what we're doing and keep doing it."

Reggie Carter had this to say about the same play:

"I had a few tears," UCLA linebacker Reggie Carter said. "After the offense scored that touchdown, my eyes watered up. You get emotional. It's hard to hold all that emotion in. Winning is fun."

I know I am probably not covering number of other details from yesterday’s game (i.e. we still need to see better coverage from our special teams) … but I can’t think of any better way to end on that note for this Sunday, before starting to focus on what will be an incredibly difficult and challenging game next weekend.

 I like this team … a lot. They are making football fun (despite the frustrations we experience as fans), which I haven’t had following UCLA football since Cade left Westwood.

GO BRUINS.

Earlier in the week Achilles called this game out as a "must win." I thought this was one of the more winnable games left on our schedule, but I hesitated to call it out as a "must win" not because I didn't have confidence in our young players but more out of respect for the solid program Harbaugh is methodically putting together up in Palo Alto.

But guess what ... I think we are starting to see clear signs ... that our head coach is not to far off in slowing putting together foundations of his own solid program.

Rick Neuheisel's "relentessly" positive gutty young Bruins pull out another heart stopping win at the Rose Bowl. Bruins go on a clutch drive to pull out a game in which Craft somehow transformed from Ryan Fien/Rob Walker to Cade McNown thanks to young starts like Rosario:

Photo Credit: Harry How/Getty Images (via Yahoo! Sports)

That's right Nelson Rosario had his official coming out party (4 huge receptions for 71 yards) this afternoon at the Rose Bowl. Here is the box score from our 23-20 homecoming thriller. Along with Nelson other heroes include Austin, Embree, Moya, Love, Price, Harwell, and as mentioned above Kevin Craft.

Despite the incredible win and the exhillaration as Craft pointed out himself, there are lot of issues this young team needs to work on heading into rest of the season. They have an incredibly difficult game coming up next weekend up in Berkeley. We will have lot more on the issues our team has to address on all sides of the ball (including our special teams).

The challenge for these gutty Bruins will be to followup this gutty win with another gutty performance next weekend on the road. Just keep fighting, scratching and clawing away.

Oh ... and I pointed this out in the comment threads ... CRN is now 2-0 in that blue sweater vest. With that I will leave up to rest of you to soak in the resiliency of our Gutty young Bruins.

Thread it up in our post game victory thread.

GO BRUINS.

Homecoming Saturday. Let's get the day going.

Bruins are off to their worst start (2-4) since 1994 when they started the season 2-6. The tough start this season was not unexpected here in Bruin Nation. However, it’s evident from the way our team has played in last few weeks since the disaster in Provo that they are not going away without a fight. Brian Dohn has a good read in the Daily News today, which accounts how the Bruins haven’t given up on getting to the post-season:

"Coach (Neuheisel) puts the standings up every day, and the best team in the conference is 3-1 right now and still has to play a lot of people," Bruins center Jake Dean said. "You win the rest of the games, it's going to come down to two losses to be tied for first place. It shows he still believes in us, that we can accomplish our goal of winning the Pac-10 championship, although I'm pretty sure no one else in the country has that belief."

And, yes, Dean understands there may have been some chuckling and coffee lattes spat out at that statement.

"You have to have something to play for," Dean said. "If you don't have something to play for, you might as well not play the game at all."

Well to get to the post season, Bruins will need to 4-2 rest of this season, which is a tall order considering some of the competition that is coming up in next few weeks. However, CRN is making sure the focus remains on Stanford:

"That would be a terrific thing to accomplish," Neuheisel said. "To be able to go 4-2, or better, in the second half of the season would be a great thing for these youngsters and our coaching staff alike, so that'd be terrific. But to do that you have to win one at a time, so we just have to focus on Stanford."

We have been talking about Stanford all week. We have specifically noted Stanford being as one of the most if not the most physical team in the conference. Walker noted the change in Stanford’s culture under Harabaugh (in the DN report today):

UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, the architect of the 2006 defense that limited Stanford to 166yards of offense, said coach Jim Harbaugh has done wonders in changing Stanford's attitude and approach. The Cardinal is 4-3 (3-1 Pac-10), and ran for at least 200 yards four times. A week ago, Stanford rushed for 286 yards in beating Arizona.

"I give credit to the head coach. I think he's done a good job changing the culture, and you see it," Walker said. "They've got three good running backs. You can just see it. They've changed the culture. I think their backs are physical."

More from the challenge facing Bruin’s defense from the PE.com’s game day report:

Harwell, UCLA's captain and senior defensive tackle, said both backs are a primary concern for the Bruins, who struggled against the run at Oregon last week, allowing 323 yards on the ground thanks to shoddy tackling.

In reviewing film this week, Harwell noted Kimble's speed and his ability to hit fifth gear in one step, something that seemed absent in previous years.

"He is stupid fast," Harwell said. "He is a great, great running back."

Then there is Gerhart, the Norco High product who was last week's Pac-10 player of the week.

Averaging 91.6 yards per game, Gerhart, 6-foot-1, 232 pounds, is a bruiser between the tackles and likes to dole out punishment while running downhill.

"This is going to be a huge challenge for us," Harwell said. "It's going to be a tall order for us.

"Wow, those backs, they opened our eyes. I can't even put it into words. This is a fully equipped offense."

Hope Harwell and co will have their eyes wide open and ready for Gerhart and Kimble coming at them all afternoon long. For the Bruins to win this game today, they will have to keep Stanford under 200 yards rushing and force them to win it with their passing game.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, Chris Foster from the LA Times notes KC’s opportunity to take advantage of a vulnerable Stanford passing defense:

The Cardinal has given up more than 300 yards passing three times this season. Meanwhile, the Bruins and quarterback Kevin Craft have put on a few aerial shows this season -- the fourth quarter against Tennessee, cameo appearances through the Washington State game, and the second half against Oregon.

This could be a harmonic convergence that pleases UCLA.

More from Ted Miller at ESPN on the need for KC to have a good and more importantly a consistent performance:

UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft needs to put four quarters together: Stanford is going to gang up on the run and try to force Craft to win the game. For much of the season, the Cardinal secondary looked vulnerable, but last weekend it did a masterful job containing Arizona's top targets, Rob Gronkowski and Mike Thomas, and didn't allow quarterback Willie Tuitama to throw a touchdown pass. Stanford also brings a lot of blitzes (see 19 sacks on the season). Craft has had fits and starts of success, and he seems to go in and out of rhythm throughout a game. He was sacked six times by Oregon and he threw a lot of ill-advised passes that were dropped by Ducks defenders. If the Bruins are going to defend their home turf, Craft needs to make plays consistently.

Well good news for KC is that he will probably have TA ready for action this afternoon.  Per LAT’s report TA is “expected to play today,” which is great news. The reports also has a nice feature on Chane Moline fitting in really well at FB and giving Chow multiple options (with his pass catching ability) from the backfield.

For more on the game from non-Southern California traditional media pov, here are the reports from ESPN, AP and the San Francisco Chronicle.

 We will have a special pre game thread going up around 9 am PST and then the game thread will go up around 3.30 pm PST, about half an hour before this afternoon's kickoff.

For those heading out to the Rose Bowl, enjoy the Home Coming Saturday. Let's get a win.

GO BRUINS.

We have been expecting some defensive shakeups this week at practice. Yesterday it became official. While Brett Lockett is holding on to this starting SS spot (for now), Walker is going to try out Glenn Love at the same position this week. From the LA Times:

"We gave Glenn Love a look this week and he's done OK," Walker said. "I think you've got to put him out there. Just like anything, unless you give a guy an opportunity, you never know what he can do."

Lockett wasn't alone in struggling against the Ducks' spread offense, but he had more than a few spotlight moments to relive while reviewing the game tape.

"It's about making plays," Walker said. "We feel like we've put him in position to do so, and it's not like he's not making plays. But we want him to make all his plays. There have just been times that he hasn't. We're not going to give up on him. But he understands we need more production out of him."

Both Lockett and Love took the move in stride:

"I have to show coach Walker I can play consistently," Lockett said. "Just little things here and there so he doesn't have anything to say about it. That's what he expects out of me.

"The open-field tackling is probably the hardest thing in football to do. Playing safety, sometimes you feel like you're out there on an island. You're scared that if I miss a tackle, then it's a touchdown. You've got to have the mind-set where you've got to go get the guy."

Love, who is 6 feet 4, 207 pounds, can give the Bruins a stronger presence against the run. Stanford averages 184 yards rushing a game.

"Tackling is my strength," Love said. "I have to go out there and play physical. I may need a little more work on coverage but tackling is key."

Tackling is going to be a huge key against a Stanford offense this weekend which runs a bread and butter, offense featured by a power runner such as Toby Gerhart.  According to Reggie Carter the Bruin defense is looking forward to the challenge:

[D]efensive coordinator DeWayne Walker chalked up a lot of the Bruins' problems last week to Oregon's ability to spread the field and force defenders to tackle in open space. This week, they should have the ability to gang up on the Stanford ball carriers.

"I'm looking forward to Stanford's offense," Carter said.

Hopefully Carter will be better prepared this week because by his own admission he wasn’t well prepared last weekend.

On the other side of the ball, Norm Chow talked about the need for Bruin offense to get off to a good start:

The Bruins have scored one offensive touchdown (against Fresno State) in the first quarter this season, which equals the same number scored by special teams (blocked punt) and the defense (fumble recovery).

"We need to start faster, we need to be more aggressive coming out early," UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow said. "We need to be more in tune early. It was eight series before we put points up (at Oregon). I don't think you can say, `We need to do this.' We just need to get better overall."

Chow and his offense might have the services of Austin on Saturday, who CRN thinks will able to play. They will get Everett back, who is determined to return even if it entails playing through pain. From the OC Register:

Neuheisel expects leading receiver Terrence Austin to be limited Saturday because of a sprained neck, but Neuheisel got good injury news this week.

Senior Marcus Everett is ready to return, six weeks after dislocating his right big toe in the opener.

Everett said he felt rusty at Tuesday's practice, but that his route-running and speed returned during Wednesday's practice. At last, he is able to practice with manageable pain.

"It's definitely a painful injury with your toe," Everett said. "You feel pain like every movement you make, walking, waking up, running, cutting. Having this type of injury lets me know how important the toe is."

If he starts, Everett would be one of three senior starters on offense.

Props to Everett for toughing it out. While Everett and Austin are battling through injuries, Embree is making most of his opportunity he is getting in his first year at UCLA. Dohn has the profile on the son of former Bruin assistant coach.

We are going to need Embree and rest of the offense step up on Saturday. As I mentioned last night, it will not be a surprise if Stanford like rest of Bruin opponents this season force Bruins to win the game with their passing game. Consider the Cardinal have the worst passing defense in the conference, hopefully Craft and co will answer the challenge and make them pay by getting off to a fast start.

GO BRUINS.

The key to beating Stanford this weekend is going to be simple. Bruins will need to win the battle in the trenches. That is where Stanford Cardinal has made dramatic improvements this season, positioning itself for a bowl run for the first time in years. From the LA Times:

The Cardinal offense is averaging 184 yards on the ground, a huge improvement over last season. Meanwhile, the defense is surrendering only 114 yards rushing a game and ranks second in the conference in sacks.

That's tough work in the trenches by a school known more for brains than brawn.

"They just do it over and over and over again and they have big guys," UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel said, decoding Stanford's zone blocking scheme. "They're well-versed at it."

So UCLA coaches are working to deal with Stanford’s tough defense by shuffling our patchwork OL again:

UCLA will look at another offensive line combination, its fourth in seven weeks, as the unit's personnel was rearranged Tuesday.

Nick Ekbatani moved to right guard, with his right tackle spot being filled by Micah Kia, who lost his right tackle job three weeks ago. Scott Glicksberg and Darius Savage split time at left guard.

The Bruins have averaged 2.0 yards rushing a carry the last two weeks. They also gave up six sacks against Oregon last Saturday. Although not all of that can be blamed on the offensive line, a change seemed to be needed.

This is yet another offensive line shift for Ekbatani, who has played guard, center, guard and tackle since spring ball. The move back to guard will require a different approach.

"I've got to slow down a little bit," said Ekbatani, a junior. "I'm so used to trying to get the edge at tackle. At guard, if I do that I'll over-reach. The defensive tackle will just stop and I'll fall down.

Note the return of Kia (who arguably may be the most athletic OL in our roster with best potential of making it to the pros) to the starting five. Here is Palcic on reinserting Kia back in lineup:

"I wanted to give him another opportunity," said Bob Palcic, UCLA's offensive line coach. "He has been working hard in practice, and he does have some experience. I want these kids to know that if I sit you down, it's not over, but you have work hard to earn the right to start again. That's how the system works."

Keep in mind Kia has also dealing with an arm injury all season. Hopefully, this latest combination will pay dividend on Saturday against a tough and physical Cardinal defense.

We have another interesting development on the offensive side of the ball. Sounds like coaches have now officially settled on Forcier as the number 2 QB, ensuring Prince will redshirt this season:

Chris Forcier was elevated to UCLA's backup quarterback in a move the coaching staff hopes will enhance freshman Kevin Prince's chances of redshirting. Forcier took the snaps with the second offense and will backup Kevin Craft.

"It's at a critical time, because do you play Kevin Prince? He hasn't played, so he gets a couple of reps at the end (of a game) and loses his redshirt year," Bruins offensive coordinator Norm Chow said.

"This is an awful tough time for decisions to be made."

I think that sounds right. I don’t think it is worth it to burn Prince’s redshirt year at this point of the season. I am probably in the minority here, but I think the coaches should stay with Craft rest of the season even though he has had issues throwing the long ball. I am not ready to pin Craft’s inability to throw deep totally on him, given the fact that he hasn’t had a lot of time to throw the ball behind our patchwork OL. The main thing we need from Craft right now is improve on his ability to read the defenses and look beyond his primary target while throwing the ball. Also, I don’t think it’s a bad idea for coaches to get Craft to roll out and run more. He has pretty decent speed for a QB and I rather have the offense gain positive yardage and put us in more manageable down positions, rather than throwing dangerous passes resulting in TOs or incompletions.

Speaking of Craft’s targets, Austin is recovering from his injury. He finally had chance to speak about that experience. Dohn’s report on Austin’s account also includes this great note:

Austin also said he's known Ward's (Oregon safety T.J. Ward who delivered that hit – BN Ed.) family for the past 10 years through youth track, and contacted Ward's sister, Teirra, who is a UCLA student.

"I told her to tell the family that it's OK," Austin said. "I heard (T.J. Ward) was kind of upset and was trying to talk to me on the field to see how I was doing."

That is an awesome move on the part of TA. It shows not only grace on his part, but he makes our entire football program and our alma mater proud with that kind of classy gesture. Kevin Pearson from PE.com has more on Austin’s harrowing experience from Saturday. We are glad he is doing ok.

Lastly, we will end with a good note on season ticket sales. Pearson reported that UCLA passed 50,000 mark in sold season ticket packages, setting a new school report. That is not bad at all for a football program with a first year coach in the middle of a long rebuilding project. Not bad for all the nonsense we hear about UCLA just being a basketball school. Now, hopefully all those season ticket holders come out this Homecoming Saturday and rock the Rose Bowl, helping our boys to pull out a much needed win.

GO BRUINS.

Let’s reset on this long (Columbus Day) weekend by revisiting some of the lingering issues from Saturday, which the Bruins need to address immediately before taking on another tough opponent next weekend. We will start with an update on Terrence Austin. Yesterday morning we all breathed a huge sigh of relief and today it sounds like there is hope he might be back as early as next weekend:

Wide receiver Terrence Austin was doing better on Sunday night, a day after sustaining a hard hit and being taken to the hospital, and Coach Rick Neuheisel would not rule out him playing this week.

Austin was hurt early in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 31-24 loss at Oregon when he leapt for a high pass, tipped it and, as he was coming down and making another effort to catch it, received a helmet-to-helmet hit.

No flag was thrown on the play, which resulted in an interception, and Neuheisel was non-committal when asked if he thought it was a penalty.

"It was helmet-to-helmet, but I can't tell," he said. "I don't know if it was malicious." […]

Neuheisel said Austin would go through UCLA's tough concussion evaluations this week and did not want to rule him out for Saturday's game with Stanford. Austin likely will need to practice by Wednesday to be able to play.

"I anticipate him being full-speed soon," Neuheisel said. "He is questionable, but I have my fingers crossed."

We all have our fingers crossed as well. However, I would imagine Austin’s doctors at UCLA and coaches will exercise as much caution as possible, in terms of deciding when he can be back in full action.

Going back to the hit on Austin, looking at the highlights even if it was a helmet-to-helmet hit, I didn’t see any malicious intent behind it. In fact the kid who delivered that hit (blanking out on his name right now) was very shook up about it when medical staff (from both teams) were treating Austin.  So for now once again a huge sigh of relief about Austin and now it’s just a matter of making sure he gets back in action at the right time (based on his health).

Moving on, Saturday’s hard fought loss left Bruins a number of issues to deal with this game week (and rest of the season). First, there is the issue of mistackles (which flared up in first quarter and then late in the fourth). From the LA Times:

One thing the Bruins should be capable of doing is tackling ballcarriers. Oregon had several long runs, including a 69-yard touchdown run by LeGarrette Blount in the fourth quarter.

Removing the victory over woeful Washington State, UCLA is giving up 200 yards rushing per game.

"We keep a 'yards after contact' stat and Oregon had a lot of yards in the first quarter," Neuheisel said. "We were much more consistent after that and held them to 14 yards in the fourth quarter, until that last run.

"We do tackling drills at the start of practice and a couple live tackling drills through the week. We'll continue to do that until we get to where we need to be."

With Toby Gerhart and the Stanford Cardinal coming into town this Saturday, they will have to get after it at Spaulding this week. If the defense can figure out how the play at the level they did most of the game sans that first quarter and the waning moments of both half, they will have a chance to improve on some of disconcerting statistics from this season. If anything, they will need to get even more physical this weekend given who they are taking on Sat (more on that below).

Besides tackling, coaches will have to work on getting Kevin to stop locking down on his receivers:

Craft had one pass intercepted and a handful of other throws that were nearly picked off. Oregon also lost an interception because of a pass interference call that appeared questionable on television replays.

"Kevin was staring things down again," Neuheisel said. "We got to get him to stop doing that."

Unfortunately I am not sure if this issue will get resolved this week. Given how long it takes for college QBs to develop, I think we will have to take our lumps with Craft for rest of the season. What I do like about him is that he doesn’t quit. He keeps after it even after bad decisions and keep taking in what CRN is telling him on the sideline and what Chow is via his headsets.  We will see how he responds on Saturday.

Meanwhile, per Dohn there might be some personnel changes in next weekend’s lineup.

Among the changes that could be examined is on the offensive line, Neuheisel said, if Micah Reed, who missed the last two games with a knee injury, returns this week.

The expected return of receiver Marcus Everett (toe) could cause another change, and strong safety, where senior Bret Lockett has been inconsistent, could also be looked at.

Among the challengers at strong safety could be freshman Tony Dye.

"But so could Glenn Love," Neuheisel said. "We'll wait and see what personnel changes need to be made, if any, as we go forward.

"But we certainly want to continue to explore who our best 11 are (offensively and defensively)."

Guess we will see how practice shapes up this weekend. I imagine Dye and Love are going come after Lockett’s spot next few days.

They all will need to turn up their intensity few notches for Stanford, which according Ted Miller has emerged as the “most physical team” in the Pac-10:

Stanford is the Pac-10's most physical team: Stanford isn't the fastest team in the conference. It's not the most talented team by any stretch. But the Cardinal gets after it. It wasn't just the 286 yards rushing against what was supposed to be a stout Arizona defense. It was the Cardinal defense three times forcing the Wildcats to kick field goals from inside the Stanford 6-yard line. And that physical toughness also includes mental toughness. The Cardinal could have folded while losing the turnover battle, 3-0, or after seeing its starting quarterback, Tavita Pritchard, knocked out of the game with a concussion. But they didn't. At 4-3, Stanford needs two more wins to become bowl eligible, and the next two games are against bottom feeders UCLA and Washington State.

I can’t wait till next Saturday to find out how our guys respond, and that has been one of the most exciting aspects of this football season. Instead of dreading about next game through an entire week (like we used to in last few years), now I can’t wait (just like Ben Ball) for the next game.

GO BRUINS.

Wanted to make sure everyone saw this update from Brian Dohn:

UCLA officials said Austin was conscious and had movement in his extremities as he was being carted off and taken to River Bend Hospital. School officials said the tests were negative, and he was expected to travel home with the team.

"He was talking and the doctors said it was precautionary," Neuheisel said. "We send our thoughts and prayers to Terrence and his family, and we hope that he'll be fine."

Dohn also reported on this blog that TA was "diagnosed with a neck strain and a mild concussion."

To write we are all collectively breathing a huge sigh of relief here on BN, would be the biggest understatement of this season.

Get some rest TA. Take it easy this week and hopefully we will see you back in action in two or three weeks.

GO BRUINS.