More photos » Ric Francis - ASSOCIATED PRESS

He knows a little something about QBs.

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Want to start today's roundup a little thought on our ongoing QB saga. Oh, it's still going. As you will see in the video linked below Kevin Prince took limited practices on Wednesday as he continued to rest up his "sore" shoulder. Per my understanding this is a complete separate issue from the oblique muscle strain that kept him out most of the pre-season camp. This is related to the shoulder injury he suffered against Southern Cal last season. It now appears that he feels a little sore and the coaches are being cautious with him.

The recent updates have caused a number of people to lose sleep hysterically calling for Richard Brehaut to start or get PT this Saturday. Meanwhile, given all the nagging over Brehaut naturally there has been comments about people being in "Kevin Prince" camp. Well let me offer up a personal example if I may. It was last year when Prince seemed ineffective at first upon his return from injury, and Kevin Craft despite all his heart and effort could only do so much with this limited athleticism, a number of us including yours truly was calling for Richard Brehaut.

Yet guys like Ryan and 03rdn9 suggested to trust Coach Norm Chow and Rick Neuheisel and stick with their confidence in Kevin Prince. Well when Brehaut entered the game he didn't look so prepared and Prince eventually got it together down the stretch.  Ryan et al were vindicated in having faith in Chow (who was sticking with Prince), while I was more than happy to admit I was wrong about clamoring for Brehaut.

The situation is a little different this year. Brehaut has had few more reps and reportedly has looked slightly better during practices this August. While we can appreciate that everyone is feeling anxious over the daily updates on Kevin Prince, a guy like Norm Chow has earned enough stripes over his career that he (along with Rick Neuheisel) should have more than enough room to make decisions on who they will stick with at QB.

Let them hash this out over next 2-3 games as they accumulate more data points from LIVE action. If Prince rounds into shape through game action, we are going to be OK. If he doesn't get it done, then coaches can decide to go to next option and we will see how it turns out. Meanwhile, we need to put a stop to "Camp Prince" v. "Camp Brehaut" nonsense from developing here on BN. Let's leave that for message boards. Complaining over QB decisions especially when we have seasoned veterans making decisions will not get us anywhere in the end.  Now some news after the jump.

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The Trojan Times regular sports section never really bothered to cover the scandals while they were unfolding. It looks like the paper is trying hard to salvage what little is left of its reputation by finally trying to get the record right wrt to most scandalous program in the history of college athletics. The subheader of the LAT Magazine piece entitled "the Fall of Troy" reads:

With USC FOOTBALL crippled, fans need to hear the truth: The school's supreme arrogance cemented its massive NCAA sanctions.

Well that's at least partially true. The part many of us would quibble with is labeling the sanctions as "massive." Arguably the NCAA could have been lot harsher for reasons detailed number of times here on BN. Nothing in the article is going to be shocking to anyone here on BN.

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Let's start the Humpday by keeping the focus on Stanford. Yesterday we shared some initial notes on Cardinal by going over the key highlights of their offensive and defensive personnel heading into this season. Today let's delve into what took place in their first game against Sacramento State .

Not sure how many of you got to watch the game. The score wasn't close as the Trees rolled to a 52-17 blowout. The highlights not surprisingly are pretty spectacular from the Stanford POV (with homer calls from the annoying Barry McAffery):

It was their first game without Toby Gerhart. However, on paper they didn't seem to miss him all that much against a cupcake opponent piling up 212 yards and 3 TDs through deployment of 5 RBs.  Andrew Luck got off to a red hot start by finishing 17 of his 23 pass attempts for 316 yards. He did most of his work when he went 14-for-18 for 301 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. So you can imagine the pressure that is going to be on Rahim Moore, Tony Dye, Aaron Hester, and Sheldon Price heading into Saturday.

As for the Stanford defense, they weren't tested at all by a Sacramento State team which was led none other than the Law Firm. The former Bruin QB - McLeod Bethel-Thompson - was limited to 69 passing yards by the Stanford secondary, which was proven to be a leaky unit last season. Yet despite their extremely impressive performance, it is unclear how much we can glean from one game. If people need a reminder they can look back to last season when the season looked over for the Oregon Ducks after an unimpressive outing against Boise State, while UCLA was sitting pretty with a 3-0 start heading into the bye week.  More on the Trees after jump.

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More photos » Rick Bowmer - AP

Oregon had plenty to celebrate as they rolled over New Mexico and ascended to the top of the all-important BN Pac-10 Power Poll (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

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Finally, after all the talk and speculation, we got to watch some football. Every Pac-10 team was in action this weekend and the conference put together a combined 6-4 record, but all the games against BCS conference teams resulted in losses, as did Washington's game against BYU, the other quality team on the Pac-10 slate.

On the whole, it wasn't the best of weekends for the conference, but no teams in the conference's top half got a chance a quality opponent so that can be misleading. This week will be misleading again, but this time in the Pac-10's favor as several teams play BCS conference opponents, none of whom are expected to contend in their respective conferences. Meanwhile, UCLA and Stanford will play in the first conference game of the season, giving the two teams a chance to battle it out for first place in the conference.

Player of the Week: Kenjon Barner, Oregon- Star running back out, no problem if you're Oregon. With LaMichael James serving a suspension, Barner ran for 147 yards on just 17 carries for an eye-popping 8.6 yards per carry. Inside, outside, everywhere, Barner ran wild and hit pay dirt four times on the ground. He also caught a short pass and went scampering 60 yards for another touchdown, capping an all-around impressive day for the Ducks' back-up.

Stat of the Week: 506- The Oregon mascot customarily does one push up for every point the Ducks have after each time the team score. Well, in Saturday's 72-0 shellacking of New Mexico, the Duck got a heck of a work out. By the time the game mercifully came to an end, the poor guy in the suit had done 506 push ups.

Game of the Week: Oregon at Tennessee, 4 pm PDT, ESPN2- On paper, Tennessee has no business matching up with Oregon. The Ducks are superior in nearly every facet of the game and the Vols are breaking in a new head coach and quarterback. That said, anyone who has been to Knoxville and Neyland Stadium knows how difficult it is to play in that sea of orange. With this being the only non-conference game of note on the schedule of the Pac-10 favorite, it's imperative that Oregon go into Knoxville and come away winners.

Pac-10 Power Poll

1) Oregon Ducks, 1-0 (6 first place votes)- New Mexico was never going to test the Ducks and at no point did the Lobos put the slightest ounce of doubt in Oregon. Even without suspended star running back LaMichael James, the Ducks rolled up 72 points, totaled 720 yards and held the Lobos scoreless in a laugher from Autzen Stadium. Now, Oregon turns its attention to Tennessee, where they will have to deal with a raucous Neyland Stadium crowd and try to work their way into the discussion of the nation's best teams. Last Week: 2

2) Arizona Wildcats, 1-0 (2 first place votes)- For a little bit it looked as if the Wildcats might be in trouble on the road against Toledo as the offense lacked the spark they needed to run away, but once they got going Arizona was off. A 41-2 win to open the season without any injuries is always a good week and with some JC transfers making their debuts on defense, the Wildcats looked stingy. If it's an indication of how good the Wildcat defense is going to be, they're a scary team, although even without stellar defensive play, they shouldn't have a problem in their home opener versus Citadel. Last Week: 1

3) Oregon St. Beavers, 0-1- Playing a top 10 team to open the season takes guts and the Beavers played TCU tough in what was basically a road game, in Arlington. As difficult as they made things on TCU, Oregon St. didn't have enough to get past the Horned Frogs and lost, 30-21. Concerning for the Beavers has to be the way the Horned Frogs gashed them on the ground, but the Beavers didn't break and most who watched saw little reason to knock Oregon St., instead praising a very good TCU team. Now, the Beavers get the week off before facing Louisville. Last Week: 3

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More photos » Paul Sakuma - AP

The incredible, amazing, breath-taking Jim Harbaugh rolls into town this weekend. Guess we also have to celebrate the return of SPTRs.

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Time to put the Kansas State game in our rear view mirror and look ahead to Stanford. bk bruin has already started the process by asking for everyone's help in putting together the "Dirt." Suggest everyone to chime in with tidbits on every aspect of Stanford's football program. These are the kind of threads where we get a sense who is a member of this community as opposed to the trolls who only show up here to b!tich, whine and complain after tough losses.

As for the game, the timing of this matchup in unique. Since starting playing in the "Pac-10" in 1978, UCLA has played only 4 other conference games this early in the season.  We won at Stanford on Sept. 1, 2007 (45-17); lost at Washington State on August 30, 1997 (34-37); lost v. Cal on Sept. 4, 1993 (25-27) and won at Washington on Sept. 9, 1978 (10-7). The last time we opened our home schedule with a Pac-10 game was against Cal. That year got off to a rocky start with UCLA losing 2 out of its first 3 games before we went on to win the conference and go to the Rose Bowl (Read full game notes from the official site here). Can't imagine the kind of hysteria and nonsensical comments we would see from people if the internets were around those days.

Anyway, so thinking about mighty Stanford. If you read the traditional media you will get the sense that Jim Harbaugh is something like the second coming of Vince Lombardi.  If you have been following the hype through recent months, you will know that Sir Harbaugh is one of the greatest coach evah to bless us with his presence in the Pac-10, even though his record after three years in Stanford stands 2 game below 100, and his record after his first 2 years in the farm (9-15) was a little worse than CRN's first 2 years in Westwood (11-14). Even in Stanford's breakthrough season last year Harbaugh finished the season with a record of 8-5 with a once in a generation talent like Toby Gerhart at his disposal. One of those 8 victories included a 24-16 win over UCLA playing with its backup QB Kevin Craft.

So with that in the backdrop it is amusing to see Stanford coming into this game as a 7.5 favorites over UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Guess people think Bruins don't belong in the same field as the Cardinal, even though Jim Harbaugh with one year head start on recruiting front has won a grand total of 3 extra games than Neuheisel in Westwood.

Whatever. This doesn't mean that UCLA should show even a hint of disrespect to the Cardinal. Harbaugh, notwithstanding the usual over the top tradmed hype is a solid coach, who will have his team prepared and well grounded in fundamentals. What it does mean though UCLA should look at this game as a golden opportunity to stem the onslaught of Stanford hype machine (which apparently still cannot fill up their little stadium). I also hope our coaches and players are upset and frustrated at the cynicism that not surprisingly poured out following this past weekend's loss (not just from tradmed but also from casual fans looking to jump on bandwagon) and rally with a focused and improved performance this Saturday.

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More photos » Orlin Wagner - AP

Four quarters later and UCLA is still trying to figure out how to stop the Kansas St. running attack, but the biggest issues, receivers excluded, aren't such surprises (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

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Okay, we've had a couple days to think this one over. We've had the delirious and irrational hysteria of those who lost perspective and then a couple others who went too far the other way in defending the team to combat the hysteria. Neither is particularly helpful, but both are understandable. When you pour yourself into something, only to fall short, it's a killer. When you pour yourself into something and are a part of something, as we all are with UCLA, you can't bear to see those who represent you in blue and gold irrationally attacked. We're two days past the game though, so let's try this recap thing again.

What went well and what needs the most work. This is one that is going to take into account what we've been tracking all offseason. Was the offensive line dominant? They were not by any stretch of the imagination, but they were above average and considering the hits that the Bruins have taken at the position, that's a huge accomplishment. Was Kevin Prince good? Nope, but there are reasons that contributed to it. So, let's dive in. Here's the good, the bad and the ugly from a Saturday afternoon in Manhattan, Kansas.

The Good

Offensive Line- Let's start with the guys I mentioned briefly above. With Mike Harris, Jeff Baca and especially Kai Maiava unable to go, there were legitimate concerns about the Bruins' offensive line. Sure, there were seniors all along the line, but they weren't packing a ton of experience (some experience, but nothing overwhelming) and they were, for the most part, supposed to be second-string guys. That didn't stop the big boys up front from winning the battle against an admittedly rebuilding Kansas St. defensive line. The best sight of the game came when the Bruins went for it on fourth and one and they didn't even both opening a hole for the running back. Instead, they pushed the line of scrimmage two yards back, more than enough to pick up the first down. Prince was sacked six times, but several of those came after five or six seconds looking around downfield and for the most part, Prince had all day to throw. Add in 193 yards rushing and the offensive line did a stellar job. Some credit also has to go to Anthony Barr and the other F-backs, who chipped in with some solid blocking to help out the o-line.

Aaron Hester and Sheldon Price- Kansas St. was never going to be a major threat through the air, but Hester and Price, both sophomores, both shut own the Wildcats' receivers. Price did well to use his long arms to jam the K-State receivers and throw off any timing that the Wildcats were looking for. While he was instructed to give an unusually large cushion last season, Price was allowed to be more aggressive in Manhattan and it paid off as he was able to put some of his better attributes to good use. Hester had one bad moment, picking up a pass interference penalty for handfighting downfield, but he came back on the next two plays to make big tackles that put K-State in a third and long. Coming off of his broken leg from a year ago, Hester didn't show much rust and was quick and instinctive, while using his big frame both in coverage and in run support. With very little safety help all game, Hester and Price never blinked and never stopped being aggressive.

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More photos » Orlin Wagner - AP

Daniel Thomas had his way with Bruin LBers (Sean Westgate in the pic)

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So let's do this. I have tried to read through most of the comments and posts from yesterday here. Lot of repetitive stuff but haven't read a post that put all the numbers in one place. Here is an attempt to aggregate all the datapoints from yesterday's game. I will divide them up in 2 buckets. Most of these statlines were compiled from the official site:

Positive Statlines

• Piled up 193 net yards rushing (208 total) averaging 5.2 yds per attempt. Big ups to the UCLA OL and Coach Bob Palcic.
  
• JetSki rushed for 60 yards in 13 carries averaging 4.6 yds per attempt. Malcolm Jones IMO looked like the best RB out there getting 20 yards in his only 3 attempt. I sure hope he has lot more than 3 attempts next week. Derrick Coleman had 29 yards in 5 carries averaging 5.8 yds per attempt.
• Our two safeties - Tony Dye (15) and Rahim Moore (7) - were 2 of the top 4 tacklers. Akeem Ayers (11) and Sean Westgate (7) were the other 2, while Nate Chandler was the only member of defensive front 4 in the top 5 with 8 tackles including 1 sack. Not a bad debut for Nate.
• Kai Forbath was perfect (what else is new) going 3 for 3 with 2 FGs over 40, while Jeff Locke got the job done with booming punts averaging 45.7 yard per attempt
• Per UCLA's official site 5 true freshmen participated yesterday: Anthony Barr, Malcolm Jones, Cassius Marsh, Jordan James and Jordan Zumwalt (hmm don't remember James and Zumwalt in the game).

 Negative Statlines

• Prince's line is just ugly: complete only 9 of his 26 attempts for 120 passing yards. Threw for 1 and rank for 1, while throwing 2 picks.
• Gave up a staggering 313 net yards rushing (350 total ... YIKES) averaging 5.8 yds per attempt. Not quiet in the Edgerrin James category but yeah we all had those nightmares.
• Kansas State converted 8 of their 16 3rd downs while UCLA was only 3 of 13.
• KSU's time of possession advantage over UCLA: 35:56 to 24:04. This number was pretty ugly and had a role IMO in getting the defense tired down the stretch.
  
• Committed 8 penalties for 55 costly yards which included an inexcusable one on 4th and goal situation in first quarter when a good defensive stop was thwarted for having too many guys on the field. The extra guy was lined up around our secondary (IIRC). So he didn't make any difference in the stop. It was simply an inexcusable mistake by the coaches.
• Before I left the house (with around 4.55 left in the game) I had counted at least 7 drops from our wide receivers including from seasoned "veterans" such as Taylor Embree, Nelson Rosario and Morrell Presley (not a freshman any more Morrell). No excuses for those guys at this point.
• I put Tony Dye's team leading 15 tackles in the "positive" category. I think arguably it can also be seen as a negative because it underscores the point just how frequently the Wildcats were getting into the second level of our defense.
• I am putting this in the negative category but some like DCBruins will probably disagree. As bluebland noted we punted from on 4th and 3 from the 40 and 4th and 5 from the 36. I was very mixed about it. Part of me wanted to go for it and was upset the coaches weren't being aggressive. If Kai was totally healthy we'd probably attempt the 53 yarder. Still on the other hand the field position decision was understandable considering our defense was having ... well issue.

Now let's get into some broader issues after the jump.

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More photos » Orlin Wagner - AP

UCLA running back Derrick Coleman (33) is tripped up by Kansas State cornerback David Garrett (27) during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010, in Manhattan, Kan. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

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First of all congrats to our friends at Bring On The Cats. Their boys took it to us and got it done infront fan inspired home crowd. It was a lot of fun going back and forth with them all week. I sure hope regular BN community members will show the same kind of class we got from guys over at Rocky Top Talk, after their two back to back heartbreaking losses against us in last two years. They are good people over there and they have a team that will most likely be in contention to go into the Big-12 championship game like they were till the last day of regular season. Good luck to them.

Speaking of the loss, DCBruins' post game thread post has filled up. I went ahead and rebumped a post from couple of weeks ago pointing out how we have a huge season opener coming up at the Rose Bowl next Saturday. While there are many who looks ready to quit and move on (and good riddance to them), would like to hear from those who are showing up at the Rose Bowl next weekend in that thread.

I am not going to engage in lot micro analysis at this point of the night. There will be time for that sometime tomorrow and beyond. In the meantime I will excerpt a passage from today's gameday roundup post:

I am not feeling all that great about how today is going to go. We know if Bruins lose today it's not going to be the end of the world. However, what I am not all that excited about is the gnashing and waling that will ensue on message boards, intensified and toxic cynicism from the local tradmed that will surround the team, even if the Bruins give a great effort today.

Guess I didn't realize that lot of toxicity would also come in our comment threads from drive by posters, trolls, who were mostly absent during the long off-season when we had repeated, drawn out discussions on what should be the expectations heading into Rick Neuheisel's third season into Westwood. Instead we are seeing analysis from so called Bruin fans who sound just as savvy as Chris Fosters, Bill Splashme or a clueless and classless hack like TJ Simers from the LA Times.

None of us are happy with today's loss. Losing sucks. It is going to ruin our Sundays. I know we have experienced many bitter Sundays over last 10 years but we are still not used to it. However, that doesn't entail losing perspective and drawing definitive conclusions right after one game of the season.

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