Got your coffee yet? Beautiful fall morning out here in the East. Let's get to the roundups for this morning. Dohn kicks off the Beaver week coverage with the inevitable storyline re. return of Matt Moore:
Moore, who played at UCLA in 2002 and 2003, leads Oregon State into the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
"(The coaches) brought it up, that it's important for us not to get caught up in that," UCLA fullback Michael Pitre said. "They said it's not an individual battle between quarterbacks. It's not an individual battle between anybody. It's a battle between UCLA and Oregon State."
For many of the Bruins who played with Moore, this will be the first time they see him since he abruptly left the program after a 47-22 loss to USC.
Moore, who sat out of football for a year and contemplated playing professional baseball before transferring to Oregon State, did not remain with UCLA during preparation for its bowl game.
"When he was here, between me and him, we had no problems at all," UCLA linebacker Spencer Havner said. "I don't think he had a problem with anybody. It was like, one day he was gone. I really don't take that personally. I don't really know what his plan was. I think if I would have left, I probably would have had a plan, but it doesn't bother me."
Moore transferred after he was replaced by current starter Drew Olson late in the 2003 season. But Dorrell said he couldn't recall why he chose Olson late in that season.
Hmmm, if I can recall correctly KD pretty much started sticking with the DO after Moore had a horrible game up in Pullman. But I think it is safe to say KD did completely botch the DO/Moore situation. Moore was the clear started coming out of training camp, and then lost the job after his unfortunate injury in the first game of the season against Colorado (the game in which Dorrell forgot he had a tailback named Manny White). The team sputtered to a 6-2 start and KD ended up sticking with DO, eventhough he had not really done anything to earn the job. However, Moore didn't help his case by constantly whining to the press. As Kuwada notes:
"(The coaches) brought it up, that it's important for us not to get caught up in that," UCLA fullback Michael Pitre said. "They said it's not an individual battle between quarterbacks. It's not an individual battle between anybody. It's a battle between UCLA and Oregon State."
For many of the Bruins who played with Moore, this will be the first time they see him since he abruptly left the program after a 47-22 loss to USC.
Moore, who sat out of football for a year and contemplated playing professional baseball before transferring to Oregon State, did not remain with UCLA during preparation for its bowl game.
"When he was here, between me and him, we had no problems at all," UCLA linebacker Spencer Havner said. "I don't think he had a problem with anybody. It was like, one day he was gone. I really don't take that personally. I don't really know what his plan was. I think if I would have left, I probably would have had a plan, but it doesn't bother me."
Moore transferred after he was replaced by current starter Drew Olson late in the 2003 season. But Dorrell said he couldn't recall why he chose Olson late in that season.
When Matt Moore was a quarterback at UCLA, he had a habit of making himself a distraction. He made curious comments to the media. He was involved in a somewhat heated argument with a teammate on the sideline during a game.
In any event, it is all water under the bridge at this point. DO is playing well. I always thought he was good enough to lead a team to 9/10 win season, but I also thought the same thing of Matt Moore as well. Anyways, this is the last time I will bring this up. At this point I don't really care all that much. I wish Moore well, but not this Saturday. I want Havner and Co. to bloody him up because I want to see a stable/dominating performance from our defense for once.Speaking of Havner and co., White looks into the bright side of our defense, our secondary:
UCLA leads the Pacific 10 Conference in pass defense, giving up an average of 187 yards a game -- a statistic clouded in part because opponents have enjoyed plenty of success running the ball.
However, the Bruins would not be 6-0 and ranked No. 8 in the nation, and have three consecutive come-from-behind victories, were it not for some solid play from the secondary.
And it looks like the secondary is going to get another boost this week. Chris Horton (FS) will be practicing with the team this week and may join the rotation this weekend. Let's hope the defense can put it together right out of the gate. This Saturday would be a good time to put together our first complete game of the season.
However, the Bruins would not be 6-0 and ranked No. 8 in the nation, and have three consecutive come-from-behind victories, were it not for some solid play from the secondary.