Roundup From BN Walk: News & Notes

We have some significant news from the football team. There has been some shuffling around in our depth chart and it has to do with our OL. Nate Chandler, a red shirt freshman TE is moving over to the OL (per Chow’s request). Dohn has the details:

Chandler met with offensive coordinator Norm Chow last week and agreed to move to tackle as UCLA tries to solve its depth issues and find a replacement for Sheller.

"It's going to help the team eventually, so I'm down with it," Chandler said. "I have no problems with it. At first, it was kind of tough, but I talked to Norm and he said, `I can make you into a great tackle.' I believe in him, and I think I can do it myself."

The 6-foot-6, 273-pound Chandler said he wants to gain 10 to 15 pounds. He was considered a strong tight end prospect, but the Bruins have depth at that position.

However, Sheller was injured in an offseason off-roading accident and is out for the season after undergoing reconstructive knee surgery.

It creates a hole at right tackle, and Chandler said he was told he could compete for playing time immediately. Incoming junior college transfer Donovan Edwards, providing he meets UCLA's academic requirements, will also compete for the spot.

"I'm definitely going to have a chance to compete for the spot, so I'm going in with the mindset that I can play," Chandler said. "I think that's possible."

Great comments from Chandler. This move could work out well for all parties involved. Given his previous experience as a TE, Chandler could emerge as an athletic TE. If he excels at his new spot, it will make him that much more marketable in case he is pursuing a football career beyond college (which I imagine is the dream of Chandler and all other blue chip recruits at UCLA).

Dohn also has some encouraging news re. Raymond Carter:

Carter looks fine in workouts and is expected to be ready for training camp next month.

If Carter works his way to his old self (and get back that speed) it will be a huge boost to our RB corps. I will start posting my notes going through our dept chart tomorrow.

Moving over to hoops, now that is he back from Korea, Jordan is looking to take another trip. This one though seems to have a deeper purpose than just promoting the NBA:

The Lakers' guard, who is Jewish, will travel to Israel to run basketball camps for Israeli and Palestinian children in association with the Peres Peace Center. The goal of the camps, which take place Aug. 4 to 11, is to bring Israeli and Palestinian children together through basketball and create a foundation for peaceful relations between them in years to come.

"If you can have a good time with someone you're supposed to be enemies with, and you guys can work together, things can be better for your future," Farmar said.

Farmar, who averaged 9.1 points and 2.7 assists in his second season with the Lakers, also participated in the NBA's fifth-annual "Play for Peace" clinic in 2006, a little more than a month after he was drafted out of UCLA.

"Sports can be a ground where everyone has fun and when you're out there having a good time; you don't really think about everything else that's going on," Farmar said.

Farmar was also in the news recently doing a fundraiser for Senator Obama. So just like Kareem, Baron, Arthur Ashe, Jordan is emerging as yet another Bruin superstar, who is making a name for himself beyond the basketball court.

Don’t worry our Republican friends. Not to be outdone (angling for the hearts and minds of Bruin Nation), Senator McCain recently lampooned a certain “school” (which happens to be his wife’s alma mater) by calling it out as “the University of Spoiled Children.” Good for Senator McCain. 

GO BRUINS.