Roundup From BN Walk: Football News & Notes

You can just feel the football camp being around the corner. We have an exclusively football focused BN walk lined up for today. Let’s start our walk with Norm Chow. Kevin Pearson from the Press Enterprise sat down with our offensive coordinator, who offered the following pre Fall camp thoughts:

*On not having QB Pat Cowan this season: "Pat Cowan the human being was as important to us as Pat Cowan the football player."

*On Ben Olson: "Pat and Ben hada tough time in their careers because they were always looking over their shoulders. Hopefully Ben won't have to do that and will be relaxed when he plays. You don't want him to feel unsure. He has to know that even if he doesn't play well, that he is still the guy."

*On the offensive line: "I think we have a good offensive line. I don't think we have the depth. Do we have enough good players is the problem. No one is going to feel sorry for us. We just have to go do it."

*On tailback Kahlil Bell, who Chow said is an NFL-quality running back: "He is a major player in all of this. I really think he is critical to our success."

Chow was also the focus of a recent article in Tennessean.com reporting how the Bruin offensive coordinator has found peace after his return to college football. True to his form Chow gave his frank and honest opinions on the team as he prepares for pre-season practice in couple of weeks.

Chow gave his thoughts on Bell above. Well Bell is apparently looking “great” in 7-on-7 drills:

UCLA running back Kahlil Bell continues to look great in 7-on-7 drills and will be ready for training camp. He is showing great acceleration catching the ball and moving laterally. The only inkling he is coming off reconstructive knee surgery is the brace he is wearing during the drills.
Technically, Bell has not be medically cleared to practice, but he told me recently he expects that to happen in early August, when he is examined by the UCLA doctors.
Bell, who is expected to be UCLA's top running back this season, added his legs feel great, other than the fatigue he is experiencing from the 7-on-7s and the hard work he is putting into his rehab.

Re. that brace, according to Pearson he is going to wear it throughout the season. As we have already discussed (and Chow alluded to above) Bell is going to be a huge key for our offense this season. So the news above is a good sign with the usual caveat we have to be cautious about getting our hopes too high from 7-on-7 reports.

Elsewhere, Ted Miller from WWL’s Pac-10 blog continued his project of ranking all Pac-10 positions for this upcoming season. According to his evaluations Bruins have the second best kicker and the second best punter in the conference. Lord knows special teams is going to be a huge key to this season if we are going to scrape out some wins in our difficult schedule.

Lastly, a little programming note. Apparently FSN has decided to cancel “Bruin Rewind.” It’s kind of a bummer. After being subjected to Dorrell’s weekly press conferences all these years, I was finally looking forward to a show featuring weekly recaps from a UCLA football coach. Oh well.  I see this as an opportunity for our athletic department to stamp their own narrative in the Southern California’s media landscape by rolling out their own official YouTube Chanel. Question is are they going to step up and do what they need to do to adapt to the world of new media landscape?

GO BRUINS.