Chris Dufresne in the LAT leads his weekly football column by channeling fanshots from BN:
USC canned UCLA in the annual spring game, 11-0. The Trojans scored on three first-round NFL picks, two seconds, a third, two fourths, a fifth and two sixths.
Makes you wonder what Karl Dorrell was doing all those years in Westwood while everyone was out recruiting.
It also renders more astonishing UCLA's 13-9 win over USC in 2006 and Stanford's upset win over USC in 2007. Stanford also had no players drafted this year.
The loss to Stanford was particularly amusing given the sheer disparity in talent. I never thought our win that game was that big of a shocker. In my book whenver we play those clowns in the Rose Bowl we should always be in the mindset of expecting a win. As we argued and laid out endlessly that specific season and the two weeks leading up to that game we had enough talent and potential to win a rivalry game like that on our own home turf. What transpired was inspiring but too bad like a typical Dorrell coached squad, the team wasted away all the momentum and positive energy through a humiliating loss against Florida State in the following game.
Anyway, let's get back to the present because it's lot more pleasant. Here are our team captains for next season:
Reggie Carter and Alterraun Verner on defense and Logan Paulsen and Terrence Austin on offense. Rick Neuheisel told the team after yesterday's scrimmage.
Looks like logical choices to me. Speaking of next year's team, while the coaching staff hasn't issued a formal depth chart, Adam Maya from the OC Register drew up the dept charts for both offense and defense based on his day to day observations from practices.
Elsewhere, two more Bruins signed free agents Ks following this past weekend's NFL draft:
Two more football players from UCLA have been invited to mini camps with NFL teams.
Punter Aaron Perez is headed to camp with the New England Patriots and safety Bret Lockett has been invited to camp with the Cleveland Browns.
Good luck to those guys. Again I wish they didn't have to wait till this past year to get competent coaching and leadership from the program. As mentioned above if the 13-9 was any indication, the ability and desire was always there. It's just too bad they previous leader wasn't able to get the very best out of the entire team on a consistent basis. I am not saying that if we had competent coaching we would have bunch of first round picks. I am suggesting that if we had competent coaching during previous regime we had enough talent and ability in the previous program that would have prevented the dismal showing on Saturday.
I will end with a followup on yesterday's post re. Auburn with an interesting note from the Athens Banner Herald where the Georgia Bull Dogs are apparently in very preliminary discussions with the Georgia Dome about the opening game of 2010 football season. As I said, it is extremely early but here is what Coach Marc Richt had to say about it (emphasis added):
"We're working a deal that could possibly happen," Richt said. "Maybe even the year after this. A lot of things have to come together for that happen."
A proposed nationally televised UCLA-Auburn game in 2010 was turned down by Auburn, the Los Angeles Times reported. UCLA declined an offer to play Georgia Tech.
Richt said somebody currently on Georgia's schedule would have to agree to come off the schedule to make the deal work, and he wasn't optimistic that would happen.
Richt said Georgia would essentially lose a home game if it played in Atlanta.
"We think we have one team that everybody would be excited about, but if I say who it is it will probably blow the deal," Richt said without giving more details on the team.
Paul over at Georgia Sports Blog thinks Richt is possibly referring to UCLA but the idea is a "longshot." Kyle over at Dawg Sports who in "principle" is "in favor of playing the Bruins", is vehemently against the idea of a UCLA-Georgia matchup in Atlanta:
You may put me resolutely in the "no" column on this one. I’d be more than happy to see the Bulldogs and the Bruins play once in the Rose Bowl and once in Sanford Stadium, but I see no point to meeting them in Atlanta for any purpose other than picking them up at the airport as a show of Southern hospitality before hosting them between the hedges.
I am not sure UCLA is going to be all excited to play Georgia in Atlanta without a home and home engagement. If they rejected the idea of playing Georgia Tech in Atlanta, they should do the same if they are approached about playing Georgia. So I am in pretty much in agreement with Kyle on this point. I'd love UCLA to take on Georgia but I want the Bruins to take on the Dawgs in between the hedges and then invite Kyle and rest of his friends back to LA to tailgate on our golf course.
I wonder though perhaps Georgia Dome should be approaching other teams from the ACC or the SEC if they want to feature a matchup with UCLA. I'd be more than excited about a potential matchup with Spurrier led USC, Clemson, Butch Davis's North Carolina or any of the Florida schools. Your thoughts?
GO BRUINS.