Spaulding Roundup: $C Week Kickoff And A Special BN Podcast.

It is that time of year Bruins Nation: Beat $C week. Here is some Barnes2JJ magic to get things started. While last week's performance in Tempe eliminated the Bruins from bowl consideration, that result does not lessen the excitement or importance of Saturday night's game at the Rose Bowl for anyone wearing Blue and Gold. As Bellerophon wrote yesterday, the disappointment over Friday night ends now; thoughts regarding the season or what needs to happen in the future can hold for a week. It is $C week!

While the various struggles of the Bruins may be at the top or our minds, the Trogans enter the crosstown matchup on a backslide of their own, with a blowout loss two weeks ago in Corvallis followed by a Mitch Mustain-led senior night loss to Notre Dame at the Coliseum last Saturday night. The opening line (for educational purposes only, of course) has the fighting OJ's as 7 point favorites.

Being Beat $C week, it stands to reason that we have an $C week podcast. 03rdn9 will be bringing us his podcast as a special time - with a special guest - tonight at 7pm. As always, for those of you listening live, please feel free to call in and share any thoughts or questions that you have on the game, or on $C week generally.

A few notes regarding the game from the official site. To start, as of noon today, there are tickets remaining for Saturday night's game per UCLABruins.com. Tickets are $80/each and are available through ticketmaster, or CTO. Let's keep the Rose Bowl blue! For the tailgaters among us, the Rose Bowl parking lots will open at 6am for those holding reserved parking passes, and at 9:30am for general parking.

Given who we are playing on Saturday, the choice of honorary captain for the game is a good one:

Cade McNown quarterbacked the Bruins from 1995-98. He started 44 of his 47 career games, including the final 43. McNown earned consensus All-America honors in 1998, winning the Unitas Golden Arm Award and placing third in the vote for the Heisman Trophy. Cade compiled a 30-14 record as a starter and led UCLA to a school-record 20 consecutive victories during his junior and senior campaigns. He piloted UCLA to four straight wins over the Trojans during his record-setting career.

Not a whole lot of news out of Spaulding over the weekend. Andrew Abbott and Cassius Marsh both suffered concussions against ASU, but are expected to be available to play on Saturday. On the flip side, the Trojans have a few key injuries heading into the week. A high ankle sprain suffered against Oregon State kept Matt Barkley kept him out of the Notre Dame game, though the Kitten expects Barkley to play on Saturday. Starting cornerback T.J. McDonald separated his shoulder against Notre Dame. While the SC depth chart currently lists him as a co-starter, it is difficult to imagine him playing with such an injury, exposing an already shallow Trojan secondary that could also be missing nickel-back Brian Baucham, who was wearing a neck brace after the Notre Dame game, according to ESPN LA.

As a reminder, not only is it the $C game, but Saturday is also Senior Day, the final game at the Rose Bowl for 17 Bruin seniors:

DL David Carter, DE Greg Casciaro, RB Justin Fareed, PK Kai Forbath, LB Frank Guzman, DL Andy Keane, OL Micah Kia, F-back Christian Ramirez, P Danny Rees, OL Darius Savage, LB Mike Schmitt, OL Sean Sheller, DL Reginald Stokes, OL Ryan Taylor, F-Back Tobi Umodu, OL Eddie Williams, LS Christian Yount

To close, here's something that we can all be proud of, no matter the result on Saturday night (and something I doubt the folks across town will match).

All 17 seniors are on schedule to graduate by the end of Spring Quarter.

And not a ballroom dancer among them.

GO BRUINS!