All right, let's get to some quick football notes on this Sunday. In case you missed it there was an interesting development in Southern California prep scene this past week. Eric Sondheimer from the LA Times reported some prominent Bruin alums getting hired as coaches by big time programs:
Former UCLA and NFL wide receiver Mike Sherrard has been hired as an assistant coach at Westlake Village Oaks Christian, Coach Bill Redell said Thursday.
Oaks Christian is also having discussions with former UCLA and NFL quarterback Jay Schroeder about joining the program as an assistant coach. [...]
Birmingham hired another ex-UCLA player, Karl Morgan, to coach the defensive line.
Those are developments we have to keep an eye. Oak Christian has now emerged as a major factor in Bruin recruiting with the incoming arrival of Malcolm Jones and Cassius Marsh. They are going to be producing some major talent in the coming years which includes some kid with a last name Gretzky, who I hear is a pretty solid quarterback.
Sherrard has always been a huge promoter of our program and having him there will only help us. Similarly having Karl Morgan at Birmingham doesn't hurt either.Of course whenever the name Karl Morgan comes up we all think of the Scott Tinsely moment (just like all recent Bruin fans can think of Erick McPick). Yet what is pretty interesting is the circumstances in which Morgan's Bruins faced off against the Trogans in that epic game from 1982 (emphasis added):UCLA's Karl Morgan, 1982
In the last game to feature both teams wearing home "dark" jerseys, UCLA entered 8-1-1 but needed a win over USC and victories by Washington State and Arizona in order to go to the Rose Bowl.
USC entered with a 7-2 record but because of rule violations, the school was on probation and could not play in a bowl game even if the Trojans defeated UCLA.
Guess somethings never change. Anyway, the news concerning Sherrad and Morgan are good news on all fronts for the Bruin family and let's hope Schroeder gets in the mix as well.
Speaking of Bruin greats, tWWL recently did an interview with Brian Price:
Brian talked about his life of training for the NFL draft. We are not only going to miss his presence on the football field, but we are going to miss his energy and positive influence off it.
Lastly, stumbled into an interesting note in the Miami Herald concerning UCLA's scheduling:
UM's proposed football game at Yankee Stadium in 2012 fell through because UCLA refused to play UM.
This decision on the part of UCLA is completely understandable since our 2012 OOC scheduling already includes Rice (away) and home games against Nebraska and Houston. It would be silly for UCLA to drop Rice and add Miami to the schedule if it wants to mount a run at a bowl game after January 1st. Of course it would be ridiculous for other fanbases to mock UCLA for being wimps considering our track record of consistently taking on some of the toughest OOC schedules year in and year out (although I am sure login won't stop them).
Anyway, I do hope we find a way to schedule Miami or play them in a bowl game sometime down the line. Eventually we will have to exorcise the demons of December 5, 1998.
GO BRUINS.
UPDATE (N): So looks like there was some mis-communication on the part of LA Times (shocking, I know). Birmingham High is hiring Kyle Morgan, who played defensive end a few years ago, not Bruin legend Karl Morgan. Karl Morgan is now the new (January) head coach at Mississippi Valley State University. He had a fine run as defensive coordinator at North Alabama prior to getting the job at MVSU. Oh well. It was still fun to remember that moment and I sure Kyle Morgan will be doing just as great of job of representing the four letters at Birmingham.
Also, on the scheduling note, I have now heard that neither Coach Neuheisel, Dan Guerrero or UCLA SID can remember even being approached for this game. Considering they were not even approached (as far as they can remember), hard to imagine they "refused" to play. So not sure where that note cam from. As we have already noted the schedule that year is already pretty packed. GO BRUINS.