Sigh. It's Monday once again. Back to the grind at work. If you're also struggling to make it to the end of the work day, let's round-up where we've gone since we last checked in. We've discussed the hypocrisy of other fan bases when it comes to Neuheisel and the clean program he's running now, highlighted a possible major change to the location of the Pac-12 basketball tournament, had some notes on football practices on Thursday and Friday, broke down Saturday's scrimmage in some detail here and here, and finally Nestor opened this week with the topic on every Bruin fan's mind: the on-going battle for the starting QB job between Prince and Brehaut.
And with that, let's get to the bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:
- Starting with football, the L.A. Times has a profile piece on the four key Division I transfer players for UCLA this season: Josh Smith (Colorado), Joseph Fauria (Notre Dame), Kai Maiava (Colorado), and Shaquelle Evans (Notre Dame). It's an interesting summary of the four and the process of them coming to Westwood from the respective schools they initially selected ahead of UCLA.
- Sticking with football profiles, Dan Woike at the Orange County Register has a piece on Randall Carroll and his drive to finally turn himself around and fulfill the potential that he came with coming out of high school.
- Jon Gold has a good summary of our situation at safety, where, despite how great Rahim Moore was, the Bruins might actually be better than last season, with the combination of Tresey's energetic aggressive schemes (HT to FoxSports' Rahshaun Haylock) and with returning senior safety Tony Dye paired with hard-hitting Dietrich Riley and a more seasoned Dalton Hilliard.
- In OT football news, CRN discussed his golf game and the thrill he got playing at Augusta National. If UCLA doesn't turn it around this season, he'll have a lot of time for his golf game.
- Switching to conference news, the New York Times has a really good read on regional conference networks and what Larry Scott's moves during this past year mean for the conference in terms of visibility and revenue. In short, show me the money!
- In baseball news, UCLA commit and southpaw pitcher Max Fried has transferred to Harvard-Westlake for his senior season after the baseball program at his previous high school got cut.
- ESPN has a good profile of new UCLA women's soccer head coach B.J. Snow, who is taking over the reins from Jill Ellis. Fortunately for the Bruins, Snow knows expectations are high and he's ready to meet them with a very talented roster that should compete for another Bruin national title.
- Finally, looping back to football news, UCLA has made a scholarship offer to cornerback Justin Combs of New Rochelle, New York. Combs was recently on campus to check out the Bruins' practice and he was accompanied by his father. His father, of course, is Sean Combs, better known as hip-hop mogul P. Diddy (formerly Puff Daddy)/ While Justin can play, it can't hurt to have P. Diddy pulling for the Bruins. Very cool.
Alright folks, that's your round-up from news from around the UCLA-iverse. Just a few more hours until dreaded Monday finally comes to a close.
GO BRUINS