Bruin Bites: Aikman Profile, History for Jocks, Non-Revenue Updates, and Boost for Spartans

By Bellerophon Updated Sep 8, 2011, 2:30pm PDT

With all of the excitement surrounding the opening weekend of college football, the return of our Bruins to the gridiron,and the following disappointment following the let-down in Houston, Bruin Bites took a brief sabbatical.

It's been a busy week as we transitioned from the Houston loss to looking at this week's opponent, the SJSU Spartans, starting with AHMB's preview of the Spartan offense and coaching staff. We've also taken note of some disappointing news coming from Spaulding during practices here and here. DCBruins lightened the mood by giving us some encouraging news on the men's basketball team, and BN discussed the increasing possibility that the Pac-12 will soon be the Pac-16 with Oklahoma and Texas here and here. Finally, after Ryan ripped Dan Guerrero for sitting pat and letting the Pac-12 run a commercial that blatantly disrespected UCLA, the Pac-12, feeling the heat from BN, did the right thing and removed the offensive ad. Dan asleep at the switch in Morgan Center? What a big shock </sarcasm>.

With that, let's turn to your bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:

Starting off with some positive football coverage, Barry Horn of the Dallas Mornings News (HT to the Kansas City Star) has a profile of former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman and his transition from the playing field to the broadcast booth. As one would expect from the former Bruin, Aikman's preparation, even off the field, is legendary, leading him to the same kind of success that fans in Westwood and Dallas became accustomed to with Aikman at the helm.
Speaking of football, as most North Campus majors know, life north of Ackerman Union and Kerckhoff Hall can be, well, relaxing. Which, as an AP survey recently showed, is well known to UCLA's student-athletes, as the majority of the upperclassmen on the football roster are history majors. Apparently, many football players concentrating in one major is a common occurrence at other universities, but for now, this means keep your eyes peeled for the big uglies roaming in your history classes.

On the soccer front, unlike our men's squad, the women continue in their winning ways, putting Rutgers to the sword 1-0 in a defensive struggle in the women's home opener in Westwood. Freshman Megan Oyster opened up her college account by netting her first collegiate goal, which happened to be the difference against the Scarlet Knights. The sweet taste of victory didn't last long as the women's squad, much like their counterparts on the volleyball team, struggled against Pepperdine, coming up with only a 1-1 tie against the Waves.

Turning back to football to close this out, SJSU got good news in that their key defensive player and cog of the defense, Duke Ihenacho, is likely to return this Saturday against the Bruins. The senior safety is the defensive leader for the Spartans and whoever lines up under center for UCLA this weekend will need to be aware of the two-time All-WAC first team defensive back.

Fire away with your thoughts, comments, or additions.

GO BRUINS

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