Bruin Bites: Arizona Game Day Edition

It's Saturday and the Bruins are going to be in action tonight against the high-flying Arizona Wildcats. And what a difference a year makes: last season, the Bruins took on a toothless Mildcat squad in the desert, only to be punked on a nationally televised game, with ugly scenes of Bruins fighting on the field. Rick and random-interim-coach-in-Tucson are out, Mora and RichRod are in, and the Bruins and Wildcats will be playing to decide who will take the lead in the Pac-12 South (Oregon is going to smoke the Trojans tonight). All signs point to this game being a total offensive shoot-out, assuming of course, concussed Arizona QB Matt Scott can actually see the field straight. But hey, what's a kid's health when the Pac-12 South lead is at stake, right Rich?

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

• Obviously, with this game being Homecoming, the Bruins will be debuting their L.A. Nights Adidas alternate uniforms. For full coverage on the uniforms, including pictures and commentary on a totally botched roll-out by the morons at both Morgan Center and Adidas' marketing, go here.
• Turning to the game itself, noted medical professional jock at second-rate state school Matt Scott is saying he didn't suffer a concussion and that he's ready to go for tonight's game. Yeah, that's why we don't let young athletes make medical decisions like that (see Jim Mora's actions re: Greg Capella's head injury), but if Matt wants to end up like the other former football players who are now suffering because they didn't treat their head injuries seriously, he better not expect to get any sympathy.
• Hopefully tonight's game will feature someone other than worst punt returner of all time struggling Steven Manfro. Mora is taking a look at a handful of other options: first, of course, is Damien Thigpen, but Shaq Evans, Andrew Abbott, Jordan Payton, Devin Fuller, and Randall Goforth may all find themselves fielding punts tonight. Manfro, who has twice committed the kind of mistake that you learn to not commit in Pop Warner (rule 1: never field a punt in the end zone, ever), will still get action on the offense, but likely won't be on special teams this week (thankfully).
• Finally, given the likelihood that tonight will be an offensive shoot-out, the Bruins should have a new all-time leading rusher by the end of the night, with Johnathan Franklin, the future mayor of Los Angeles, on pace to pass Gaston Green for the UCLA school record for career rushing yards. Naturally, Morgan Center has done nothing to promote UCLA's soon-to-be top rusher of all time, but that's par for the course for Chianti Dan. Naturally, Jet Ski is being very humble about his soon-to-be-position, instead focusing on winning and leading UCLA to the top of the conference. Can't stop saying how much we love this kid at BN.

Alright folks, those are your Bruin Bites to get this Saturday morning of college football started. Kick-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network, and we will have our usual set of game threads up for the game. For now, this will be our morning college football open thread. Get fired up and fire away with your thoughts, comments, etc. in the open thread below.

GO BRUINS