Bruin Bites: Football Recruiting Losses, UCLA's Football 2013 Odds

While Monday morning means it's the beginning of another work week, it does mean we are only about one week away from fall football camp getting started in San Bernardino, which marks the long-anticipated return of college football, after a short sports hiatus for UCLA fans (thanks to John Savage's championship baseball team's deep summer run to clinch Westwood's 109th NCAA title). So, let's take a look at the various bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:

• Starting with football, the king of college sports, things have not been going well for UCLA on the recruiting trail lately. The beginning of this bad recruiting weekend actually began on Thursday, with 4-star OL Jermaine Eluemunor (Lackawanna Community College) decommitting from UCLA and instead committing to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Tough blow for Klemm and Mora, who will need as many big bodies on the offensive line, especially with a loss of depth this off-season (Kody Innes' early graduation, Lacy Westbrook's likely medical retirement, etc.).
• The following day, the Bruins continued to come up short, with TE target Trevor Wood of Scottsdale, committing to the Arizona Wildcats over our Bruins (as well as Oklahoma, Michigan, and Oregon).
• But the biggest blow over the weekend for Mora on the recruiting front came yesterday, with former UCLA lean OL Demetrius Knox opting to pass over the Bruins, despite declaring them the leaders for his services in June, instead committing to his home state Ohio State Buckeyes. With the loss of both Elemunor and Knox, Klemm will have his work cut out for him to round out this offensive line class. Something to keep an eye on.
• Turning away from recruiting, if you're looking to pick up some cash on the backs of our football team, you can find your early college betting lines already, which seems to show that Vegas isn't buying on Mora and the UCLA hype following last year's 9-5 season (perhaps that three game slide, culminating in a Baylor beat-down has something to do with that).

Alright folks, those are your various bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse as we launch into the final work week before the beginning of fall football camp next week. Fire away with your comments, thoughts, additions, etc. as we enter the homestretch before fall camp.

GO BRUINS