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Woo-hoo! It's Gameday! Pre-Game Open Thread

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I woke up hella early this morning. I think part of it was the anticipation of the start of the season.

By Joe Piechowski
Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

It's finally here. August 30th. Virginia in Charlottesville. The beginning of the most highly anticipated season for UCLA football since at least 1998, if not longer, is here.

Maybe you've made the trip to C'ville and are tailgating right now. If so, I'm jealous. Maybe you're here on the West Coast and just getting out of bed. It doesn't matter where you are. Wherever you are, football season has arrived.

Throw your favorite UCLA band CD into the CD player and turn it up! Now, sing with me:

We are the mighty Bruins!
The best team in the West!
We're marching on to victory to conquer all the rest!

We are the mighty Bruins!
Triumphant, ever more!
And, you can hear from far and near
The mighty Bruins ROAR!

After all, it's game day!

To really get you going, Chris Foster has a few articles. One discusses the expectations everyone has for this year's team. To start the article, he quotes Jordan Payton who says that when someone on campus asks him about the team winning a national title, he says he "keeps his headphones on and keeps walking."

My favorite quote from the article though is from Sam Boghosian. Who? Sam was a lineman on the 1954 National Championship team. Sam says, "You've got to go with the Bruins. They have me interested." They have us all interested, Sam!

In another article, Foster looks at the UCLA-Virginia matchup. According to Foster, the big matchup of the day seems to be the Bruin receivers and the Cavalier secondary, which is one of their strengths. The big weapon offensively for UVA is RB Keith Parks who rushed for over 1,000 yards last season. I'm looking for our defensive front to focus on him.

Foster concludes the article with an interesting tidbit. UCLA has only played 7 games in the Eastern time zone in the last 40 years and is 2-5 in those games. There's no doubt travelling cross-country to play a football game can be hard, but I expect that, after today, we will be 3-5 in 8 games.

To whet your appetite even more, here's a pic posted to Twitter by Chris Foster of the LA Times. It shows Coach Mora running steps in Scott Stadium.

This is your pre-game open thread.

GO BRUINS!

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