A feeling my friends who went to San Diego State...

...will never understand:

When I was 7, my aunt Patty, a UCLA alum, took me to my first UCLA Football and Basketball games. My belief is that I was the fill-in for her son, who was a UCLA student at the time, but was attending games with his friends. She needed someone to go to the games with...I liked sports (hell, she started me on hockey, too). This became a regular thing. The '86 Freedom Bowl. Arizona road trips. SC @ the Sports Arena. Learning about John Wooden. Hearing about how bad Hazzard was as a Head Coach. Listening to game broadcasts on the radio. Basically, I was hanging around someone on a pretty regular basis that was a big UCLA supporter.

Then the dream comes true...

Howdy, Y'all...

I'm in San Antonio for the Final 4...looking for some more Bruin magic:



I'll resume blogging next week...

Whew...

Huge sigh of relief:




Props to the Texas A&M Aggies...they played with a ton of heart. After the game, Kevin Love went over to the Aggie bench to console some of their players...they certainly earned the respect of every Bruin at the Honda Center today.



"Great seats, hey buddy?":

I'm tired after a long day of waaay too exciting basketball. I might elaborate more tomorrow on the six oafs they assigned to referee today's tournament games in Anaheim...especially the dingleberry who thought the 18,000 or so fans had come to watch the Curtis Shaw show.

Another Bruin Miracle

This is where I was yesterday. An incredible ending:



Cal fans, don't whine about Anderson not getting the foul call in the corner. If you go here and have Quicktime, you can see an excellent slow motion replay (in HD) that confirms that Anderson was not fouled.

The shot over the backboard? Yeah, probably illegal...but how can a referee make that call in that situation in real time?

(Thanks to Bruinsnation for the links)

Bam!

Via Bruinsnation, UCLA guard Russell Westbrook drops a bomb on the Cal Bears:

Bruins lose, Bruins win (Updated w. Morning After reaction)

Yes, UCLA lost to the crosstown asshats from USC today. But here's the good news. This clown will be fired on Monday morning:


Reasons? The O.C. Register's Jeff Miller has a few:

Dark, chilly and damp. The environment early Saturday evening and the mood wrapped around it.

If this was it, well, this better be it for Karl Dorrell as coach of UCLA's football team.

After five years, he doesn't deserve the job any longer. The program hasn't improved under him, doesn't display any mental or physical consistency and isn't clearly heading in the proper direction.

In falling to USC, 24-7, the Bruins came out again like a group not ready (two fumbles in the first seven minutes), were forced to take silly timeouts and executed their offense like they'd never attempted any of the plays before.

Karl Dorrell looks for someone to blame...

Early in the fourth quarter, Dorrell opted to take a penalty and give USC third-and-goal at the UCLA 12 as opposed to fourth-and-goal at the 2.

John David Booty promptly passed to Fred Davis, who shook off (Christian)Taylor for a touchdown, effectively ending the game.

Afterward, Mr. Nice Guy wasn't afraid to publicly blame Taylor, noting in particular that it sure wasn't the coaches' fault.

"We had a great call on," Dorrell said. "We were in the right place. Christian Taylor didn't make the play."

That's just great, Karl. Make a boneheaded coaching decision (one that had me screaming at my TV as he was making it), then throw one of your kids under a bus. That's a leadership quality I want in my head coach...

There are many, many more reasons Karl Dorrell should not return as UCLA's football coach. Too many for me to list here. Bill Plaschke of the LA Times has a few more here. Bruins Nation and DumpDorrell have compiled the best arguments.

Of course in Los Angeles, you can always count on TJ Simers to play the part of the town fool:

The next guy always looks better, but is there a coach in America who could have fared better than 6-6 with the number of injuries that bedeviled UCLA this season?

Well...YEAH. Just about anyone else. In fact, UCLA might have been better off if we'd hired this guy to teach the fundamentals of football to our kids...at least he knows how to hang on to the football:

The Karl Dorrell era ends (Updated)

Or at least it freakin' better after tonight.

For every big game victory Dorrell pulled out of his ass, there are embarrassing losses...like tonight's.

UCLA's Terrence Austin exhibits his "hands of stone" on this dropped TD pass

Dropped passes, stupid penalties, lack of focus or intensity...and then finally, the team quits.

Oh...the agony of watching UCLA football...

Washington State was 2-5 going into tonight's game. They had not won a single Pac 10 game. We got our asses thoroughly kicked by Washington FREAKIN' State!

How does Karl Dorrell get his team SO prepared to play these important games?


Courtesy of Bruins' Nation:

Click to make bigger

(Update) Bill Dwyre of the LA Times had this to add:

UCLA ought to be able to drive a van around the campus on a Friday afternoon, pick up 35 students who look fairly healthy and come up here and beat the Cougars. Which is a harder sell to a prospective player, the bright lights of Los Angeles or the vast nothingness that surrounds Pullman?

Yes, the Cougars played hard and played well. And yes, this is like going to the moon to play a game -- did those loud and inebriated fans in their deer-hunting clothes really come to watch a football game? Or when they chanted at the end of the game to the Bruins: "We own you! We own you!", did they mean the entire team or just their hides?

Owned. By Washington Freakin' State. Thanks to Karl Dorrell, my Bruins are now a football joke...

They have become the Never-Beat-A-Team-You-Are-Supposed-To Gang. Their leader is the We-Just-Have-To-Do-Better-Next-Time Coach. Their fans?

They are the people you see, often late on a Saturday night, off in a corner somewhere, shaking their heads and talking to themselves.

"Roll Over You Bears!"

One week ago, Cal was playing for the #1 spot in the BCS. They choked away that opportunity. Still, if Cal could run the table, they could still get to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1959.


But first they would have to get past my Bruins. BWAHAHHAAHAHA!:




Hey Bears! You just lost to a team coached by this guy:


That clueless look is not contrived. That is pretty much how our coach looks whenever he has a tough decision to make.

Anyway, great win for the Bruins. Now is the time in the blog when we dance:

UCLA extends Howland

Athletic Director Dan Guerrero makes one good move on the Bruin coaching front this week:

UCLA basketball Coach Ben Howland, who has led the Bruins to consecutive Final Four appearances, agreed to a seven-year contract that will carry through the 2013-14 season.

His base salary this year will be $1.5 million and rise to $2 million over the course of the deal, according to a statement from UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero. He could make another $235,000 annually in incentives.

Howland, 50, has said repeatedly since arriving at UCLA from Pittsburgh that there is no other place he'd rather coach. "This has always been my dream job," he said.

Under Howland, UCLA has won consecutive Pacific 10 Conference championships, and this year's team is ranked No. 1 in several preseason publications.

I'm very lucky," he said. "I've got my dream job. I've got the best job in the country. We're paid very, very well and I know how lucky and blessed I am."

"How many people out there wake up every day and say they love what they do and have the passion for and real love of their job?" Howland said. "I get to work with the best and the brightest at UCLA."

And Bruins basketball fans are blessed with a coach who always gets the most out of his players (unlike another prominent UCLA coach)...players who give amazing efforts like this:

More react from Bruins Nation.

Bounceback

OK...I am writing this in the passenger seat of a BMW leaving the Rose Bowl at 85mph down the 605 freeway.

For reals.

Anyway, my Bruins rebounded off their worst loss in 5 years with a 44-31 beatdown of Washington (despite being down to our 3rd-string quarterback).

I'm so happy, I feel like ringing a bell:

Two coaches that should be fired...NOW.

I did not see the UCLA meltdown against Utah today...I was at a funeral. I think I had a better time at the funeral than I would have watching the game today.

A terrified wuss of a QB Ben Olson runs away from Utes intent on scalping him

The Karl Dorrell era at UCLA has been a complete trainwreck. Today's loss should (but won't) signal the end of Dorrell's tenure at UCLA. Unfortunately, our Athletic Director, Dan Guerrero, has his head up his ass.

Since I did not see the game, I'll let Nestor at Bruins Nation sum up the feelings of us Bruin alums:

Now it has happened. We have officially experienced the nuclear moment of Karl Dorrell's worthless tenure at UCLA.

How many more Saturdays do I have to feel sick in my stomach every time I watch a UCLA football game?

How many more Saturdays do I have to watch our opponent's football team look like the one that is always more inspired, fired up, and focused when taking on my alma mater's program?

Just how many more Saturdays we are going to have to put up with a total CLOWN making a mockery out of our beloved football program?

How many more Saturdays will Dan Guerrerro allow this worthless CLOWN to sully the proud tradition of our alma mater's football program as the laughing stock of college football?

If Dorrell has any sense of dignity and self respect left he would resign and let this charade end this week.

Last season's miracle against USC notwithstanding, Karl Dorrell has taken a program that used to at least compete every season for the Pac 10 title, and turned it into a joke. But we can take solace in one thing. At least we aren't Notre Dame:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The first guy off the field was Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis. Michigan had just blasted his team 38-0, and already he was trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and this game. So while his players were back at midfield in a stupefied huddle, their coach bolted toward the Michigan Stadium exit.

As the Irish sulked at midfield, Michigan's players caught up to Weis and left the field with him. Surrounded by Wolverines, Weis disappeared into the tunnel and didn't stop until he reached the door to his locker room -- where he stayed until every Notre Dame player and every Notre Dame assistant coach finally walked past. Weis stared at each of them, searching for something that wasn't going to show up in the post-game stat book.

Notre Dame QB Jimmy Claussen tries really hard to recover another fumble

"I was looking into their eyes to see if anyone had thrown in the towel," he said.

Weis says he saw no sign of surrender, which almost makes what happened Saturday seem worse. Does that mean Notre Dame lost 38-0 to a bad Michigan team ... and Notre Dame was trying?

Charley Weis should be the one "throwing in the towel." A couple of promising seasons using Tyrone Willingham's players got Weis a 10-year contract that Irish alums are no doubt regretting. Willingham built Notre Dame's program back to the verge of glory...it has taken Weis 3 years to tear it back down.

Notre Dame coach Charley Weis explains to quarterback Jimmy Claussen that "it is OK to get your ass kicked each week...as long as you try really hard."

On October 6th, Notre Dame travels to Pasadena to play UCLA. Instead of a battle between two traditional powers, the matchup is shaping up to be a sissy fight.

UCLA students strike down Mormon uprising

The battle was bloody, but fortunately nobody was killed:

UCLA 27 BYU 17.

A narrow escape.

BTW, I am so glad we didn't lose to BYU... for a number of reasons. First of all, their fans are annoying as hell. You can't even tease them when you beat them...they're too damn nice. Try to run smak at a BYU fan after you beat them, they just smile at you and say "Your team played a really good game, they deserved to win." AARRGGHH! Would you people just whine about the referees or about how lucky we were just like a Trojan fan would? My gosh, you just take all the fun out of beating you.

Then there is their mascot. I'm sorry, but is there a "gayer" mascot in college football?:

Well...yeah actually there is. This "guy" wears a skirt:




And hey...how about that epic matchup next week between Notre Dame (0-2) and Michigan (0-2)? Is Lloyd Carr fired yet? And nice move by Notre Dame...firing a good coach in Ty Willingham and hiring Charlie the Tuna, then signing him to a 10-year contract. Of course Charlie won early with all of Willingham's recruits. Now Notre Dame sucks, and look who opened the season 2-0.

We're #1!

SI.com just posted their list of the top 10 collegiate sports venues. Guess which venue was #1?

Ta da!

I feel blessed to be able to spend 5-7 Saturdays a year here. I felt especially blessed to be at the Rose Bowl for this:

Thank you SI.com for giving me a reason to post that. I will never, EVER get sick of watching those highlights.