College Football Week 9

After seeing so much bad with UCLA football last week, it was time we remembered the good. The Bruins may have hit their low point in the Rick Neuheisel regime. On national television last Thursday, UCLA traveled to Tucson, Arizona to take on a Wildcat team that was trying to salvage anything out of a dismal year. Arizona was playing their first game after the firing of head coach Mike Stoops in front of a crowd a far cry from the packed house we witnessed just over a year ago. Not only did the Bruins lose, but a fight was started in the middle of the second half. Benches cleared, and it was a dark spot on a bad year for UCLA. The Bruins are on the brink of being another program that hasn't been relevant for many years. And if they want to re-capture the Los Angeles fan base, now is the time as USC is suffering through NCAA penalties.

I'm not sure what the executives at ABC were thinking when they placed the Illinois - Penn State game at 2:30, keeping the match-up of #11Michigan State and #14 Nebraska for the earlier ESPN time slot. Either game is good, but when two teams in the top 15 play each other, one would think it would be earmarked for the more glamorous 2:30 spot.

Its tough, but times have changed and the teams who you once cheered against, now may be teams you cheer hardest for. As a member of the Legends division, we now must cheer for Leaders Division teams when playing those of us in the Legends. The win for Michigan State Saturday night looms big moving into November.

Boise State will most likely be passed over for the BCS National Championship, but when is the time coming that they will be part of the battle for #1? They've gone on the road to play top 20 teams, and won. But their allegiance to a conference with little national attention will continue to hurt them, and will quite possibly be used as an excuse if they are passed over. With more preparation time for a bowl game than most other regular season games, Boise State would provide a great show.

College Football Week 4

We'll celebrate the UCLA victory at Texas with Nicollete, a member of the UCLA Spirit Squads.....Texas may have lost, but Oklahoma's lackluster performance at Cincinnati also took some of the shine off this week's Red River Rivalry....Many more teams are hitting conference play, including all teams in the Big Ten. The best game in the conference is Wisconsin at Michigan State. The winner can be placed among the conference top teams, the loser will be fighting for respectability....Tennessee escaped with a narrow victory over Alabama-Birmingham. The Vol's chances for wins are becomming fewer.... As important as the game between Wisconsin and Michigan State is to the conference race, that isn't the only game played at Spartan Stadium. On the photo deck video coordinators from each school are facing each other for the Video Guy Fantasy Baseball Championship.

College Football Week 12

We are re-visited by the original yound lady that started our weekly look at cheerleaders in this weekly posting. Brianna of UCLA is courtesy of Sports Illustrated. As said on the SI.com site, she is a Green Bay Packer fan. Good enough for me to highlight her a second time. It is also apporpriate to highlight her as the rivalry of the two BCS LA schools face each other at the Coliseum on Saturday. As the USC Marching Band tweeted today, "It's TROY WEEK! "High up in the hills of Westwood, sprawled offensive to the eye, lies a Cal extension campus known as Westwood High..." No other sport has the rivalries like College Football....Notre Dame lost for the fifth time in their home finale to Connecticut. It is hard to find anyone defending the Irish head coach, Charlie Weis as most have him packing up his office once he returns from Palo Alto this weekend. There are many reasons / excuses thrown out as to how difficult it is to win in South Bend, but there are many advantages to coaching in this Northern Indiana college town. Facilities are unrivaled, support is strong by administration and alumni, and national recognition is second to none. Many names are being thrown out as to Charlie's successor including Urban Meyer at Florida, Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, and Brian Kelley at Cincinnati. The one supposed knock against Notre Dame are the tough academic equirements. If this is such a concern, Notre Dame needs to expand their search beyond the aforementioned names. Meyer and Stoops have established programs have nothing to gain by making the move. Kelley is at an institution that allows him to bring in students that a Notre Dame may decline. If this is the case is Kelley the right match? The one proven coach who has dealt with tough academic guidelines and has a great name in the local recruiting area of South Bend is Pat Fitzgerald of Northwestern. This young coach has done an outstanding coaching job with lesser talent playing similar teams facing Notre Dame. While it would take much to lure Fitzgerald from his alma mater, it will be tough for him to do much more in the Big Ten Conference....Michigan. Wether or not the fans in Ann Arbor want a change, there will be no such change coming. A fan or not of Rich Rodriguez he does deserve at least one more year to get the program back into the top ten that the Wolverine fans are accustomed to. It will also be hard to lure a good coach to Michigan with their Athletic Director on the clock before retiring September 4, 2010. If a change at the top of the football program is to come, a new AD must be hired first. The Wolverines aren't prepared to do that. Michigan fans should be patient as well. Those who wanted Les Miles of LSU in 2007 will have one more year to evaluate him as the Tigers head coach. Miles, who won the National Championship in his third year with the school has had troubles acheiving such level since. While his teams have been very good in a tough SEC, they haven't reached the SEC title game.

College Football Week 3

This week we'll step aside from highlighting the conference by using its logo. Instead, Brianna of the UCLA Dance Team will be our representative to distinguish that not all is UGLY from the schools on the west coast. Let's take a look at how bad the Big One, Little Nine is this week.

Beside the beating Ohio State took at the hands of perhaps the best team in the nation, USC, the Pac 10 has nothing else to be proud of after Saturday. Let's begin in the great Northwest. A week after a controversial loss to BYU, the Washington Huskies were one dog who played dead on national tv against Oklahoma. OU may be one of the top three teams in the country, but the Huskies were embarrassed. Their in-state neighbor Washington State lost 45-10 at Big 12 doormat Baylor. Cal traveled east to Maryland and lost to a team which fell a week earlier to Middle Tennessee State.

Then there were the numerous showdowns with the members of the Mountain West Conference. Arizona lost to New Mexico, Stanford lost at TCU, UNLV upset ranked Arizona State in Tempe and UCLA was blown out at BYU 59-0.

The positives of the week outside of the L.A. Colisseum? Kudos to the state of Oregon. The Ducks rallied from behind to beat Purdue in two overtimes and Oregon State took care of Hawaii in Corvallis.

USC will not be tripped up by a fellow conference school in 2008.