Leftovers
Rick Neuheisel on Tennessee's coaches talking smack:
"Those guys are good coaches. They've got their way to motivate their team. We're just going to show up."
Norm Chow on the decisio to play Richard Brehaut:
"It's hard; he needs reps and he's a good player. He deserves the reps. But four guys are trying to get there, we have to make sure they're all ready. We just have to manufacture reps for him."
Richard Brehaut on the decision not to redshirt him:
"Coming in early in spring really helped so much. It's not that I don't need a redshirt year to have the playbook down, but right now I think I have it down pretty solid. For the most part, it's not about going out and executing. Coming in early was kind of like my redshirt."
Carnell Lake on meeting with Courtney Viney before practice:
"I called him into my office and had a talk with him, 'This is your opportunity, this is your opportunity to shine. Take advantage of it. Don't be afraid of it. Embrace it. Keep working and if things go against you, just throw it in the trash can and play the next play.'
"Everybody, including myself, has to go through that."
Did you get anything with Thigpen?
btw Jon, you are doing a terrific job. Really appreciate it?
It seems to be that everyone is giving tennessee the edge. There is no doubt that they have a home-field advantage, but to say that last year was a mistake is a poor assumption. Most vol fans say that they lost because the coaching staff stopped running the ball despite the success they had. This is often said in conjunction with them going into a softer coverage scheme as the game wore on. What bothers me is that no one looks at what happened to ucla in the preseason. We lost two starting o-lineman, one o-lineman broke his hand (and later played with a full hand cast), and our starting runningback was dinged up after having off-season knee surgery. Oh and did I mention that our starting two quarterbacks went down with season-ending injuries during the summer? And their replacement was a jc transfer? Why yes he was… and he threw four first-half picks. During the first quarter game we also lost a starting senior wide receiver and starting senior tight end; not to mention that we lost our already weakened starting running back to an ankle injury in that very same quarter. By the way ucla won 27 to 24.
I believe it is a little premature to discount the bruins from being competetive in this game.
p.s. we had first year head coach and offensive coordinator
ryan, how do u remember all that??? i cant even remember last week... that was a great summary, dude, right on.
Ryan, when you put it like that... how the hell did UCLA pull out that win? As much as we like to blame Kevin Craft for those intereceptions in the first half, I think he also deserves a great deal of credit for the way he played in the second.
Jon,
Jill Painter's story today was condescending nonsense. Almost as good as her hypothetical Brett Farve post last year.
Does the Daily News think it will sell more papers by publishing opinion pieces about how much a sports writer thinks UCLA football is irrelevant? Is that Simers schtick?
That's some business model. What did you think of her opinion piece?
What a joke!!! Nice hack job on Bruin football Jill..
Jon, I enjoyed your articles on Viney, Brehaut and the upcoming Tennessee game.
Thanks much!
SB
have you ever seen a bigger collection of homers?
http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2009/sep/09/kiffin-now-faces-his-mentor/?partner=popular
A big collection of homers, yes. But that collection of homers means they sell out every game, everyone wears the team colors to the game, and every fan stays until the end. Yeah, I know the argument that LA has so much to offer and it's not all about college football every Saturday, but that atmosphere down there is certainly something.
can you please update more frequently during/throughout the day?