Part of the fun of college football is looking ahead to next season.
Well UCLA fans, perhaps it’s time to avert your eyes.
Despite all the positive inertia developed in Rick Neuheisel: Year 2 – a 7-6 record including an EagleBank Bowl win after the 4-8 mockery that was last season – the Bruins are lined up for a difficult 2010.
Of UCLA’s 11 All-Pac-10 selections, just five return, including only three who were named to the first or second teams – sophomore safety Rahim Moore, junior kicker Kai Forbath and freshman punter Jeff Locke.
Goodbye, Reggie Carter and Alterraun Verner. So long, Brian Price and Korey Bosworth. Sayonara, Terrence Austin and Xavier Su’a-Filo.
“It’s going to be a definite challenge to get all those guys replaced and to play the same kind of consistent defense and even try to improve,” UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel said. “That’s going to be a tall order. We’ll have to do a great job in the offseason of not only evaluating our talent but our scheme.”