Neuheisel ON:
On what is important besides a win in the EagleBank Bowl:
"The other important thing that needs to happen is we need to make sure this is fun. There's a fine line in post-season play where it needs to be considered a reward. You have to make sure there's some reward and fun that goes along with this so that guys look at this as a great deal."
On what the veterans have said to the young players who haven't experienced a bowl and what a win would mean:
"We're not there yet. We haven't talked about that. If it can become a reality, then we'll get into that. I'm committed to making this a great experience for everyone involved. But it's important to win this game, and do everything to win this game and get a winning record."
On what this game would mean for UCLA:
"Playing in one is just another experience that will lend itself toward getting past future barriers. If you can get yourself a winning record, have a bowl win, these are big things. You look at Arizona. Getting to a bowl last year for the first time in Stoops' tenure there, then winning it, is a springboard into this year. Now they've got themselves into the Holiday Bowl. We certainly want to do the same."
On the status of Jake Dean, Jeff Miller, Garrett Rubio and Brandon Bennett going into the possible bowl game:
"They are still big-time members of our team. I'm assuming they'd all still like to be. I don't have any reason to think otherwise."
Tell the young'ns that t's just the EagleBank and it will only get the same number of viewers as the average regular season game.
"There still big-time members of our team." I'm sure CRN wouldn't want that quote attributed to him.
Anon at 1:46...committed doesn't equal admitted. My guess is that he is retaking the SAT if those scores are correct and his admittance is based upon the outcome.
"committed doesn't equal admitted"
Has Neuheisel ever pulled an commitment due to not making grades on a retake?
There is a sliding scale but I'm not sure what his improvement needs to be. If he got his GPA above 3 and SAT up a bit, who knows? I believe Kemonte Bateman originally committed to UCLA and didn't make it in, and I believe there have been a couple of instances in the last year or two (help me out here, people - were they JC transfer-wannabees?) who were going to commit but didn't get the grades needed and lots of suspicions of those who wanted to commit but couldn't get the grades. There also can be special admits, where there may be extenuating circumstances during high school (Brian Price is a great example and, by the way, it's nice to know that he hasn't had any academic issues while at UCLA).
Willie Mobley. Committed. Then checked academic status. Then uncommitted. Then committed to Arizona. I can't think of a clearer example than that!
Anon at 2:59pm - the guy would be cum laude at USC or ASU. Kidding aside, he would NOT have to retake any tests with that resume.
Anon at 4:19pm - have a link? Would be an interesting read.
Deshaun Jackson and Rudy Carpenter were both all-pac10 that wanted to play for UCLA but couldn't or didn't want to get better scores academically. The problem is real.