Chow gets two-year extension

A UCLA spokesman confirmed the two-year extension for UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow, which will take him through the end of 2012. There is no comment on the financial specifics until the final deal is signed.

This is very important for UCLA; they finally seem to be gaining some stability, which plagued the team during the mid-2000s. Ben Olson had a different offensive coordinator for each of his years at UCLA. Kevin Prince and Chow have a very good relationship, and I think Prince is earning the full trust from his offensive coordinator.

Chow has said that he wants and expects this to be his last job, so he just might be riding off into the sunset besides Prince.

Quotables: Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh and Owen Marecic

Harbaugh’s opening statement: “Wish we were out on the practice field right now. we’re read to get started. A lot of people who espouse to Catholicism and Christianity as January 1 as the new year, but for football players like Owen and me, that’s August 9, when we get back on the football field.”

Harbaugh on sustaining success: “We’re not sustaining a gosh darn thing. We despise the word sustaning. We despise the word satisfaction.”

Harbaugh on losing Toby Gerhart: “He graduated, we didn’t lose him. He’s playing with the Minnesota Vikings now, and we have to replace him. We have seven guys, and the exciting thing is we’ll throw the ball out there August 9 and let them compete for it. It might not be one guy, might be two, might be three.”

Harbaugh on Owen Marecic: “We’ve done it with some other players, where there a starter on one side and play X amount on the other side. But you don’t see anybody what we’re doing this year, starting on both sides of the ball. I don’t know if teams have a guy like Owen Marecic. This youngster is an amazing football player, the perfectly engineered football player.”

Harbaugh on the running game: “I don’t think it’s going to look drastically different. I don’t have a preference to whether its one, two or three.”

Harbaugh on Andrew Luck: “You look at Andrew, and he’s so good, and you wonder what makes a youngster that good. I know a lot of that has to do with Mom, Dad, God. Also, the fact that he works so hard at it. One of the hardest workers on our team, no question about it. There’s no weaknesses in his game. He’s as accurate as any quarterback I’ve ever seen. He can get out of the way of people. He rushed for over 400 yards. He can throw it 70 yards taking one step. He’s a brilliant kid, not only booksmarts, but football instincts. He’s just the entire package. We’re glad he’s on our team.”

Stanford FB/LB Owen Marecic on practicing time: “I did go both ways in high school as a fullback and linebacker. At practice, the offense is going to scrimmage against the scout team. There’s time. I can switch over to the other side. There’s plenty of time within a practice. I just may not have as much time to get water or hang out on a sideline.”

Marecic on sustaining success: “It’s kind of like working in the weight room, and you set a big squat max, and you’re pumped up. But maybe that was last year. Last year we had some success. It wasn’t where we want to be. We have a lot bigger dreams than that. We set that PR in our program, but we know we have to work even harder to raise the bar another level.”