Norm Chow, do you believe in curses?

“I believe in football gods…” Chow says, shaking his head and exhaling, his mind running through every recent UCLA quarterback folly, whether injury or inefficiency. “Man, I don’t know.”

With the news dropping last Saturday that sophomore Kevin Prince would miss the rest of the season after knee surgery – both microfracture surgery to rebuild cartilage and the repair of a torn meniscus – the Bruins are once again facing a scary future.

Sophomore quarterback Richard Brehaut, who started in UCLA’s 42-28 win over Washington State and 60-13 loss to Oregon in Week 7 with Prince banged up, once again takes the helm, this time against the conference’s top defense in No. 15 Arizona, at 12:30 p.m today at the Rose Bowl.
Continue reading “A Scary Situation” »

From UCLA:

West Palm Beach, FL. October 29, 2010– The Palm Beach County Sports Commission has released its 20 semi-finalists for the 2010 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award presented by the Discover Orange Bowl. These twenty place-kickers have all excelled throughout the season in earning their places as semifinalists.

While this year’s list of semi-finalists includes seven kickers who earned the honor last season, including 2009 Lou Groza Award winner Kai Forbath of UCLA and finalist Blair Walsh of Georgia, perhaps the most impressive showing is by a newcomer. Oklahoma State senior Dan Bailey is perfect on all 56 of his attempts this season.

At this writing, Bailey’s 15 field goals place him just behind fellow semi-finalists Danny Hrapmann of Southern Miss and Aaron Jones of Baylor, each with 16. Bailey is also 41-of-41 on extra points this season. The only kicker with more successful PATs is repeat semi-finalist Joe Phillips of Utah. The senior has connected on 43 of his 44 attempts, while going 9-for-9 on field goals.

In addition to Forbath, Phillips and Walsh, those earning semi-finalist honors for the second consecutive season are Fresno State junior Kevin Goessling, Nebraska senior Alex Henery, Missouri junior Grant Ressel, and Duke junior Will Snyderwine.

Semi-finalists will be voted on by all Division 1 Head Coaches and SIDs, along with national, regional and local football writers and others who will select the three (3) finalists. These finalists will be honored at the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Awards Banquet on December 7 in West Palm Beach, FL. The winner will be announced live on the nationally televised Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards Show on the evening of December 9, 2010.

The award is named in honor of one of the all-time great kickers in football history, Lou Groza. Groza played 21 seasons for the Cleveland Browns setting numerous franchise records, including most games played, most points scored, and an amazing 107 consecutive games in which he scored a point. The 1,608 career points he scored is still a Browns’ franchise record, and he ranks third all-time in league. Groza was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974.

Past Groza finalists include current NFL kickers, Nate Kaeding, Sebastian Janikowski, Mike Nugent, Jason Elam, Mason Crosby and Graham Gano.