BRUINS SEEK CONSISTENCY

What up Bruins fans, this is Vinny Bonsignore. I’m filling in for Jon today and we just got finished with Coach Neuheisel, who made it very, very clear the Bruins can no longer accept anything less than the type of effort they delivered against Cal Saturday. Here is a short recap:

One of the stats that rankles UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel more than others is the Bruins 0-3 record this year following wins.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out in order for the Bruins to get on roll, they have to string wins together, but that will never happen if they can’t take the effort, resolve and focus from a winning performance into the following week.

That is the objective this week when UCLA hosts Arizona State at the Rose Bowl Saturday after beating Cal 31-14 Saturday.

“It’s going to take a week of focus and resolve,” Neuheisel said at his weekly media conference Monday. “That’s what it took last week.”

The trick, of course, is maintaining that same mindset.

“We can’t go back,” Neuheisel said.

He’s counting on the Bruins now understanding the level they can elevate their game to and classifying anything less as unacceptable.

Granted, UCLA beat Cal after a bitter, embarrassing loss the previous week at Arizona in front of a national television audience. There was no shortage of anger and motivation to rebound against Cal, and the Bruins played as such.

But to deviate from that would be extremely upsetting, according to Neuheisel.

“It’s exactly what I said to the team, there’s good news and better news,” Neuheisel said. “The good news is we responded. The better news is we now know what we are capable of. And to accept anything less than that would be absolutely ridiculous on every one of our parts. Coach and player alike have to bring it like we did last week.”

(by the way, Nelson Rosario and Dietrich Riley both expect to be goes for Saturday’s game.