Kai Maiava, Randall Carroll, Aramide Olaniyan tweeted Sunday night about their displeasure over not receiving checks UCLA withheld for missing mandatory (this is up for debate) workouts and not turning in academic exit forms in time. Many players – even those that didn’t tweet about not receiving checks – said these workouts during finals week for bowl prep have always been voluntary.
Players tweeted about how they would be hungry because they didn’t have money, but a few hours later the issue was resolved.
“The last thing we want to do is to have anybody starve,” Mike Johnson said.
Coincidentally, UCLA is playing in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.
Jeff Locke took to twitter to defend UCLA and said after practice Monday: “The way it was treated by some of the players in the media made us look bad. I don’t think they should’ve made the school look bad at all. The way it was put out by some players made it look a lot worse than it really was. I think it was handled fine. We might have messed up for a second, but in the end it’s all fine.”

Here is UCLA’s statement from Nick Ammazzalorso, director of athletic communications, regarding the checks that were withheld from some players:

“All of our players were advised that they would need to complete three of five workouts and submit academic exit forms prior to Sunday’s practice in order to receive their bowl checks. Those who did not complete their assignment had their checks withheld. The coaching staff changed its mind when they realized that withholding the money would cause the players some financial hardship.”

Hope you’re feeling the holiday spirit and want to help Kiffin for a good cause…. this is a great time for USC and UCLA to come together to help children. Forget the rivalry for just a minute and help provide some Christmas cheer to kids who are less fortunate!

from USC… Kiffin is hosting the Kiff’s Kids toy drive to benefit children from the local community on Saturday at the USC-UCLA football game. Fans are encouraged to bring a toy or unwrapped gift to collection boxes set up around the Coliseum.
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It’s USC-UCLA rivalry week, so it’s a good time to revisit Rick Neuheisel’s the-monopoly-is-over-ad and the gap-is-closing with USC.
This is what Neuheisal said on Monday.
“We have closed the gap,” Neuheisel said. “We have a chance to win the championship. The gap has closed. I don’t know it’s all the way done. We’ll talk after the ball game.”

* Richard Brehaut is listed at 50-50 this week on the injury report.
Asked what the plan is for the quarterbacks if Brehaut can play, Rick Neuheisel said: “ “Well, we’ll determine that plan when and if he’s ready to play, and that will be an ongoing thing. It’s a nice thing to have two quarterbacks that are capable of helping us win.”

* Dietrich Riley (neck) is out.

* UCLA coach Neuheisel said Norm Chow called him earlier this year to thank him for a concept he used at #Utah in BYU game. Friends or foes?

“I don’t know exactly what’s been said about Norm and I,” Neuheisel said. “We both feel we know the quarterback position. We’ve had lots of great conversations. I’ve enjoyed that banter. I learned from him. Whether he learned from me, you’d have to ask him.”

More to come.

UCLA’s basketball team willl have its Thursday and Friday practices at the Sports Arena, where the Bruins will play most of their games this season while Pauley Pavilion is rennovated.
UCLA first opens the season Nov. 11 against LMU at the Sports Arena.

Rick Neuheisel said Jerry Rice Jr., Jerry Johnson have an opportunity to see time at reciever this Saturday. Jordan James should see time outside Saturday against Cal.

“(Rice) has been chomping at the bit to play,” Neuheisel said. “We’ve got other ways we can play 11-man football. We’ll use all of them.”

Neuheisel said he wasn’t sure if QB Brett Hundley would play against the Bears, but he said he wasn’t 100 percent ready to play at Arizona. That doesn’t preclude that he couldn’t be ready for Cal this weekend.

De’End Parker and Anthony Stover both suffered concussions during UCLA’s hoops practices in the last week. Parker sustained his concussion on Saturday. He ran into the elbow of David Wear while he was driving the lane.
Stover suffered his concussion during a drill in practice last Monday, one week ago. He is expected to return to practice on Wednesday.

The first installment of BCS standings is out, and the Pac-12 has two teams in the top 10, although Stanford is just No. 8, followed by No. 10 Oregon.
Here are the standings.

Sunday is (like) Tuesday this week since UCLA is playing at Arizona on Thursday night.
*Shaq Evans was wearing a red jersey, but he was back in practice and caught a long TD pass from Kevin Prince, streaking down the sideline, in the end-of-practice scrimmage.
*Evans, Sheldon Price and Nelson Rosario are all expected to be ready to play Thursday. Tony Dye still is not practicing.
*Even though Arizona is 1-5 and it fired its coach, UCLA is preparing for a lively atmosphere as it pumped crowd noise into practice. Nationally-televised games will do that.
*kicker Tyler Gonzalez made his 27-yard field goal to conclude practice. Then he was heading over to Drake Stadium for UCLA’s soccer game. He managed the team about a month ago.
*Brett Hundley said his progress has ”shot through the roof” over the last four practices now that he’s getting second-string reps with Brehaut’s injury.