U-C-L-A! Throw 4 picks!

Well, I was right and wrong. Right in the general prediction that UCLA's defense would keep them in a competitive game while their offense struggled, wrong as to the final score. Despite 4 of the worst interceptions in recorded football history, (in the first half!), UCLA managed to keep things close and finally win their opening game against the visiting Tennessee Volunteers.

The Vols were clearly a bigger, faster and stronger team, but football is more than just brawn. Brains (and luck) also play a big role. UCLA needed a lot of both. The Brains came from Uber-OC Norm Chow, a man who looks like he pours Bourbon on his Corn Flakes. The Luck came in several forms. UCLA had the bad luck to lose their top 3 skill position players in the first quarter of the season. Senior WR Marcus Everett, Senior TE Logan Paulson, and Senior RB Kalil Bell all left the game and may be gone for a long time. UCLA might have been done for at that point, but their aggressive and tough defense held on by their fingernails long enough for the Offense to come around.

In terms of good luck, UCLA benefited from a whisker close non-safety call in the fourth quarter. Those two points might have given the game to Tennessee if everything else played out the way it did. They also benefited from an inexplicable fumble by Vol RB Arian Foster on the 10 yard line going in. Their final break came when Kicker Dan Lincoln missed a relatively easy field goal in overtime which sealed the win for the Bruins.

Rick Neuheisel is now a Demi-God in LA, at least for another week or two, and his prophet is QB Kevin Craft. The Juco Transfer went from Ryan Leaf to Dan Marino over the course of the game. My UCLA alum buddy was ready to have him taken to the Vet and put down at halftime, but two hours later he all but anointed Craft as the Heisman front runner and second coming of Troy Aikman.

The Rose Bowl was at a disappointing 75% capacity for last nights game, but I guarantee there were 20000 extra tickets sold last night for the next home game. This win, ugly as it was, will be celebrated by UCLA as the coming of a new era of football dominance. Of course, in the past UCLA is the type of team to win a game like this and then blow a game in which they are favored and blow it badly. We'll see if things have really changed. Whatever the case I'm always happy to see an SEC team lose, especially to a Pac-10 team.

I'm convinced that if Rick Neuhesisel wasn't a coach he'd either be a southern preacher or the finest used car salesman in the tri state-area. I have a lot of dislike for Neuhesisel given his past, but clearly the guy is charming and knows how to win. If he didn't there's no way a team, even a desperate UCLA team, would have offered him a job like this.

Here's hoping the Chaminade contingent of the Bruins heals fast and this season continues to be exciting.