Cal wrote:

QUOTE:
Very up and down. AZ fans hoped coach Mike Stoops could have a BCS caliber team in a couple years like his big brother at OU, but it is not to be. Watch them somehow beat USC - well, maybe not.

Mike Stoops is a pretty bad coach overall. Good recruiter, bad coach, which translates in mediocre seasons with enough "silver lining" wins to keep him from getting fired. They should probably land a minor bowl bid this season.

This is the worst the Pac-10 has looked in the past quarter century, no one looked good so far beyond USC. On the bright side for my Golden Bears, second place is for the taking, and a backdoor Rose Bowl spot will be available to whoever finishes 2nd and manages to be BCS bowl-eligible (top 14 finish), provided USC goes on to the BCS national championship game. So if we finish 10-2, we're probably in the Rose Bowl.

Arizona is the only team in either the BigTen or Pac-10 to never play in the Rose Bowl. Never.

Arizona thumped UCLA three years back, when we had a perfect record and were looking ahead to the USC game. Then simply collapsed against USC, then beat Northwestern in a crazy game in some bowl game played in El Paso.

Arizona also beat UCLA this past weekend. Most realistic fans were hoping for a 1-2 start, except we were expecting to beat Arizona, having lost to Tenn and BYU. The win over TN was great, I just think a lot of fans were getting their hopes up. At least UCLA weren't as bad as they were against BYU, and they actually managed to average over a yard per rush. We were dead last in the country in rushing going into the game on Saturday--don't know if we're better than 119th now or not.

Fuck it, go USC. I already have one albatross to cheer for with Rutgers. I thought UCLA was going to put me in Gucci and Liz Claiborne, but they some chili chumps.

I don't care if it means the Bears won't go to Pasadena, but I simply cannot support USC against anyone.

Even Stanford.

Way to jinx the trojans, JV! They are now tied for 6th place in the conference at 0-1.

3 1/2 weeks into the season and there are no more undefeateds in the Pac 10.

Someone in UCLA's athletics marketing department is likely getting a reaming. Because whoever that someone is decided to put ads in the Fresno area asking for more Fresno State fans to travel down to the game against UCLA, and even wanted to put a picture of Fresno State's QB in a newspaper ad.

QUOTE:
UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said Thursday he would become more active in the school's marketing of the football program after backlash from the latest approach.

The school ran newspaper and radio ads in the San Joaquin Valley to entice Fresno State fans to come to the Rose Bowl for Saturday's game against the Bruins.

The radio ad, in part, said: "Bulldog fans. Don't miss your chance to see history. The Bulldogs are ranked in the top 25 and heading south this weekend looking for their first-ever win at the Rose Bowl against the Bruins of UCLA. ... We'll see you and the 'Dogs at the Rose Bowl."

Guerrero said it was his understanding "everything was pulled" in relation to the marketing campaign in the central valley, but damage was already done.

Not only was there a quarter-page ad in the Fresno Bee, in which UCLA originally planned to use a photo of Bulldogs quarterback Tom Brandstater, which Fresno State asked UCLA to change, but radio sports were also purchased.

"I can assure you, from my prospective as we move forward, you'll see a different approach to our marketing efforts this season," Guerrero said.

"I don't micro-manage. Those types of things don't usually come to me unless there's an issue. Obviously, there have been issues that have been raised relative to the approach that our marketing folks have taken, and so as a result of that I'm involved.

"I want to make certain we allow them to do their jobs, but we
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do it in a manner that doesn't compromise our ability to fill our seats. But on the other hand we don't want to give the impression at all that this is designed to bring the enemy (to the Rose Bowl) against our team."

Who was the ad genius that came up with that one?

That's really low. When a team starts to promote the visitor, it's pretty near rock bottom. The Wizards/Bullets used to do that.

On the other hand, the Rose Bowl is ridiculously large for a team like UCLA to expect to sell out on it's own.

It's hard for a college team in any big city with lots of pro teams to generate a consistent fan following. It's especially hard when there's another big time college team in the area, and that area is LA, where there's lots of other things to do and, to top it all off, they're not exactly setting the world on fire with their on-field results in recent years.

AND that this will be the third home game, but only the first since classes have even started so not all students have been on campus, AND the fact that the stadium is about 15 miles from campus, and it takes around two hours to get there when you consider the nightmare that is Rose Bowl parking...

Our home game against Washington State is going to start at 11:30am. Simply unbelievable.

That whole "model" of marketing a college football team - off campus, NFL stadium, student-unfriendly - just sucks, although a number of teams still do it - Pitt, Miami, Temple, UConn, etc.

Minnesota is finally getting away from that and building a proper on campus facility. Of course, they had one of those a while ago and dozed it in favor of the Homer Dome. Dumb.

I truly see nothing wrong with what UCLA did.

Its called PROFUCKINMOTION. Asses in the seats and all of that.

Bully for O-State. At least I now realize that I don't have to focus on any of those albatrosses in the SUC-10. Finally the mainstream media and Eastern Establishment and ESPN will finally focus on real teams in the SEC and ACC and plucky underdogs Ohio State and Michigan.

Amazing catch here. Apologies if it's been posted somewhere already.

Was there ever any kind of initiative to build a stadium on UCLA's campus? It's a pretty large one so there is space.

What's your beef with parking at the Rose Bowl though Inca? The golf course is good, the only downside being access time, but given the quality of the parking venue, tailgating is always an option, so you can come in a couple of hours early and avoid the heaviest pregame traffic.

I don't recall a pac-10 home game starting before noon.

BrunoMaggiore wrote:

QUOTE:
Amazing catch here. Apologies if it's been posted somewhere already.

Wow. Though I think that he was falling down helps him, by being able to cradle the ball against himself. I think Mike Williams' catch for USC four (?) years ago is one of the best I've seen in a game I was watching live, not just in a highlight.

linus wrote:

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Was there ever any kind of initiative to build a stadium on UCLA's campus? It's a pretty large one so there is space.

UCLA is actually the smallest UC campuses in terms of acreage, and the biggest in terms of people. The are two problems.

1) the neighborhood--UCLA is constricted by three residential neighborhoods to the west, north, and east, and all three of them are extremely wealthy and they don't want any extra traffic. And to show a bit of the mindset of the neighbors, Westwood residents got a restaurant in Westwood Village shut down when I was going to school at UCLA because a few nights a week they allowed dancing in the bar area, and they said that the area could not allow for any extra traffic. You can imagine what they would think about tens of thousands of people going to a football game in "their neighborhood." The campus itself is very tightly packed (Google satellite)

2) geography--there are just too many hills on campus (look at the terrian on Google Maps). The flattest part of campus is in the middle, where Pauley Pavilion, Drake Track Stadium, and the practice fields are. Pauley is going to have to be renovated at some point, and it's currently in the center of all of that, so if it was moved to the north or south it might work, except for the practice fields to the south currently have a road going underneath them, so that wouldn't work, and putting a stadium to the north where Drake is now would mean it would be right up against Sunset Blvd., and I don't