After a week off, the Bruins will return to action this Saturday against the Oregon State Beavers at the Rose Bowl. UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel held his weekly press conference today in which he talked about the challenge the Beavers pose to the Bruins.
"Much has been said about their Pac-10 title hopes and being in the driver’s seat and so forth," Neuheisel said. "It’s well earned with the way they’ve played and performed to date. So it will be a tall order for us but one we look forward, especially playing in front of our home crowd. Mike Riley’s done a great job with that team. The running back is an outstanding talent and certainly if not the MVP, then certainly the freshman of the year in this conference in terms of what he’s meant for their program. They’re a complete football team; they play well on both sides of the ball especially in the trenches, which will be where we’ll have to make significant improvement if we expect to hang in there with these guys. That’ll be the order of the day, to try to shore up some deficiencies in our offensive line, see if we can’t play a complete game there and hopefully win one for the home crowd and put ourselves with still hope for a game postseason."
Here are the highlights:
– Bruin linebacker Reggie Carter was in attendance today. Carter talked about the struggles past Bruin teams have had in the month of November. In the past five seasons, the Bruins are a combined 5-9 in November, including 1-2 last season. Carter hopes that this season will be better.
"In the past, we’ve tried to stress it – win in November and December – and November hasn’t really been our best friend," Carter said. "But this season, it didn’t really seem like September and October we’re our friends, so maybe November will like us this year."
– Oregon State freshman running back, Jacquizz Rodgers, will prove to be a tough task for the Bruin defense. Rodgers has started seven of the team’s eight games this season, gaining 945 yards and nine touchdowns this season. Rodgers uses his 5-foot-7 body to his advantage as he is able to hide behind the offensive line, causing havoc for the defense.
"He’s kind of small and low to the ground," Carter said. "You’re wondering if he’s down or not so they tell you you have to play to the whistles. The offensive line they work good together. He does a good job staying behind them until his creases open up, and then when he hits it he hits it pretty hard."
Carter compared Rodgers to former Bruin, Maurice Jones-Drew.
– With four games left in the season and the Bruins needing at least three more victories to become bowl eligible, Carter believes the team still has the ability to make a bowl game.
"There’s still four games left," Carter said. "You only have to win six and we have four. The cards are right for us right now. We gotta win three and we have four to try to do that. So, we’re going to try to win them all, but you never lose hope. When you lose hope, everything is lost so you got to always believe."
Neuheisel said that if the Bruins fail to make it to a bowl game, while the season would not be deemed a failure, it would be a disappointment.
"Well it’s disappointing because you’d love those extra practices. You love the chance to play one more time for your seniors and you love the chance to have your young players continue to practice and to continue to improve. It would be disappointing. I don’t know that it we’d call it an ultimate failure but it would be disappointing."
– Defensive end Chinonso Anyanwu was released from the hospital Sunday after being admitted for a stomach incident. The cause has yet to be determined.
– Left tackle Jeff Baca is hopeful to return to practice Tuesday, as are defensive tackle Chase Moline and wide receiver Nelson Rosario.