Is this shocking to anyone else? I was mildly surprised.

Cronin:

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Lazar Stefanovic, Eric Dailey Jr.:

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The UCLA-USC rivalry football game scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Rose Bowll will kick off at 7:30 p.m. PT and air on NBC

If that doesn’t cement being named a finalist to the Butkus award nothing will.

Washington has opened as 3.5 favorite which is not a surprise.
We have been underdogs in our three previous games and we won all of them
Might as well run that streak to 4.

LB Carson Schwesinger leads the way after posting the highest grade among all Power 4 conference players on defense and the second-highest in the FBS this week:

There are cupcakes and there are CUPCAKES.
We start our 5 game winning streak tonight against a woeful Boston U team.
Then we play Lehigh, Idaho State, Fullerton and Southern Utah.
These aren’t really contests. They are more like glorified scrimmages.
It is actually a good thing for Cronin as it gives him a chance to look at various combinations of lineups which will help him figure out our best rotations going into December when Bif 10 play begins.
When we play real teams, like Washington, Oregon and Arizona — our first 3 games in November — I expect us to look considerably better than the team that was exposed by New Mexico.
I don’t really like the cupcake games, but with so many new players, we need them.

Making this now for those who want to discuss the men's basketball game in Henderson.

I obviously won't be tracking it since the football game will still be wrapping up.

Things I loved
• our dline kicked their o line’s ass!
• the physicality of our team. There some great hits.
•. Carson Schwessinger. Baller, great kid and great story.
•. Continued development. Guys are getting better as the season rolls on. That says alot about the coaching.
•. Resiliency of the team
• our running game finally came to life! I suspect that the uptick in offensive production is a oroduct of players playing faster and not thinking.
•. Our running backs being physical. I felt that set the tone.


Things I hated
•. Stupid penalties. Every unsportsmanlike penalty we’ve had has resulted in touchdowns for the opposition.
•. Mind blowing turnovers. Garbers has to protect the ball better. Without his turnovers that game is a blowout.
•. Second 57 yard field goal try. We got lightning in a bottle once the chances it happening twice was super slim.

Wanted to get this up now with the football/basketball double dip as I work on putting together that preview for tomorrow morning:

We could have had a tea good season had we beaten Minnesota.

For all of my frustrations with the dumb play calling offensively and the silly penalties and turnovers, I give the players credit for not giving up. Someone will pay Scheesinger $1M this offseason so we won’t be able to see him in a Bruin uniform after this, but he’s been a revelation. The defense overall outside of the shell shock of Indiana and Oregon has been fantastic. Toia keeps getting low PFF scores but he’s been so good. He absorbs OL and allows our quick LBs/ DEs to make plays. Our secondary has been quite good outside of some dumb plays. Only criticism of them is the insane level of costly penalties that never seem to end.

We weren’t going to beat Indiana, Oregon, LSU, or PSU this season. But the others we had chances to dominate and instead kept them close and even lost one.

The Good: UCLA has a three-game winning streak. Attendance is back up….there were 10K more that saw UCLA manhandle the Iowa running game. UCLA held them to 80 yards totals and held their star running back, Kaleb Johnson, to 49 yards or 2.7 yards per carry. UCLA, on the other hand, rushed for 211 yards and Harden had his first 100-yard game this season. Our defense shut down the Iowa offense to 265 total and was 40% in third down efficiency. Kudos to Bhaghhani, who had the second longest FG in UCLA history and Richter who average 55 yards per punt.

The Bad: Garbers had a so-so game having 2 INT, and 1 fumble resulting is scores but he was also 21 of 34 passing, 203 yards and kept the drives alive with his passing and running. The oline showed incremental improvement by not allowing a single sack. I think we may of lost our starting LT to injury. Niki Prongos was a walk-on but he was one of the bright spots of the mediocre OL.

The Ugly: The penalties and turnovers hurt a great performance by UCLA, Garbers had two INTs early is the game that cost UCLA 10 points.

Each home game the attendance has increased. I love the B1G conference. And it was a beautiful, sunny day which brought out more fans.

The next home is suc…the attendance is be through the roof

Courtesy of UCLA Athletics:

Cronin:

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Kobe Johnson and Tyler Bilodeau:

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How quickly the fortunes of a team changes

Foster:

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QB Ethan Garbers, LB Carson Schwesinger:

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RB T.J. Harden, EDGE Oluwafemi Oladejo:

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Since I’ll be at football instead, we’ll see if we can get an AP wire story up for tonight’s basketball recap.

Here’s tonight’s preview:

Cronin said after the game that sophomores Devin and Brandon Williams will “definitely” redshirt while freshman Eric Freeny is considering it.

UCLA has a two-game winning streak and a victory moves them closer to a Bowl Game…plus it’s a home game, lots of HS recruits will be there watching. Iowa has a dominate running game lead by Kaleb Johnson and their last game they averaged 6.2 yards per carry. Malloe and the defense will have their hands full trying to stop Iowa from scoring.

Their passing game is led by Brendan Sullivan, a transfer from Northwestern. Not a great passer, his strength is his mobility and our defense is need to find a way to contain him. The strength of their offense is their offensive line that dominates the line of scrimmage.

Their defense is very good this year but their Achilles heel (if there is one) is their pass defense which has, at time, broken down. This game will be UCLA’s greatest challenge this season.

I will not be there this morning because I’m getting my windshield repaired.

But I’ll pass along the press conference videos from UCLA Athletics once they go up.

UCLA football vs Iowa at 6 pm on Fox
UCLA basketball vs New Mexico at 8 pm on CBS sport network.
I will watch football to its conclusion then catch tape of hoops.
Hoping gor a Saturday sweep.

What lies ahead tomorrow against an Iowa team that no longer struggles to score points like it did a season ago:

approx. 40 yard line row 22 behind UCLA bench . text if interested 626-419-5641 will include two Justin Wine garden passes