They didn’t come to a decision today and it’s now being pushed back to a December meeting

I’ll be covering this game remotely tonight (still need a bit of a recharge after the late football game, but I’ll grab UCLA’s video of the postgame press conferences).

Same starting 5 for UCLA: Tyger Campbell, Amari Bailey, Jaylen Clark on the perimeter, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Adem Bona

On paper, it has the look of a game that could come down to which team has final possession

I know I often talk about how our defense is so awful but then I see stats and Oregon and SC’s defenses are the same or worst. Washington’s defense is atrocious as well and they just beat Oregon on the road.

Is it that Pac 12 offense are just that good or do we need to change what we view as “great defense”? Obviously Georgia is on another level but it makes me think about everyone else.

Another double-duty day with Chip speaking at 9:05 before heading over to men’s basketball practice

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UCLA has added a key commitment tonight on the last day of the early signing period. Henderson (Nev.) Coronado guard Sebastian Mack gave the Bruins his pledge over a final group that included Oklahoma and Florida State. The Bruins actually didn't offer him until he took an official visit to Westwood over the weekend. Once that happened his recruitment was sealed and now he's the highest-rated member of the 2023 class for Mick Cronin.

I've watched him on multiple occasions over a couple years now and he will be a nice fit for UCLA. He's got some good toughness that will help him play for Cronin plus he has a lot of upside still as well.

Mack has already signed with the Bruins and here is what Cronin had to say about the newest addition to the team's 2023 class: "Sebastian is an explosive athlete and has developed into an elite scorer. He's a great competitor who also brings toughness and defense to the gym. Sebastian has a great basketball pedigree and really loves the game. His shooting ability is definitely something that we need to add, seeing as Tyger Campbell and David Singleton are currently seniors. One thing I love about Sebastian is when he committed, I told him that I was excited and that we needed his shooting. His response was, 'I'm coming to play defense and win, Coach.' I expect he'll have a great senior season at Coronado High School. We cannot wait to get him to Westwood."

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Cronin and players will be previewing the team’s first challenge of the season Friday when it faces No. 19 Illinois and then either No. 5 Baylor or No. 16 Virginia two days later as part of the Continental Tire Main Event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas

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Four-star receiver Jerry McClure has announced his top four tonight cutting out some prominent programs in the process. UCLA, Washington, Indiana and Arizona remain as the last four team standing in his recruitment eliminating such schools as USC, Oregon, Michigan, Tennessee and a host of others. The two-way athlete from Mater Dei Catholic in Chula Vista has become one of the top priorities for the Bruins in the current cycle, and he has been on campus multiple times throughout the process.

Right now, I'd say UCLA is the team to beat but he has had positive things to say about all the schools on his list. Arizona is probably the biggest challenger to UCLA right now with Washington in there as well. Indiana is a bit of a wild card. He has put a lot of value on the education he'll get at UCLA plus he has a strong relationship with the staff.

Add to that one of his teammates (Tre Edwards) already committing to the Bruins, and it makes for some good buzz for UCLA. He'll announce next Tuesday.

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There will be a four-helicopter flyover, the Victory Bell will remain on the field for the game and Michael Buffer will be there (likely doing his pregame “Let’s get ready to rumble” call right before kickoff as he’s done at Rams games).

The 16,700 tickets for UCLA students is supposed to create the largest student section for a football game in school history.

The capacity for home games this season has been 53,170 with the tarps in place. Taking down all but four of the 12 tarps (the letters UCLA) bumps that up to the 70,865 “sellout” it’s expecting.

Noticed a trend with the players made available to us to start this week: None are from California, and some like Jake Bobo have been part of other storied rivalries.

The story:

Checking in from practice this morning

I reached out to the Pac-12 office Sunday for official clarification on the tiebreakers. Right now, they only were worried about this week’s possibilities. Here’s what we know:

- USC clinches a spot in the Championship Game with a win this week
- UCLA would be eliminated with a loss this week
- Washington would be eliminated with a loss this week
- No team with 3 conference losses can make the Championship Game

If both USC beats UCLA AND Colorado beats Washington then the champ game will be...
USC vs. winner of Utah/Oregon this week

“Beyond that there's lots of 3, 4 and even possible 5-team ties which I'm not ready to break down as many of them could be contingent on results of other conference games the next 2 weeks, even games of teams not involved in the tiebreaker,” according to Jim Thornby, Pac-12 senior manager, strategic sports communication.

Then was pointed back to the language involving tiebreakers: https://pac-12.com/football/standings

While I admit I would not have been heartbroken had a key player for SC been suspended for a week or had a nagging non-permanent injury that kept them from playing us, I hate to see any young man who sacrificed his body so a few people could make a bunch of money off his efforts get badly injured. In his case, he was trending towards being a mid-round NFL draft pick, which would provide a few million dollars to himself and his family even if he never played past his rookie contract. He could have gone pro and been a 6th or 7th round pick last year. Imagine if that happened to Zach or DTR and they never got a real shot at sticking in the NFL because they got hurt playing so Chip could make his $5,000,000 and Jarmond could live like a king while padding his resume.

Today’s story on that and Chip Kelly defends his defense while acknowledging situational shortcomings

Beat SC and CAL

OR beats UT

Beat OR in Pac 12 Championship game

Chip speaks at 9:05

UCLA dropped seven spots to No. 16 in this week’s AP poll

The Nov. 19 showdown with USC looked like it was going to be a game with a share of first place in the Pac-12 standings up for grabs as Oregon lost to Washington just as UCLA was kicking off.

On a night of lost opportunity:

Apologies for this going up late.

Taking a look at the turning point, including a key mismatch, and more from last night’s game:

Takes over 1-11 U CONN and they become bowl eligible. Should get some Coach Of Year consideration

Just got here, nobody on the field yet but I’ll be down there to check out warm-ups for any injury updates (or, at least as much that can be read into warm-ups)

Looking at either the 5 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. window

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Catching up on last night’s men’s basketball game and Jaylen Clark continues his stat-stuffing start to the season. On a team with two all-conference first-team players, he may be making an early case as a third.

He’s also not shy about setting his personal goals high: Clark wants to break the program’s single-season steals record.

Everything from pregame warm-ups to the potential of a trap game in this week’s game preview.

I will be covering HS football playoffs for my other freelance gig tonight so I will not be at the UCLA/Long Beach State game.

So I just wanted to give you all that heads up.