There were quite a few butterflies in quite a few stomachs, not least of all Coach Boreale’s, before UCLA hosted BYU. The WAC runs a lot of wide open sets and Coach was a little unsure of the secondary after the romp at Arkansas. The offense had just switched to the Notre Dame playbook, and tensions were running high. All the worrying was for naught, as the Bruins took care of the Mormons 31-14. Reports are that the Bruins were inspired by an early screening of Rocky Balboa. Willis Johnson, who is now myteriously left-handed, had a great day going 16 for 24 with 302 yards and 3 TDs. The only blemishes on the otherwise stellar performance was 1 sack and 3! interceptions. Blame the INTs on the right-left switch. After the game, Willis said he hopes this performance proves to his old man that he would have been tough enough for the Marines. His dad said that Marines don’t throw interceptions. Chris Markey and Jimmy Stevens combined for 183 rushing yards, but no TDs. Senior captain Trey Brown had 5 receptions for 74 yards and a TD. He is clearly Johnson’s favorite target. A close second is TE Karl Thurmond (CPT WHAT!?!) who had 3 receptions for 74 yards and a TD. Matt Slater had 63 yards on 4 receptions, and is losing his standing as a Schiavone award finalist. The defense gave up an 82 yard TD pass to start the game, but settled down after that and limited the Cougars to one other score. TJ Smalley took care of some business on D with 5 tackles and an INT. The youth of the team is showing for the 3 penalties for 35 yards, including a 15 yarder for excessive celebration when Thurmond faked a Mormon drive-by after his TD. Trey Brown and Gary Tinsley may have also joined in. Even so, the boys are psyched for their Pac 10 opener this week.
Archive for December, 2006
Bruins still hibernating, lose to Arkansas 31-7
December 27, 2006The 2007 season did not start off very auspiciously for UCLA. Week one started off by facing #23 ranked Arkansas in Fayetteville. The defense looked solid on the first series, forcing Ark to go 3 and out. Chris Markey then fumbled the punt, which Ark recovered and returned 38 yards for a TD. This pretty much set the tone for the entire game as Arkansas’ combo of their preseason 1st team all-american HB and 6′6″ wide-out put a hurtin’ on the defense. The defense was actually pretty good against the run, keeping the Arkansas HB under 100 rushing yards. UCLA’s small but quick secondary had a tough time bringing down the Hog’s larger than average WR. The offense just couldn’t get anything going. Willis Johnson had a pretty decent night, going 9 for 19 with 145 yds and a TD. The UCLA receiving corps dropped a number of catchable passes, often at key times. This could be attributed to Johnson’s nerves and his inability to take a little off his passes. Most of the dropped passes were accurarate, but were too hot to handle. The O-line needs to put in some work, since Johnson was sacked 4 times. In light of the sacks, Coach Boreale has decided to go back to his ND roots and switch to the Notre Dame playbook, which features a pro set and several shotgun choices. Defense will remain at 4-3 for now. The defense switches up the looks a lot, but a switch to the Nickle set might be in the not too distant future. The Bruins have a bye in WK 2 to lick their wounds, and have the home opener set for WK 3 against unranked, but 1-0 BYU.
Mysterious happenings in Westwood
December 23, 2006WESTWOOD, CA—Some eyewitnesses claim to have seen the Northern Lights, or some other electro-magnetic phenomenon. Others swear they saw extra-terrestrial spacecraft. In either case, there are reports early this morning of a drastic rearrangement of the UCLA Bruins’ team roster. Apparently players have gained and/or lost eligibility. Others have switched positions, climbed the depth chart, or gained or lost weight, seemingly overnight. Despite these mysterious events, Coach Boreale has assured the campus that the 2007 season will begin as planned, and the Bruins should be as feisty as ever. In two of the more major occurences, likely attributed to some exteme off-season training regimen, QB Willis Johnson has risen to the top of the depth chart to steal the starting job away from Tommy Leon; also, Karl Thurmond has staged a coup of his own and garnered the top TE spot away from Ken Battle. In related TE news, Mike Downs has transferred back from SJSU and will sit out this season. Tommy Leon could not be reached for comment, but simply muttered something about the “damn Dominicans.” More on this story as details break. Check the wiki for further updates.
It’s here, it’s here, it’s here!
December 23, 2006My copy of NCAA 2007 has finally arrived. Big thanks to Myles over at Stolenbike Dynasty for hooking me up. You are a good man Mr. Valentin. This will be a merry Christmas for me, and a miserable one for my family. Now the dilemma. Do I simulate to catch up, or do I just change the names of my players? Decisions, decisions.
Offense is finished!
December 19, 2006All of the wiki updates for the 2007 Bruins Offense are now complete. Now on to defense.
Wiki updates
December 17, 2006Yesterday I put in some work adding player info to the Wiki. The offense is almost done. I probably would have been done yesterday, but that wife of mine dragged me out to do Christmas shopping.
First Post!
December 16, 2006This is the inaugural post for the blog to track my UCLA Bruins dynasty on NCAA Football 2007. Here you will find player stats, game updates, team information, and possibly interviews. This is about fake football, but it is real enough.
