UCLA(-14) over Utah (1*)
"There is no way we're losing this game." At some point in the autumnal life of every good football team, somebody has to say those words. (Last) Saturday, that somebody was Bruce Davis. BYU? It stood for Beat You Up. Brigham Young? The Cougars brought 'em hard, brought 'em in waves, brought 'em for more than three quarters while turning a 20-0 deficit into 20-17. Into this: Early in the fourth quarter, BYU ball, first down, end zone 13 yards away. Davis, near exhaustion, stepped into the UCLA huddle, sucked another breath, and made himself clear. "No disrespect to BYU, but we had been way up, and now we were down, and we all thought, 'No way can we lose to this team, or any team, like this,' " Davis said. "It was like, 'There's no way we're losing this game.' " At some point in games like these for teams like the Bruins, somebody has to refuse to give in. And at this point, with a judo rush and a karate punch, the Bruins didn't. Davis fought through a blocker. Knocked the ball out of quarterback Max Hall's hand. UCLA's Tom Blake fell on it. The Bruins were never threatened again. It was UCLA 27, BYU 17, relieved sighs everywhere . . . UCLA will take an outmanned Utah team to the woodshed (
http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_6903171 ), or UCLA will be way off message and the grousing that has marked HC Karl Dorrell's tenure will start cranking up again . . . The standards are pretty high these days when you have designs on just being mentioned in the same breath as your L.A. neighbors, and my west coast radar has been receiving loud and clear that this is a tough-minded UCLA squad that has smartly invested for months in their season to date, and I'll be on the right side by counting on some pop in their play today off their performances to date.
Syracuse(+11') over Illinois (1*)
- - Look in on this game and "you'll probably get a month's worth of Vitamin C simply from watching the Orange and the orange-clad Illini on the same field" . . . Unless you have them outclassed and overmatched, this is not a good week for playing Syracuse in the Dome. Simply generating some production on first downs - no sure thing - will put a big bounce in the home team huddles . . . Any Ron Zook team on view to date makes too many mistakes - penalties, assignment errors, nervous throws and drops, etc. - to crank it up and sustain it in this environment . . . Illinois is the better team, but they'll have to work their butts off to secure their reward today.
North Carolina(-3) over Virginia (1*)
- - After ECU's 34-31 victory over UNC last week: ?What a game,? (HC Skip) Holtz said. ?What a game.? . . . "The Tar Heels moved constantly behind quarterback T.J. Yates, who was making his first road start." Now it's first taste of ACC conference play for HC Butch Davis. ?Everybody seems to be in everybody?s backyard,? Davis said. ?I lived in kind of an isolated world in Miami. You almost are outside the United States. Florida State was a (Miami) rival, but Florida State?s 13 hours away. There?s nobody here that?s 13 hours away. They?re 13 minutes away.? . . . "Trimane Goddard, a safety returning after missing last season because of injury, has never seen his teammates so eager to get a season started (prior to James Madison opener). ?The emotions are crazy,? Goddard said. ?You try to keep yourself down so you don?t drain yourself before Saturday gets here. Everyone is ready to get out on the field and finally play. ?It?s a different type of excitement. It?s like a new beginning. There?s so many new faces around and new makeovers for the (Kenan Football Center) building and the program. Everyone?s ready to put the past behind and start off with Coach Davis with a better season and change how football is viewed around here.? Goddard can?t predict how the season will go but is confident that Davis has prepared his team with meticulous care. ?He demands everything you?ve got from each player,? Goddard said. ?He?s a big disciplinarian from a practice point. He does everything as if it?s a game situation. He wants everything fast, crisp and light. ?He wants to put you in situations that can occur in a game so you know how to respond to it when it happens in a game. He?s a great coach. He knows how to coach. The biggest difference (from last season) is we get a lot more done in less time. I feel like we?re a more efficient team.? . . . And it's the defense where former HC John Bunting left a pretty good supply of athletes for his capable successor . . . With UVA, it was wretched special teams last week, and just plain wretched in the opener at Wyoming. HC Groh is now looking to apply the fix to his road woes by utilizing two QB's, and wretched is the word I'll use to describe the outcome if that's just the ticket for Virginia to here and now turn their fortunes around when hitting the road.
GL
