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The Rose Bowl is only 10 miles from the site of wildfires. From AP-
UCLA plans to play its scheduled game Saturday against San Diego State at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena despite the giant wildfire burning to the north in the Angeles National Forest.
Athletics director Dan Guerrero said in a statement Thursday that the decision was made based upon information from local air-quality officials and Pasadena city fire and health authorities.
Guerrero says there were also consultations with the university’s own medical staff.
The Rose Bowl is less than 10 miles south of Angeles National Forest.
A university statement also quotes an air pollution official as saying that weather conditions are expected to improve on Saturday. The forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 90 degrees.
I used to travel to Southern California quite frequently from 1997 to 2001. The air quality isn’t very good when there aren’t any fires in the area.
UCLA also announced that it will offer complimentary tickets to the game for all Southern California firefighters and their immediate families.
That is very thoughtful. It also makes clear that the game isn’t a sellout. If I was a firefighter or a family member, I’d stay home.
Is being in a hurry a good reason to potentially kill someone? From AP-
Police say a 20-year-old UCLA tennis player was in a coma after somebody punched him following a country music concert in Dallas.
Jeffrey Fleming of Newport Beach, Calif., was in a Dallas hospital Thursday, but his condition was not available.
He was attending a Rascal Flatts concert with friends Saturday night when an unknown man hit him. His family says he was sucker-punched as he was about to catch a taxi after the concert.
The blow knocked Fleming to the ground, where his head hit the parking lot concrete. The attacker and others ran away.
Bunch of cowards. Whoever threw the punch should have the book thrown at him. In the meantime pray for Mr. Fleming. He may have suffered a serious brain injury.
He both played in and coached a Rose Bowl game. One of his star players at UCLA was Billy Kilmer, who would later play Quarterback in the NFL for San Francisco, New Orleans, and Washington. RIP.
Bill Barnes, who coached football at UCLA from 1958-64, played at Tennessee and was a decorated World War II veteran, has died. He was 91.
Barnes died Thursday of complications from pneumonia at Santa Monica Hospital, where he had been for more than two months, the school said Friday.
Barnes had a record of 31-34-3 in seven years as coach, having taken over before the fourth game of the 1958 season when head coach Henry “Red” Sanders died.
In 1960, led by All-America tailback Bill Kilmer, the Bruins went 7-2-1.
The following season, they won the AAWU (now Pac-10 Conference) championship and lost 21-3 to Minnesota in 1962 the Rose Bowl to finish 7-4.
Barnes earned All-America honors at Tennessee, where he played several positions for coach Bob Neyland. He was on the Volunteer teams that appeared in the 1939 Orange Bowl and 1940 Rose Bowl, where they lost 14-0 to Southern California.
Barnes was an assistant at Tennessee in 1941 and Arkansas from 1946-49.
He served as a major in the Army during World War II, earning two Bronze Stars, a Silver Star, Legion of Merit, a Philippine Ribbon and an Alamo Scout Commendation.
Barnes was an original member of the Alamo Scouts, considered by many to be the first U.S. special forces.
Former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Frank Cornish died in his sleep Friday night. He was only 40.
 Cornish, an offensive lineman, played for five NFL teams during a six-year career that started in 1990 when he was a sixth-round pick out of UCLA by the San Diego Chargers. He played with the Cowboys on Super Bowl-winning teams in 1992 and 1993, starting five games.
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“The Bruin family sends our deepest, heartfelt sympathy to the Cornish family,” said UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel, a Bruin assistant for most of Cornish’s college career. “I was a coach when he was a player, and he was just a gifted guy. Frank was a great guy in the locker room and a huge personality and a fun guy to be around.”
Cornish’s father, Frank played in the NFL in the late ’60s and ’70s.
Frank Cornish IV is survived by his wife, Robin, three daughters and two sons.
Truly sad.
 Rick Neuheisel has been hired as UCLA’s head football coach.
Rick Neuheisel is coming back to UCLA — this time as head coach. Neuheisel, who quarterbacked the Bruins to victory in the 1984 Rose Bowl and later served as an assistant under Terry Donahue, was hired Saturday as his alma mater’s 16th coach.
The 46-year-old Neuheisel succeeds Karl Dorrell, who was fired Dec. 3 after five seasons on the job.
“Rick has enjoyed great success throughout his career and we believe he is the coach who can take our program to the next level,” athletic director Dan Guerrero said. “His teams at Colorado and Washington continually challenged for conference championships and national rankings, and that is what we are looking to do at UCLA.”
Neuheisel spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, who finish the season Sunday against Pittsburgh. He served as quarterbacks coach in 2005-06, and was promoted to offensive coordinator last January.
He had a 66-30 record as a head coach at Colorado from 1995-98 and Washington from 1999-2002. He hasn’t been in the college game since Washington fired him in 2003 for participating in a betting pool on the NCAA basketball tournament. He sued for wrongful termination from Washington and settled in March 2005 with UW and the NCAA for $4.5 million.
A great hire. He’s had some problems, to be sure, but he’s a superb college coach. And I suspect he’ll be less anxious to leave UCLA, not only his alma mater but a storied program in a great city, than his previous stops.
NBCSports.com’s John Walters has an amusing column entitled “The Spirit of 7-6” on last night’s Emerald Bowl matchup between FSU and UCLA.
When did college football’s postseason become a walk-a-thon? When did two programs walking the .500 tightrope and with almost no chance of sniffing the final AP top 25 poll become worthy of a post-game podium and a trophy nearly as heavy as a female cheerleader?
Florida State (your ACC Atlantic Division 5th-place finisher) defeated UCLA (your Pacific-10 4th-place squad) 44-27 in the fifth annual Emerald Bowl this evening, thereby sending both teams home for the 2006 season with 7-6 records. There are 32 bowl games dotting your television listings between December 19th and January 8th, and the Emerald Bowl is definitely… one of them.
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[T]he great drama in this evening’s game was whether Seminole head coach Bobby Bowden, now in his 31st season in Tallahassee, would finish the year sub-500 for the first time since his first season in Tallahassee. There’s more than one way to make history in a bowl game.
Indeed. I have, so far, watched zero of the bowl games. The college football season seemingly ended months ago and they’re still playing consolation games. Eventually, they will get around to playing the BCS Championship game, featuring teams that have been idle for weeks.
My Alabama Crimson Tide plays this afternoon in the Independence Bowl against Oklahoma State. Both teams had pathetic 6-6 seasons. Indeed, Alabama’s coach was fired seemingly ages ago and the Tide will be led by Interim Coach for Life Joe Kines.
Birmingham News writer Jon Solomon provides some statistics:
Seven 6-6 teams advanced to bowls this year, and four teams – including Oklahoma State – had only five victories against Division I-A opponents. Alabama and Miami added to their resumes with two victories each against winless teams.
Fifty-four percent of the 119 I-A teams are now in bowls. Television ratings and bowl payouts show there is interest.
One argument made for bowl games is they provide a reward to players for their season. Yet six-win seasons by Alabama and Miami rewarded their coaches with pink slips. “If we come out (today) with a win, I think it will be a mark for this team because we’ve been through it all,” Alabama running back Kenneth Darby said. “This season wasn’t perfect, but at least we come out with a 7-6 record. That would be a winning record, as far as I’m concerned.”
Bear Bryant wouldn’t agree, methinks. I suppose I’ll watch the game but, frankly, who really cares? Finishing 7-6 is hardly anything to cheer about.
The Jags are on the clock. Goose projected them taking USC running back LenDale White, who would seem a steal at this point.
The pick: Marcedes Lewis, TE/UCLA
An interesting pick and apparently consistent with many mock drafts seen by Mel Kiper. Lewis was rated #34 on the Goose board. Frankly, a potential superstar running back to bolster the fragile Fred Taylor makes more sense.
NYT reporter Michael Schmidt says not to feel bad about blowing your NCAA brackets this year. You are not alone.
Know anyone who has the Final Four intact in the office pool? No way.
After all, not one top-seeded team made it. The last time that happened was 1980. Who could have picked the Patriots — not Tom Brady & Company, but the ones from George Mason?
Was there a secret to making sense of possibly the most unpredictable N.C.A.A. tournament? For Russell Pleasant, a 46-year-old software engineer from Omaha, it took a lucky mistake. When he filled out his bracket earlier this month, he thought George Washington would reach this weekend’s Final Four. Instead, he ended up picking George Mason, round after round after round, all the way to Indianapolis. Now, he finds himself a rare survivor among millions of broken hearts with busted brackets across the nation. In ESPN.com’s 2006 Men’s College Basketball Tournament Challenge, Pleasant had one of the four entries among three million with U.C.L.A., Louisiana State, Florida and George Mason in the Final Four.
Last season, 4,172 people picked all four teams in ESPN.com’s pool. But last year’s Final Four featured a more predictable lineup: two top-seeded teams, North Carolina and Illinois; a fourth-seeded team, Louisville; and a fifth-seeded team, Michigan State. At cbs.sportsline.com, none of the two million brackets submitted this year had all four teams. In the Yahoo Sports pool, just one of more than a million entered had all four.
Even with the ridiculous number of upsets this year, I would have figured dozens of people would have gotten the Final Four right just through the law of large numbers. Five people out of seven million? Wow.
Update: Josh Lewin is currently in 4th place in ESPN’s pool. Sadly, he picked UConn, eliminated by George Mason this weekend, to win the whole thing.
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