Airwolf84 wrote:
Just one? How about 10?...
1. UCLA is 12-1 at home the past 2 seasons
2. BYU is 1-6 vs. Bruins all-time
3. UCLA's defense
4. Ben Olson
5. 110,000 screaming UCLA fans
6. UCLA's quickness
7. UCLA's athleticism
8. BYU is on the road against a quality, non-conference foe
9. Hall's inexperience in an intimidating environment
10. Scoreboard
First of all, I freely admit that UCLA is legitimately the favorite for this game. I'm not ready to concede it to be the mis-match that some people have portrayed it, though. That being said, here are my responses, Airwolf:
1. granted - it's not going to be easy, but I don't think Bronco is overwhelmed by it and I think the players are buying into his approach.
2. The last time they played was, what, '93? Lots of water under the bridge since then.
3. I'm not convinced UCLA's defense is any stronger than AZ's. Last week you were spouting off about
their tough D.
4. I didn't see it, but others have noted that Olson was by no means stellar. They put up some numbers, but I understand he made quite a few mistakes as well. I'm not ready to accept Olson vs. Hall as such a big differential just yet. I think Kehl & Co. might have something to say about that.
5. Uhh. Rose Bowl's capacity is "90,000+" (Rose Bowl website) of which there look to be nearly 20k Cougar fans. Even if the Bruins manage to get 70k of their fans in the seats, it's still not nearly the intimidation factor that you make it out to be. We'll be well represented.
6. Yeah, we heard all about that last week with AZ.
7. Ditto
8. Good point. Something like TCU last year?
9. See point # 5 above. Max exceeded my expectations last week. Didn't look like a rookie by any means. He was cool, took adversity in stride and wasn't rattled. Again, he'll have a sizeable cheering section on this side, too.
10. I guess we'll just have to see about the scoreboard.
