Although it’s tough to imagine John Wooden’s UCLA basketball teams ever struggling through a five-game losing streak, the Bruins’ current football coach realizes the Wizard of Westwood has plenty to teach him about the Bruins’ plight.
Rick Neuheisel has turned to Wooden’s writings for instruction and solace during UCLA’s skid, which didn’t quite end in last weekend’s 26-19 loss at Oregon State.

“While winning is important, it’s not the way you judge yourself,” Neuheisel said Monday, paraphrasing Wooden’s words. “You keep judging yourself by how you’re learning and how you’re trying, and if you continue to work hard, those wins will come.”

The Bruins’ history lesson for the week doesn’t end with Wooden. UCLA (3-5, 0-5 Pac-10) will don powder-blue throwback jerseys for Saturday’s visit from Washington (3-5, 2-3) in hopes of recapturing the spirit of the 1967 team led by quarterback Gary Beban, the only Bruins player to win the Heisman Trophy.

For 15 surprising minutes against the Beavers, the UCLA offense finally looked as sharp as Neuheisel expected it would be all season long. Quarterback Kevin Prince led two touchdown drives capped by two-point conversions in the fourth quarter, tying Oregon State at 19 with 2:06 left.

 Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_13697193

A UW donor who wishes to remain anonymous has purchased copies of The Dawgs of War: a Remembrance for the players on the Skyline and Roosevelt football teams.

This donor has been a supporter of my writing for several years and I appreciate the gesture very much.  It’s good to know the book will reach the hands of so many young football players in the Seattle area.

We live in a Brave New World where Oregon is atop the conference standings and Washington has been the west coast’s laughingstock for several years now.  Teenagers of today don’t fully understand Washington’s glorious football past.  The Dawgs of War, which details quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo’s 2000 UW Huskies Rose Bowl team, is a vivid reminder of that history.

… or something akin.

Washington’s all-time record against its Northwest foes may be 178-101-15, but you wouldn’t know it from the way Oregon carved up the Husky defense yesterday like a Thanksgiving Turkey.  From that abysmal performance, it seems Washington has not closed the gap with Oregon, who has whipped Washington six years in a row.

With the hopes of a bowl game fading to black, UW’s first year coach Steve Sarkisian needs to conjur up new ways to get the team motivated.  Long-time Husky fans can remember when former coach Rick Neuheisel conjured up the idea of the “Northwest Championship” to infuse motiviation into his 4-5 team.  That team responded by going 3-0 against Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State. 

In Sarkisian’s case, the loss to Oregon nullifies the possibility of going 3-0.  But he needs to provide them with a realistic goal to strive for.  Yesterday against Oregon, the team seemed to regress to the same defeated body language and effort that pockmarked the Tyrone Willimgham era.

Rick Neuheisel’s Northwest Championship

Cal coach Jeff Tedford

When the Cal Bears came to Husky Stadium in 2002, Washington fans viewed the game as standard fare. After all, the Bears hadn’t beaten the Huskies in 26 years. Cal was also coming off a 1-10 season from the year before. The Huskies, meanwhile, were only two years removed from their Rose Bowl Championship. The expectations in Seattle were for a comfortable Washington win.

But the Bears arrived with first-year coach Jeff Tedford. The Pac-10 didn’t yet realize it, but he was in the midst of transforming the entire football culture at Berkeley. It was certainly on display that day against the Huskies. Tedford had his safeties come right up to the line of scrimmage and manhandle Washington’s star receiver Reggie Williams. The Bears roughhoused their way to a 34-27 victory—which sent shockwaves throughout the Pac-10. After the game, as the Bears gathered in the visitor’s locker room, they chanted “76,000 disappointed fans! 76,000 disappointed fans!”

By the end of that year, the Bears finished the season at 7-5—a remarkable 6-game turnaround. The next season featured a watershed moment. In triple overtime at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, the Bears stunned top-ranked USC 34-31. As gleeful fans stormed the field, it was an epic moment under the lights. The consensus along the west coast was that California Bears football was about to ascend into the stratosphere.

Six years have passed since that time. Tedford’s Bears have not become the Pac-10’s colossus. They’re like an airplane sitting idly on the tarmac and not getting airborne. There have been 10-win seasons in 2004 and 2006, but no appearances in BCS bowls.

The 2009 season was supposed to finally be Tedford’s moment to challenge USC’s supremacy. Running back Jahvid Best was a Heisman Trophy candidate and Syd’Quan Thompson a premier cornerback. The Bears opened up with a 3-0 start and twice topped 50 points. Their national ranking climbed to #6.

Then came games against Oregon and USC, in which the Bears became stunningly bad. They lost to the Ducks 42-3 and the Trojans 30-3. They went back-to-back games without scoring a touchdown. Their quarterback, Kevin Riley, has completed a dreadful 38% of his passes. Defensive players hace been constantly out of position while the wide receivers are dropping passes like an assembly line. All this has dropped the team from the national rankings. And to top it off, rumors are circulating that Cal players are increasingly recalcitrant to Tedford’s gruff ways.

After eight seasons to evaluate Tedford’s performance, it’s evident the Bears have reached a ceiling. The problem is that expectations for greatness are now a part of culture at Cal. Therein lies Tedford’s self-created problem: the more he succeeds, the higher he’s expected to climb.

Seahawks coach Jim Mora

Meanwhile in Seattle, Jim L. Mora is coaching the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. The team is 2-3, coming off a win over Jacksonville. Mora is a coach in the Pete Carroll mode—young, energetic and defensive minded. He relates very well to his players, and speaks their language. From his days as defensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers, Mora is renown as a defensive mastermind and dynamic presence. Respected players that have played for him, like ex-Husky Lawyer Milloy, rave about Mora’s ability to get his team enthusiastic. Others, like ex-Husky Lincoln Kennedy, have described Mora’s reputation throughout the NFL as being almost too much of a player’s coach. These characteristics are indeed geared more for the college game and are Carrollesque.

Mora has now entered a situation in Seattle where he followed future Hall of Fame coach Mike Holmgren. But the team’s core is aging and a mere shell of its ‘05 self that played in the Super Bowl. Mora has already been fired from the Atlanta Falcons in 2006 and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him under pressure by the end of the 2010 or 2011 seasons, if a string of 6-10 and 5-11 seasons occur. In earlier times, Pete Carroll struggled twice as a head coach in the NFL and was fired both times. Then he was hired by the USC Trojans, and the rest is history. The NFL is jokingly known as “Not For Long” for a reason.

If by 2010 the Seahawks are struggling…. and if the Bears finish with another 8-win season and requisite Holiday Bowl berth, firing Tedford and bringing in Mora could be the key to challenging USC for Pac-10 supremacy.

Derek Johnson’s book The Dawgs of War: a Remembrance can be purchased at Derekjohnsonbooks.com

Earlier this week I was interviewed by KJR’s Elise Woodward about The Dawgs of War: a Remembrance.

Click here to listen.

In the hour that followed the University of Washington’s first football victory since 2007, new head coach Steve Sarkisian was too busy basking in the excitement to talk about his next opponent.

There will be plenty of storylines when Sarkisian faces his former program, USC, next Saturday.

“I’m really not worried about it,” Sarkisian said Saturday. “I’m going to enjoy this win. I’m not going to be in a rush to go and get to the next one.”

Apparently, not everyone in the program has that same mentality.

Read more:  http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090913/SPORTS/709139835/1004/SPORTS

LSU’s season-opening victory over Washington last week wasn’t assured until quarterback Jordan Jefferson hit a wide-open Brandon LaFell in the end zone with 1:54 remaining.

On Saturday night in Baton Rouge, the No. 11 Tigers (2-0, 1-0) separated themselves from Vanderbilt (1-1, 0-1) with a 14-yard run by Keiland Williams with 6:01 to turn a seven-point game into a 23-9 victory.

Last week, LSU gave up 478 yards of offense. This week, 210.

The Huskies converted 11 of 20 third-down attempts and held onto the ball for nearly 37 minutes. The Commodores were 4-of-15, and the Tigers’ controlled the clock for 36:23.

Improvements were made, but not enough to satisy Coach Les Miles.

“I certainly enjoyed the victory,” he said. “That being said, I think we need to play better.”

Read more: http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2009/09/lsu_vs_vanderbilt_ingame_updat.html