Mmmmm....College Football Season Is Here!

Well, it took it long enough to get here, but a new College Football season is upon us.  After an ugly off-season (the Penn State fiasco, Bobby Petrino and his "Assistant", the conference realignments, the horrible performance by LSU in the National Championship game, etc.), it's good to finally be back to watching the product on the field and not in the tabloid headlines or court releases.

"You forgot how crazy I am!"

This time of year is always a time of excitement for all teams and their fans: the National Title aspirations of the USC Trojans coming off their sanctions and possible Heisman Trophy for Matt Barkley; the chance of a repeat for Alabama; Texas and Florida trying to bounce back from off-years; the return of everyone's favorite bug-eyed-hopped-up-on-goofballs Terry Bowden back to at Akron...hope springs eternal for everyone, and everyone's post-season chances look bright, even if they don't have a realistic shot at the crystal ball.

As I do every year before the season starts, I make my picks on all of UCLA's games.  This blog started because a friend who is a big UCLA fan suggested I start it and I've always let him know how I think his Bruins will fare.  The glory days of Bob Toledo, Cade McNown and that debacle in Miami seems so long ago...

But it's a new year, with a new coach and a new quarterback, so here we go, after going 9-4 on the Bruins last year.

at Rice - First off, what the hell, Dan Guerrero?  You open the season on the road, on a Thursday night, against a Rice team who has had back-to-back 4-8 seasons, proceeded by a 2-10 season.  How does that happen?  Why don't you have them coming to the Rose Bowl?  Have the Bruins sunk so low that they'll take a bottom-dweller of Conference USA's invitation to come play in the heat of Texas over forcing them to come to Pasadena?  It hurts the head thinking about it.  The Bruins win this one, though it might take a little while to separate themselves from the Owls, as their players wonder, "Why are we here again?"

Nebraska - The Bruins get a week off before the Cornhuskers roll into town and the UCLA fans sell off their tickets, making the Rose Bowl a sea of red.  Nebraska makes the most of the "home field advantage" and beats the "visitors".

Houston - These have been fairly entertaining games the last few years, but with no Case Keenum, the Cougars won't be able to pull it off.  Bruins improve to 2-1.

Oregon State - This is a tough call.  The Beavers struggled mightily last year and even when they're good, they have problems in the early part of the season.  Give a slight edge to UCLA as they move to 3-1.

at Colorado - Not sure the Buffaloes have gotten any better over the past year, but this sets up for UCLA to start giving their fans the false hope that they could make it to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.  Bruins move to 4-1 and start crawling up the rankings.

at Cal - This game never makes any sense.  When it looks like Cal should pummel the Bruins, they lose.  When it looks like UCLA should own the Bears, Cal rises up and wins.  A coin-toss again this year, but I'll take Cal at home and UCLA reading too many of their own press clippings and being over-confident, falling to 4-2.

Utah - I thought the Utes would challenge in the South division of the Pac-12 last year.  They let me down.  This year, I think they'll live up to expectations and put a hurting on the Bruins.  UCLA drops to 4-3.

at Arizona State - They played a tight one last year at the Rose Bowl, with the Sun Devils missing a last second field goal giving the Bruins the win.  This year, they take care of business at home and send UCLA to 4-4.

Arizona - The Wildcats absolutely emarassed the Bruins last year in what ended up being a disaster of a season for them.  They've lost their quarterback, but have a new head coach in Rich Rodriguez that might have the offense moving by the time they head to Pasadena.  Think it will take another year for RichRod to have the pieces in place and UCLA exacts some revenge for last year, moving to 5-4.

at Washington State - The Cougars got the coach that I had hoped UCLA would get to finally bring a quarterback to Westwood.  And while they got the coach, they still don't have the players.  Bruins roll to a 6-4 mark.

USC - Fifty to nothing.  To your rival.  An ugly way to close out the regular season last year.  And while it may not be that bad this year, it's going to be ugly again as the Bruins fall to 6-5.

Stanford - The Cardinal aren't going to be the machine they've been the last few years with Andrew Luck at the controls.  They'll still be solid and that's generally enough to beat the Bruins the last few years as they can't get out of their own way.  Look for it to continue as UCLA loses the last two at home to finish 6-6.

A few early picks for Week 1:

South Carolina -6 at Vanderbilt - The Gamecocks were a complete disaster against Auburn last year from playing LSU in the SEC Championship for a trip to the National Title Game.  If Marcus Lattimore is completely healthy and Connor Shaw has progressed under The Head Ball Coach, South Carolina will be tough again and open with an easy win against the Commodores.

At West Virginia -23.5 Marshall - This is considered a rivalry game because they're both from West Virginia, but when one team has never won a game in the series, it doesn't seem like much of a rivalry.  Marshall keeps that perfect record intact and falls again to a Mountaineer team hoping to be in the discussion for the BCS.

To all you college football fans, enjoy the start of the season this Thursday and even though I'm not a fan of the Fighting Irish, I'll be tipping back a cold one at 6am on Saturday as they kick it off against Navy in Ireland.  Welcome back, old friend; it's been a long eight months.