A Big Week For UCLA Football and Basketball

Just a week after a pretty good Arizona team knocked rival USC out of the National Title race the UCLA Bruins football team put on one hell of a show on Saturday.  UCLA scored at least 10 points in every quarter during a 66-10 win over the Wildcats.  A 56 point win against a ranked team has to be, I am assuming here, the biggest in school history.  611 total yards on offense, almost spread equally between rushing and passing.  All in all an amazing effort by the Bruin team.

Another big thing that happened in this game was Jonathan Franklin has now become the leading rusher in UCLA history.  He passed the record in style as well.   He broke through the defense with a few incredible jukes and scored a 37 yard touchdown on the way to the record.   Franklin passed the record set by Gaston Green from 84-87 of 3,731 yards.  The next record for Franklin to break is the single season rushing total set by Karim Abdul-Jabbar, no not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in 1995.  The season rushing title is still in Franklin's sight as the Bruins as a team seem to be playing better and better.

There was more bright spots on the field for the Bruins.  Brett Hundley scored another rushing touchdown and he is now just one away from the Bruin record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback.  Oh and remember how I mentioned that USC got beat yesterday, well with this win the Bruins are now ahead of USC in the standings.  A place UCLA has not been in some 11 years this late in the season.  Yeah it must be a good day/week for the Bruins.

The Bruins also got some great news for their basketball team.  Kyle Anderson has been cleared by the NCAA and is ready for the season opener on Friday against Indiana State.  Anderson, I think, was never really the scope of an investigation as I believe his investigation was opened just to get a better look at Shabazz.  Anyways, that is all behind us now and we can again begin to hope that Shabazz is cleared of any wrongdoing.

Bruins hoops starts the season ranked in just about every poll, some as high as #3 in Sports Illustrated and as low as #13 by the Associated Press.  The rankings in the preseason I have always believed to be a big waste of time.  You never know how a team is going to play over the course of the season based on who is on the team.  The rankings right now mean absolutely nothing.  The Bruins should worry more about their ranking in March and April when the NCAA tournament is beginning.

Alas, this week has been a prosperous one for Bruin athletics.  UCLA has a new all-time leading rusher and oh yeah not to mention they are ahead of USC in the standings.  Let's not undersell the importance of being in control of your own destiny.  Another thing, the Bruins and coach Jim Mora definitely have something to build with beyond this season as Brett Hundley has consistently shown that he can lead this team and shine personally.  Usually at this time of the football season most UCLA fans have already been ready for basketball season to begin, but this season basketball may have to wait a couple more weeks to be in the spotlight on campus.

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