OK I'll Bite...
Someone emailed this to me from College Football News and it reinforces what I wrote earlier.
Why? It's not that hard to understand: if USC was bored about the prospect of playing Illinois, the Trojans--awakened by this shot across the bow from their archrival--should find a fresh sense of urgency as they play the Illini in a few days. Mike White's 1983 team received a pounding from an L.A.-based school, and Ron Zook's 2007 crew now figures to encounter a similar fate against the other pigskin presence in the City of Angels.
I was listening to Colin Cowherd this morning and he made an interesting observation that Pete Carroll was essentially responsible for the hiring of Slick Rick. His reasoning was that because Pete Carroll is so charismatic and held such a tight grip on all the good press when it comes to CFB in L.A. that this forced ucla to play catch up to try and balance the scales.
Hiring a good coach is a necessary first step but I won't be impressed, as Slick Rick needs to win something first before he can be anointed the new King of L.A. RN's making a lot of noise already but it is just that noise and that is what he has done in the past and in order to shake his past he needs to deliver solid results in the future. The bigger question is will he revert to his old ways in order to hit a home run. I tend to think he has learned his lesson and will extra careful as to not tarnish the good name of his alma mater but in the end until he either goes back to his old ways or leaves ucla closing that chapter in his life we won't have that answer until one of those two things happen. I also think that he will make ucla more competitive but to what level I won't speculate on. he still has some hurdles to overcome like low pay for assistants and those pesky academic standards that ucla prides itself on.
This article actually helps prove my point that SC needs to stay focused and that the future is more important now than it was a month ago. Slick Rick will give PC a run for his money and that is a good thing for us so that we don't get complacent. SC has already proven itself time and again on the local and national stage its up to those in Westwood to find their own glory and they seem to have a decent choice but it is early yet and they have a long way to go. So, as I said before this hire doesn't scare me but it will kep us on our toes and that is a good thing.