Jeff Baca News

Bowled over? OK, to get one of the Pacific 10 Conference's automatic bowl bids, UCLA would need USC to lose its last two games and California to win at least one, or .

UCLA's young offensive line is improving, that's for sure. The Bruins' three-game streak of more than 450 yards a game is a direct result of better protection in the passing game and better blocking in the running game.

UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince has left the Bruins' game against Washington after receiving a helmet-to-helmet hit from linebacker Donald Butler.

UCLA's offense has become the little engine that stalled just before the top of the mountain.

The locker room empty but for a few souls, UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel pulled up a chair next to his battered and bruised young quarterback and had a heart-to-heart with Kevin Prince after the Bruins' 45-26 loss to Cal on Saturday.

UCLA had an All-America quarterback at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. Of course, he wasn't playing for the Bruins but on their sideline, wearing aviator sunglasses, a blue-checkered button-up shirt, khaki pants and suede loafers and shaking his head, feeling his former team's pain.

Bruins continue to use the bye week to work on fundamentals and slowly work in players who went down with injuries during late summer camp.

When Nick Ekbatani went down on Aug.17 with a sprained left MCL, UCLA was left without its most senior offensive lineman, a man who started 12 games last season for the Bruins, a key holdover from the disappointment of 2008 to the promise of 2009.

Three weeks into the season, UCLA is back in training camp. In Tuesday's practice, what was old was new again - the perfect footwork, the precise handwork, the exact head placement - and technique was at a premium.

UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince has a broken jaw and will miss 3-4 weeks minimum, Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel confirmed on Sunday.

There was blood speckling and streaking his UCLA No. 14 jersey. His aching right knee was stained by the grass, and his arms were scratched and chafed by the hands of the Tennessee defenders who wanted a piece of him.

When the UCLA Bruins first peer at the Tennessee Volunteers across the Neyland Stadium field today, they are expecting sneers and snorts, anger and bloodlust, the blaring sounds of Rocky Top piercing their ears like the sirens.

A SHOW ABOUT NOTHING: All Korey Bosworth wants on Saturday is nothing. Well, more appropriately, nothingness.

Is Chane Moline a tailback who can block or a fullback who can run? He returns for his senior season at UCLA with more carries than any other Bruin.

All eyes are on the big uglies who could take a MASSIVE step forward and be average.

As UCLA's depth chart is effectively complete with just one position left to decide - the strong safety battle between Glenn Love and Tony Dye - one key word becomes all the more important.

Mike Harris couldn't help but notice the wagon load of offensive linemen brought to Westwood this summer, and he knew what it meant.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller There are young offensive lines, and there's starting two true freshmen and a first-year JC transfer.

Photo Credit: Scotucla03 . From Scot's notes on this particular play, "Brian Price BLEW by Jeff Baca who recovered JUST quick enough to barely push him out of a tackle-for-loss." View full size photo uploaded August 16, 2009 In my Saturday's roundup I noted how the young UCLA OL had some good moments against the usually effective DL on Friday.

At some point, perhaps even at 8:45 a.m. on Monday, the "Relentlessly Positive" placard that's playing its sophomore season in the UCLA football locker room has got to become annoying.