- Welcome to Bruin Source. This is Ed. - And this is Isaiah. - We got Isaiah for one more week, so we're gonna take advantage of it. A lot going on, actually, for an off-season kind of week. But let's start on the football side of things, because I think we've had a couple of transfers commit to UCLA. We have Big Ten Media Day starting off today, actually. And a CFB-25 is out, and we've been hard at work playing the game, testing it for the fans who are on the fence. But let's start with transfers. Two guys have committed, and the last two or three days, basically, two running backs. And it feels like UCLA finally has a pretty well-stocked running back room, which isn't shocking since our head coach is a running backs coach. And a former running back, obviously, and our OC is a former running back. - So what do you make of these guys? - Yeah, you know, we have to give some background here, just to remind our fans and ourselves that Deshawn Foster was very aggressive in the transfer portal looking for running back throughout, you know, earlier in the cycle. A few months ago, and then we almost landed, I think it's Emery Jones, from LSU, and he ended up returning to school. There were some rumors that something happened with his academics. I don't know, we don't know what happened, but the fact is that it looked promising at one point, it didn't happen. So after that, it went pretty quiet, and we weren't sure. Now, one of the running backs, Jaylenberger, actually visited UCLA. So his commitment wasn't too much a surprise, but to get two guys, and now we feel like we have one that Jaylenberger serves as that power back. He's 6'1", and about 2'10", big guy, and obviously is familiar with the big 10. And then we also get the guy from Kansas State, what's his name's that? - Anthony Fries the second. - Anthony Fries the second, and he's returning from California, or returning to California from Kansas State. He's a, you know, JUCO guy who went to Power Five, he went to the big 12, and now he's back home. But I think this is a great situation for both of the guys. I think they both, you know, are going to be gunning for their spots. I'm curious to see how that plays out, because after Hardin, you know, we have Keegan who came back as well, and a former transfer portal entry, and was our guy in space, but we didn't have necessarily that clear number two power back. And it looks like now we have a room which is going to be a bunch of guys pushing each other, and I'm excited to see it. It feels like a Deshawn Foster and Eric Binemie running back room. So this is cool to see, and a nice late off-season surprise, before we start camp in a few weeks. - It feels like a much more balanced running back room, right? And I don't think either of these guys are coming for TJ Hardin's job anytime soon. But I think there was, like you mentioned, legitimate concern when TJ Hardin needs a breather, who is going to be the guy who comes in after him. Now Keegan Jones is a hell of a player. He's obviously super fast, and we should be utilizing that speed, but he's not the type of guy that you can throw in there for a series of running the ball if we're trying to play a punishing running game. He's just not that type of player. And I think this is a good move for him too, because it actually allows him to really utilize his versatility and for the team and for Binemie to utilize him in different ways, right? He can catch the ball out of the backfield a little bit more. He can split out wide. If he's not just being purely a number two running back type guy. I think Jalen Berger is interesting. Like you mentioned, he's a big ten veteran. Probably the most veteran, big ten guy that we have on our team. Played at Wisconsin for a year, then went to Michigan State for a couple. And he's had some success. Now, I think there might be some hand-ringing around him. I know we were chatting about this earlier, Isaiah. He apparently had some minor issues at Wisconsin disagreements around playing time and whatnot, where he was suspended from the team for a game or two, if I remember correctly, and then eventually transferred. So, you know, I've seen some hand-ringing around like, "Oh, how is he going to act here? Is he going to, you know, cause issues?" I'm all for a second chance here. I mean, clearly he's been fine at MSU. He's been playing for a couple years there now, and he's, you know, contributed to the team. And he's transferring now because the staff has changed. So, I don't think there's any reason to be concerned in my opinion, but I don't know. Do you think differently about Jillian? No, yeah. I mean, it's always a concern when you see, I think he was actually dismissed eventually, but it's a concern. You want to know, you know, the reasons with this guy because no matter what, UCLA always has this type of responsibility to take really high character guys. So, when you see that in a record, it brings up questions. But to your point, it had to do with playing time. I think he was recruited over at that point after his freshman or sophomore year, and there were some disagreements. There's a maturity that is natural to being young. But it wasn't off the field issues, which was great to see, and it wasn't academic, which was great to see. So, I think with that, Deshawn Foster, as we've seen, is a transfer running back whisper, and I expect him to do wonders. So, I think in terms of if we want to even consider this sort of a rehab for someone who has this type of market, I don't even see it that way, but if anyone's going to be able to manage a room who's shown experience on that end, it's Deshawn Foster. We have to remember he balanced two big power backs. Both went to the NFL with Britain Brown and Zach with Charbonnet, and these are things that Jaylen knows, and a big reason why he wants to come to UCLA. He knows that he's going to get the teaching he needs, and we do have a pipeline, and a lot of teams that look at our running backs as solid guys, and we're understated RBU. So, I think it's a great choice for him. It's to be seen, you know, he does have a bit of an injury history, but the talent is, if it's realized throughout the season, I think he's going to have some fun moments, and I think it could be a cool reclamation, or just kind of like his bounce back, because Wisconsin, he showed a lot of promise, and things happen in college, and sometimes you don't see it till years later. So, hopefully it's in a rosebone and blue and gold. Yeah, I think the other aspect of taking this kid is, we mentioned it a little bit, he has an immense amount of experience against the Big Ten. He knows these teams. He knows probably some of these other players, like he knows the schemes and coaching that goes into these teams. So, having a guy on your roster that has some knowledge about who we're playing, and the opponents are playing, and what these atmospheres are going to be like when we go on the road against them, is going to be really invaluable for a brand new team going into that conference. So, I hope that he is able to depart with some of his wisdom to the other players and help them learn and understand the Big Ten a little bit better, because I think that will help the acclimation process of UCLA coming to the Big Ten a little bit with the players. So, I think that's an interesting thing to watch out for with him. Can he be that leader that can help the team and help our players kind of acclimate to the Big Ten? But, yeah, I'm happy to bring him on. It should be a good addition to the running back room. I think we have a legitimate RB2 now. Anthony Frias II is interesting to me. He, like you mentioned, is originally from California from Turlock. He was in the Juco for a couple of years and then went to Kansas State, and, you know, hasn't contributed a ton there. If I look up his stats, he appeared ten times for the Wildcats. He rushed thirteen times for a total of 42 yards and had a couple of receptions for, like, five yards. So, yeah, it's kind of interesting to see, like, what is he going to contribute? Is he more of just a depth guy? The other aspect of him is he also was a pretty big-time contributor on special teams. So, maybe that's the thinking, like, is he a special team specialist? I'm a little curious about the reasoning that DeShawn Foster has for bringing on a guy like Frias. Yeah, I figured Frias was the decision, you know, we needed a running back, one more running back as well, so you can't pass up on Jalen even after giving the talent. But Frias was come in in terms of giving a shot. My expectations are a little bit termper on him. I do have a soft spot for him for being in a Central Valley guy, and so I am rooting for him. I just don't have crazy expectations in terms of him cracking the rotation, and I imagine he's going to be more so off on kick-off defending or, you know, more of a scout. I don't even want to say scout, but more of a practice guy. But you never know, you know, Kansas State has put out some really good running backs recently. I don't know if they put them out in the NFL, but they've shown it at least at the college level. So, we'll see what kind of pedigree he brings over, and we may be raving about him in fall camp. So, he could be a welcome surprise, and we love, you know, always a fun Cinderella or a pop-up story in fall camp. I don't necessarily have crazy expectations of him, but again, depth is always good, and especially in a key position like that. Yeah, I agree. I don't think there's a lot to expect out of him, especially in his first year, but you never know. I mean, when we took Josh Kelly, I don't know if anybody was expecting Josh Kelly to become who Josh Kelly became, you know, coming out of UC Davis and now has been running back in the NFL for, you know, four or five years. That was kind of out of love field, so you never know with these types of players that are kind of unknown, and, you know, they just need the right place and be here at the right time to really take off, establish themselves and kind of prove their talent, and maybe we have another one of those stories on our hands. Maybe we don't. I don't know. We'll, I guess we'll find out in a short few weeks. Yeah, short few weeks, so I, you know, yours pointing out that this week has been a little bit busy and it's picking up, but I think we're officially over to Dead Period because today is the beginning of our inaugural Big Ten Media Day for UCLA fans, and it's an exciting time. Tomorrow, I believe we're going to be the first one up, I believe, at 1130 Eastern Time, so it's going to be pretty early for Pacific fans, and by the time you actually hear this, tidbits might have already been all over the web about our media day, but it's exciting. So, the DeShawn Foster is bringing on Ethan Garbers, Jay Toya, and actually today, which happened, is that JMS is going to be joining, so Michael Sturdevant is going to be joining and replacing our awesome linebacker. So, in that, I'm curious, what are you looking forward to hearing from DeShawn Foster? Yeah, I'm interested to see DeShawn Foster acclimate to, like, a big-time media day like this. Obviously, he's been dealing with local Los Angeles media for a while now, he knows the reporters, but I don't think he's ever had to deal with, you know, national media at this scale as a head coach, or even as a running-back coach in his career at this point. So, I'm curious to see how and what he says to them and how he kind of positions UCLA coming into this conference. You know, he's a chill and very calm, like, energy person, but still very engaging, right? He's not a guy who's hootin' hollerin' and, you know, kind of turnin' up the energy in that way, but he is a guy I think that is, even when he's talking, he's very thoughtful in how he speaks, right? And he's very well-spoken, but he's a little subdued, and he's always kind of carried himself that way. So, I'm interested to see kind of how he positions UCLA. I would expect him to kind of keep the same message up, right? You know, UCLA is being kind of positioned by the media, at least, as this team that is super depleted, they're gonna come in, and, you know, maybe they'll win two, maybe three games. And I think the message from DeShawn Foster, at least in the media here, has been, that's not who we think we are. Like, we're rebuilding, for sure. You know, we're a new staff. We're still figuring it out, and we're bringing a new talent, but that doesn't mean we're not gonna be able to win games, or we're not gonna even try to go win games. Like, there's no moral victories here. And that message has come out loud and clear from his camp, and I'm curious to see when he brings that message to the Big Ten media, when he starts talking about that, like, how that's received and how that's perceived by folks in the Big Ten media. I mean, you look at some of the rankings that the Big Ten media have put out, right? And these aren't official conference rankings, like the Pac-12 used to do, but, you know, there's a number of media, Big Ten media folks who have put together these rankings, and UCLA's 15th, right? So there's a clear, like, dismissing of UCLA coming into this, and I think as pessimistic as I generally am about football, I think we will most likely, I think, disprove that theory, and I think Deshaun Foster is probably gonna be saying that at the Big Ten media day, so I'm curious to see what that message is, exactly, and how it's gonna be received. Yeah, I mean, I joked about this with you earlier, but I was saying if there's one thing, if I was gonna make this fun, I would just take a shot every time he talks about Dre, and that's not Dr. Dre, but discipline, respect, enthusiasm. Foster is a man of mantras, and we've seen that, and I think you've touched on it, and we've touched on it in the past, whether I'm gonna say Kevin, are you? Like, the guy, if you're gonna have this perception of being calm, you also wanna be someone who is seen as very balanced, and he comes off as that, so I think he's already headed out of a park on many fronts, and many things, I think Big Ten media day is gonna be very smooth selling. Actually, one of probably the most low-fair questions, or, you know, he's gonna have a lot of softball questions, I imagine, from the Big Ten media, with UCLA being new to the conference and left drama. Imagine if we had the other coach who, Ohio State was just glazing today, Ryan Day, wow, he, I think Chip Kelly probably knows where dead bodies are for Ryan Day, 'cause that guy said he would trust him with his life, and that was just, that was common. So, I mean, are you surprised, though? I mean, there are homies, right? Like, Chip Kelly kind of gave Ryan Day some of his start when he was starting his career, so none of that surprising, and how many times have had coaches said this about their coordinators, or their assistants, only for that to come and haunt them? Right, and Day, you know, I think for him, he's really banking on Chip, I don't wanna, Ohio State's gonna be interesting for us Bruin fans to watch. I think many of us know that they have very high expectations, and they're, oh, maybe besides Georgia is the favorite for, I think they're second in the odds, if not first in certain books. But I know part of me, and I know some of us Bruin fans are secretly just hoping it crashes and burns, and it is clearly at the helm of that other coach. That, probably, I don't think was that Big Ten Media Day, so I find it highly ironic that UCLA is there, and our former coach is in the conference, but he's not at the Media Day. And to shift it back to FOSS, and welcome to the FOSS era, I'm really looking forward to him just establishing that. We're not the school who's gonna bring a duck and throw it in the river, which is awesome that Oregon did that. I don't know if the Big Ten is ready for Oregon to be Oregon. They're about to see it on a different level in terms of show boating, but yeah, I think the guys are gonna get some great questions. I'm curious to see how FOSS talks about maybe J.Toya, and since those both of those guys maybe talk a little bit more about his recruitment or getting him back in the fold. The theme of continuity, talk about Eric Banana-Me, and I mean, it's not gonna be, I'm not expecting too many details, maybe, you know, just fall camp. I imagine maybe they slip up and are like, oh, I mean, not that they're keeping a secret, but kind of hint towards when fall camp is coming, and we kind of get an idea in some way. So those are the things I'm looking forward to, but it's just strange. I don't know if you said it before, it's strange seeing that Big Ten patch on our jersey. That's something that's just gonna take a while to get used to. It is definitely strange seeing that I still kind of do a double take when I see it. Even playing CFB 25, we can get to that in a second. I can't, I do a double take seeing it. But I think today, today, the Big Ten media, they actually kicked off. So I don't know if you got to read through any of the comments, like Tony, a petite, the commissioner made and some of the other folks, but he had some comments around the new schools coming in, which I thought was interesting. And he's just hyping them up, right? Hey, these four schools are coming in, they're all EU members, blah, blah, blah. It was funny how he called out, hey, there's 302 national championships coming in with these schools. Obviously, UCLA has over 100 of those. Southern Cal across town has nearly 100 of those, so like 2/3 of those are the LA schools coming in, and more than most of those carried by UCLA right now. So it's funny that Oregon and Washington are getting some hype around national championships that they haven't won, but I digress there. Yeah, did you find anything interesting around what he talked about today? Well, I think for him, the message I'm getting from this commissioner right now is that they don't have, they are staying put. I think what's going on with conference realignment with Big 12 and ACC having this kind of bickering war is that the Big Ten is sitting there pretty, and they're just saying, these are R4 schools, this is what they bring. I mean, obviously UCLA and USC bring the market, they bring the prestige, you can name whatever sport. And Oregon brings the money, and Washington obviously being the de facto school in the Pacific Northwest or in Washington, also with its own success. So I think the combination of the AAU emphasizing the amount of championships, I think that he is doubling down to even sending subliminals to other conferences and saying, "Hey, we are good for now," and I say for now because you never know. I think many of us were expecting Cal and Stanford to eventually come in, but it doesn't even seem like that's being explored, where at least Washington and Oregon were having, you know, they did their analysis, they explored the idea of adding them. It didn't come out of nowhere, it was actually, they just sat and poached them at the right time. And I say that because also the other thing he mentioned was that the Big Ten championship is staying in Indianapolis. I think there is a point to that where he is emphasizing like, "Hey, we are expanding West, but we do have our roots here in the Midwest. This is where most of the teams are. We have this ongoing relationship with Lucas Oil Stadium or whoever the entity owns it, and this is going to be Big Ten identity." So, you know, I think supposedly, you know, this guy is really bright and people really enjoy him, but it seems like the Big Ten is sending the message, whether we know what internally is going on, that they are very happy with the four schools they added on the West Coast and they are going to work it out. And they are not looking to make any moves, at least during this media cycle. I think that is what they are emphasizing. Yeah, he also talked a little bit about NIL, which I thought was interesting. Just the need for additional transparency and adding more safeguards to NIL and kind of how he thinks the Big Ten should help push some of that along and working with, you know, states and Congress and various different government entities to do that. I thought that was kind of interesting that he is commenting on, you know, the safeguards and trying to reel in some of the Wild West Run NIL. So, we will kind of see where that goes, especially with additional states involved now, right? Especially a state like California that has, you know, a lot of, you know, say in kind of how NIL has been governed recently in the last few years. So, curious to kind of see how that goes going forward. He also mentioned the Olympics, which I think we will talk about in a second, but the numbers for the Olympics are all over the place, you know. He is, so I don't really know how accurate these are, but, you know, he's talking about 49 Olympians on Team USA going to Paris this year, coming amongst those four schools. If I were to guess, I would say probably the majority of those are also UCLA and USC, but I don't know. I'll have to double check that. Yeah, so it was, but I digress. The NIL comments were kind of interesting, and I'm curious to see how the conference kind of leads some of that change if they implement additional rules or regulations around how NIL is conducted across schools. Yeah, and I mean, can we just say it is refreshing to be under competent leadership? Like, for me to think about, we're going into a season with frustration of how some conference is running, and I shouldn't even be thinking about that, but we were constantly just bogged down by a crappy network, media day, tone deaf comments. Just, you know, there was just so much lingering over the Pac-12, even before UCLA left, and that split in terms of the future of the Pac-12. So it is nice to finally have some semblance of subtleness and knowing that, you know, we are a part of this huge ship, and we were holding our weight, and it's time for us to make an impact. It's an exciting time. It's exciting to hear a commissioner talk about, obviously, like, trying to be at the forefront of NIL and expansion and whatnot, but even little, more simple things, right? Like, he's talking about technology and college athletics, you know, especially for football, how he thinks iPads should be much more better utilized in terms of, like, game replays and in-game kind of play-calling and things like that. And then the Big Ten's new replay center, and having, you know, dedicated replay officials and different angles and different ways to watch replays to better officiate games. Like, that is wild and refreshing for a Pac-12 fan coming from the shitty refereeing that we've seen over the past decade or so, right? That, hey, this guy is recognizing we can do better with different technology and help improve refereeing and help officiating, like, let's do it. And it's, yeah, it's just a complete, you know, 180 from where we were a year or two ago with the Pac-12. And, like, there were never these types of engaging conversations, I feel like, coming from Larry Scott or from Klee of Kav. I feel like they were often either just a little defensive about things or trying to, you know, pump up the bad decisions that they made, namely, like the Pac-12 network. And we weren't ever forward thinking. We were never thinking about these types of things, even though they claim they were, but they never really did anything. And it feels like this conference is going to actually take action on some of these things. So I'm excited to see how they actually kind of manifest themselves. Yeah, and then me and Zed will be, instead of you having Sling, was it Sling or Fubo? Which one, I don't even... I went through all, I went through everything, man. Anytime this Sling would drop Pac-12 network, I'd have to move to Fubo. If Fubo dropped it, I'd move to Sling, it was a mess. Now we can just still Kevin's login, because he has Big Ten network. That's what I do. So shout out to him. I got it right here. I'm good. Now it's much more easily accessible. Yeah. One last thing on Big Ten media day before we move on, and that is that... So Big Ten is a little bit different from other conferences, and they don't have an official poll. However, there is this Cleveland publication that does their own polling, similar to how the Pac-12 does it, and they place this at 15. I know many of us probably have us higher. I know for me, I at least have us in the 11th range, and at best in the 7th. But the other thing is, again, this is just perception, and we can go through many reasons, and we'll spare us of why that is the case. Going into the Big Ten, but the clear thing is the unknown of the coaching, and so I don't have an issue with this. It doesn't make me... I don't have much of a reaction, but what I am curious about when we do... or you and Kevin, or maybe I'll join, a preview of the season, is that the projected conference win totals was brought up today, and they have us at 2.8. Now, these aren't decimals, just given that... I don't know why they did decimals, but... so they're expecting us to win three games, and I just think out of nine games, three and six is achievable, but we'll see. We'll see. It's going to be interesting to see that. I hope that we don't go three and six in our first year, but it's interesting to see that. Going into the Big Ten, obviously we're not one of the highly projected teams, but I just think we can only go up from here at this point, given the perception. That's where we are. Kevin and I have talked about this pretty often in the last few weeks. If we went three and six, I think we can consider that an unmitigated disaster. I think there is still enough talent on this team to be competitive, and for Coach Foster to establish his tenure on the right foot here. He's done a lot of the right things already. He's fixing and improving recruiting. He's bringing in donors and bringing in NIL money. He's engaging with the fans and trying to build the fan base back up. All that stuff is great. I props to him. We've been nothing but complimentary about what he's done so far. But all of that will dissipate immediately. None of it will matter if you go three and six. If you have that kind of blow up season, the type of season that our previous coach started off his tenure with. I think we will lose everybody again. A lot quicker than last time because we just lived through that already. There's already distrust with between UCLA fans and donors and recruits and UCLA the program. Regardless of whether that's fair to Coach Foster or not, I think that's just the reality of it. And that being said, I think we are being underrated. I mentioned this earlier. I am a very pessimistic fan. You know this. Most people who know me know this. I just assume we're going to lose every single game. And when we win, it's a pleasant surprise. But I still think we have it in us to win more than three games like that. I think is way, way, way, way too low. Even four games feels low. I would put UCLA somewhere between the five and seven game range of wins. And it all kind of depends on where some of these as Kevin was calling them, as we talked about a couple of weeks ago. There's these coin flip games which a huge chunk of our season is. There are like 50-50 games that neither team is really a favorite. Neither team can win. And it solely depends on how UCLA can handle those games. Can we squeak some of those out? Can we win some of those games by hook or by crook? Whatever we can do to win those. If we can win those 50-50 games, we have a good shot of putting together at least a decent season that gets us into a bowl. If we can do that, I think that's a huge, huge win. And I think it's very possible to do. And if you look at even the Vegas odds, I think last I checked at least. This could have changed. Vegas was predicting what like five and a half wins, I think. It's going to go down to four and a half at some point. It's just going to fluctuate. Sure, sure. It's going to fluctuate. That's fine. But, you know, we're working with the information we have today, same as any other person in the media predicting games. That's not Vegas, right? And so for publications or for media members to say, "Yeah, UCLA is only going to predict and win three games," I think is low. I think I would trust Vegas a little bit more on this one. I would not be surprised if we won six games, maybe even seven depending on how the chips fall. The team has the ability and has enough continuity and talent to do that, even in a better conference like the Big Ten. I don't think the talent level is that bad. It's not great, but it's not that bad. Yeah, I agree. And I think to your bigger point is we just hope the media is wrong. And at least the media and expectations that others have of us coming into Big Ten are wrong. And because if everything plays out to their expectations, it's not going to be a lot of happy campers in the Rose Bowl and West LA and Orange County and everywhere else in Southern California and throughout the country. So that's one thing. It's understandable why they have that perception, but let's make sure that doesn't happen in the false error. Let's not start that off. We can't start the false error off that way. That's for sure. No, we can't. But other thing that's starting this week, and you've already kind of touched on it a little bit with the Big Ten Commissioner, but Friday, the Olympics begin. And for Bruins, we're used to Olympians or one of the spoiled programs in that respect, but I do want to just chuck out the numbers that I have. There's all these numbers that go around. I would think that this would just be more accurate. The rosters would be finalized. But we are expected to have 49 Bruins in Paris and 40 of them athletes and nine of them, the coaching staff, and on the players or the athletes side, two of the biggest, more visible people are players at Bruins that we have is Drew Holiday, who's been pretty much the Drew we know since the finals and has not skipped the beat. And then also Jordan Charles and gymnastics, who is a superstar at UCLA, and she's going to take her talents, which I'm excited to see. And then the coaching staff said, "I know you've taken to volleyball program and how they're going to go." Yeah, I'm excited to watch the men's volleyball team specifically. John Spiro obviously won the national title with the men's volleyball team this season, and he's also the head coach for Team USA. So I am excited and hopeful he can pull a double. It feels like that's never been done before. Someone should vet me on that, I'm not sure. But for a coach to go win the NCAA title and then go win a gold medal in the same season, it's pretty special. So I am pulling for him, and hopefully he can help do that. The other guy on the women's side of volleyball things, Karch Kirali, who played at UCLA and won several gold medals as a player himself, also is coaching the women's team, and hopefully he can double up. I think they won gold when he coached back in 2022. So there's a lot of coaching, legacy, and volleyball across a lot of sports, but UCLA really is shining again this season, or this not season, this year of the Olympics on that front. But yeah, I love the Olympics. I'm super hyped for them, for all the athletes. I'll watch any of these random sports, like speed walking, archery, gimme anything. It's all fun. Yeah, I'm looking forward to curling. Wrong season, but good. I just, even in the summer, or surfing into Haiti. That is happening by the way. Surfing into Haiti will be really cool, and I just found out, apparently, the actual event itself is free to attend. So if you want to just fly out to Tahiti, you can go watch some Olympic surfing, which would be pretty cool. There you go. The other cool thing that UCLA is doing this year, and I don't think they've ever done this, but the school is taking over like an old, or a cafe in Paris, and rebranding it as the UCLA cafe. And they're going, the idea is to do meet and greets with coaches and athletes, and do some alumni mixers, and try to promote UCLA's brand in Paris and in France overseas to the Parisians and other folks visiting for the games, which is a really cool brand building exercise and brand building thing that they're doing, that I'm really stoked that they're being innovative and doing something kind of fun and cool for fans out there. And the other thing I think that they're also trying to do is promote LA2028 through this effort as well. So kudos to whoever came up with this idea. I think it's awesome. I'm glad that we're taking the UCLA banner overseas and waving it a little bit and making the school's brand a little bit more prominent in a place and in an event that UCLA has so much history and so much success. And so that's pretty cool to see and shout out to whoever came up with the idea because I'm a big fan of this one. Yeah, I'm for it. I think it just goes back to UCLA's momentum on taking advantage of the moment. So we spoke about that in our last episode with other cool initiatives they're doing with the fans, so I'm all about it. It's about engagement, folks. Definitely about engagement, especially for UCLA that has such a big global brand already. Makes sense to do that. While we're in Paris, today what we got announced was that the women's team is actually going to be starting their season on November 4 against Louisville. And so I'm super excited about that because it just seems like we are again taking advantage of the moment and making this a Paris team week. So it's cool to see that. And I love seeing the team start or at least getting a game or practice overseas. So starting that off and them getting that experience is going to be cool. I think that's a really cool thing for the women's team to do. You also have to think about the international angle that UCLA is playing here. We have had a lot of international players come through the UCLA women's program to great success, right? We're not going to talk about the disaster class of the men's international recruiting from last season, but the women have had a lot of players come in from all over the place, Australia. You know, I think Angela Dougalich is playing this year in the Olympics actually for Serbia, who played at UCLA for a number of years, Emily Basois from France, like there's a lot of players. I'm sure I'm missing some, you know, leading us on tag is another one. Like you can keep naming international players. So it's cool to see, oops, sorry, I dropped my phone. It's cool to see UCLA women basketball, you know, embrace that success and, you know, keep promoting that recruiting footprint. Keep, you know, establishing that recruiting footprint. I think it's a smart play. So good on Coach Close for, and the AD for figuring that one out. I'm excited to watch that. That'll be fun. Yeah, many props. I think we're getting close to time, but we should mention one more thing. I feel like we've alluded to it a little bit, but we finally have gotten our hands on college football 25. I've finally had the chance to play it a little bit last night. We're recording on Tuesday, the 23rd. So I was a little delayed due to some travel, but I finally have got my hands on it. But you, from what I understand, have gone like full middle school mode here. Like you have Domino's pizza and Mountain Dew and shit, employee all-nighters. I had diet Mountain Dew, and if you get that reference, then shout out to you. But no, yeah, last Friday, I think this has probably been my most unproductive stretch of work and just doing things in life. I'm loving it. I am completely loving it. I think the fun thing about this game is the gameplay. You can tell they put a lot of emphasis on that. Now, I will say, in case it's on the mind of anyone who has played it, yes, there are a lot of issues and little bugs and little things that the EA team has already addressed that they're working on fixing, and I think they named everything that I knew of. Or I experienced, but other than that, at the end of the day, the gameplay is there, and the soul of it's there, and it was cool to see how UCLA really has been treated on this front, because, again, they have 134 teams to go through, and it feels like we were one of the premier schools. To have that attention, the playing at the Rose Bowl feels like the more of days in 2014, and it gets you excited about the future. The team itself, I think it's, you know, the key guys outside of Jay Toya, which has already been, you know, out there in the Twitter space about being underrated, but most of the other guys are there. There's some players missing, and I think you mentioned, like with Rico, there was like a hiccup, sometimes there's paperwork, sometimes, you know, sometimes they just make up players for UCLA players, it's just how it is. Who the hell is Joseph Vons? Yeah, and why is he white? He's like light skin. Why is John John not there? Why? It's Joseph Vons. I'm so confused. When he sacked the quarterback, shout out to Joseph Vons, whoever you are out there will take you too, because you are lit in the game. Yeah, there's a few creative players. I was like, what the hell, but they are lit, and I'm just like, all right. Yeah, sure, you're good enough to play. So, yeah, I think the thing is it's exciting about the game is that you play as UCLA's old playbook from that old coach. But it's a fun game. I think that it's exciting. It fills in this dead period that we have in July. I know for me, by the time August does arrive and we play Hawaii, I hopefully will have known, you know, at least 10 of their players I should keep out for because of this game. And it's a fun exercise. Me and Zed, we're gonna be the receiver letting me up last night. It happens, you know, our DB still get burned sometimes on big plays, and that's just the UCLA way. Sometimes it's boom or bust. Sometimes you get a fumble, and then next thing you know, you get three and out, just the UCLA way. So, no, I'm excited about it. I'm glad college football is back. It feels like kind of a softer landing to this new era of college football with the expanded playoff and the conference realignment. And I feel like the EA definitely got it right. And I'm looking forward to them improving on the areas that can be easily approved. And, you know, this just continuing on during the season. I was gonna say, you know, right now I am 4-1 in the season so far. I'm actually currently, I'm on pause with Minnesota and kicking their ass. But if we're, I have a very long history of predicting 10 and 2 more as years. And Chip Kelly, we are, I'm gonna get that 10 or 2. I might have cursed myself right now, but I'm gonna get that somewhere or another. Who would you say that out loud? Yeah, so now all the pressures off the UCLA, 'cause I'm gonna get that in this video game, crossing my fingers. I'm almost there. But yeah, I'm excited about it. I'm happy it's back. I'm happy I got a council for the first time in 15 years and it's cool to be playing college football. The attention to detail in this game is wild to me. I really appreciate, like, the eight-clap going on in the background as you're playing the game, the victory bell ringing on third downs. There's just those nice little touches that they've put in that really make it feel authentic. And I think it's no longer just a, you know, a Madden rehash with slightly different mechanics and, you know, different designs of the teams, right? It really feels like it's a unique game. I haven't gotten too deep into, like, the recruiting mechanics or anything yet. I'm excited to mess around with that. That's always fun. And then, you know, I think we've been talking about doing that online dynasty. Hopefully, we can get that off the ground soon. But yeah, it's a pretty, pretty good, great representation of college football. It feels real. And it's been in my limited gameplay. It's been a blast, man. Like, I was up way too late last night. I ended up staying up to, like, one. And I had to get up at five to drive to a meeting in Irvine this morning. And that was a major, major mistake on my end. And I have been suffering for that since then. But it was worth it because, like, the game just sucked me in. I was like, I don't want to play one game. And then, like, two hours later, I was like, Oh, shit. That's one am. And I did not have Mountain Dew, or Domino's, unfortunately, to keep me going. That's all right. We'll have it someday. And to match you, I was up till 2am. I don't think I've stayed up on a school night that late until then. But again, I'm a middle schooler now. So, shout out to EA. I don't say that often about EA, but it's exciting. I don't know. I actually, the one thing you mentioned about college football, it's so, it is college football. And so that I just have to give him so much props. I'm very happy about the game. I had very tempered expectations, but it is everything in its name. And I think it's going to, it's going to do numbers. And it feels real from a gameplay perspective, too. Like, there is a legitimate learning curve to this game. And if you play with one team, you play with the worst team, and then you go play with, like, Georgia or Ohio State. There is a massive, notable difference. It'll feel like an old football game, even when you played with the worst team. Like, you could still, like, it wasn't noticeable. In this game, you feel it. Like, if you have a good quarterback versus a great quarterback or a bad quarterback versus like, even an okay quarter, like, you feel the differences and how those guys play. And that's, that in and of itself is really cool. And I'm also looking forward to, like, the weekly or in season updates that they're going to do to kind of help change the game and evolve as the season goes on. That's going to be dope. I hope they also update some of our roster. Get Rico in there. Replace Joseph Vons with John Vons. That would be, that would be cool. We're missing a few linemen, but we'll get them. Yeah. Again, some of them are transfer, so it makes sense, but we'll get them. Yeah. But yeah, so far, so far, so good. The other thing, I just want to quickly say this and then we can, we can wrap up. So the thing is, you know, I, I'm curious to see how it impacts recruiting in real life because UCLA hasn't had much visibility being in the Pac-12 and, and losing. And, but then in a day, if you're a kid from the Midwest and your favorite team is Michigan or whoever, and you have to play UCLA, you start to realize like, wow, these are some beautiful jerseys. Like I, I played against Michigan on a random game and I was like, look at this color combination, you know, so some of the things they miss on a Saturday when hundreds of games are going on. I think it is a little bit like passive marketing for us too, that we just wouldn't have got, or we've been missing because, you know, when anyone sees our colors, they stick out and they're gorgeous. So clearly not bias here, no brewing bias, but I'm excited to see if that, that pays off, you know, in the coming years. Yeah, I mean, look, it's not like they're the best uniforms in all of sports or anything. So, no bias, no bias here either. But, yeah, it'll be, it'll be interesting to see like it can this become a tool, right? Can we can we utilize this a little bit? And I'm sure also, or sorts of schools are. If I have recruits coming, I'm putting that game up and showing people, right? This is what it looks like, but we'll see kind of how that manifests itself in real life, everybody. It's, it is a, it is a really fun game. It is fun to get a college football game back on, on the gaming consoles. I, I hope I have fingers crossed that they get a college basketball game in the works. I loved, loved the college basketball games. They were a blast. I still have my copy of '08 somewhere with Kevin Love on the front. I might fire that up in, in the Xbox and see, see how that plays. I'm sure it's going to play like complete utter garbage since it's 16 years old, but I, I hope EA can, can make that happen too. Yeah. Welcome back, college football. Welcome back. And thanks for turning Isaiah into an adolescent again. Yeah. Can we just, what that said? Should we, what are you going to say? I was just going to say, can we just acknowledge the fact that you live in New York City and you're eating dominoes? Oh, it was amazing. I ate a whole pie and, and I, and I did it in secret. I don't even tell New Yorkers that story because my friends would just completely, yeah, they would judge me. I wouldn't hear the end of it. You should be judged. That's sacrilege. Yeah. Well, I'm going to propose after we sign off, I don't know if this is going to happen because that's on very little sleep, but I say that we jump on and, and we, we jump off now and then go jump on the game. I'm up for it, but I think first, I am not opposed to that. And I think that's a great segue into ending this episode so we can go make that happen. All right. Well, with that, we are going to sign off. So Isaiah can kick my ass at this game that I still don't know how to fully play it. You know where to find us. Please follow us on X at BruinSource, Tweet at us, retweet us, share us with your friends who are interested in UCLA Athletics or interested in the Big Ten or learning about the Big Ten. We are here. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, basically every podcast platform on the planet. If you can't find us there, let us know. We'll get it there. Leave us comments, reviews, all that kind of good stuff. We love seeing that and it helps us a ton, so we always appreciate it. And lastly, you can find us on the collegehuddle.com. There are pages up there. Our episodes are automatically loaded there. Check out our page, but also check out all the other awesome independent college podcasts on there. If you're trying to learn about the Big Ten, there's no better place to do it. Lots of cool stuff. Lots of cool guys and gals making some good content there, so check it out. And until next week, as always, go Bruins. Go Bruins. What's up, guys? We normally don't do a postscript, but we're going to do a postscript today anyways. It's just going to be me real quick. We'll probably talk about this a little more in depth next week with Kevin and/or Isaiah. But just wanted to quickly talk about Coach Foster's first Big Ten media day appearance. Obviously, it was not a good look. His initial press conference, he clearly froze up, did not present himself in the manner that I think most fans hoped and were expecting him to present himself. That being said, I do feel like this whole thing is being slightly overblown. I think this is not indicative of how or how well he can perform his job as a head coach. I think this is going to be a one-off thing, and I don't even think that it really indicates a lack of preparation. I think Coach Foster seems like a pretty quiet guy, pretty reserved, and we've talked about that on this show before. And he doesn't have a lot of experience addressing the media, especially on such a big stage. And some people just don't like to public speak. And I think he clearly just froze up in the big lights there. I think it's, in my opinion, unfair to extrapolate that to how he coaches a football game, how he will perform when he is under a lot of scrutiny in the middle of a football game. I don't think any of this translates over to that. But yeah, it's, again, it was not a great look, but I think people are fretting a little too much about this. I think we will largely move on from this. And in fall, if we never talk about this ever again, I think it'll be a good thing because that means we'll probably be winning games, and Coach Foster will be doing his job well. The part that matters the most, and that's winning games. So, again, we'll talk about this a little more next week. Just wanted to quickly throw out a couple thoughts since it just happened a day or so go, and everybody's talking about it, Internet's talking about it. And even in the last day or so, the hoopla around it is starting to die off. So, yeah, anyways, that's all. We'll chat with you guys next week, and as always, Go Bruins.
