First Game. Feel that?

Orange jerseys, shirts, caps, banners dotted what seemed like only a small partisan crowd among the tailgaters.

School hadn’t started, and many students were probably missing what could be the second best game of the year.

But expectations weren’t so high.

Yet the hot dogs were cooking, its aroma instantly reminding what time of year it was. College football season.

Feel that?

It did take nearly two hours to find ourselves in what would become a raucous Den, facing the mid-afternoon sun.

It was the first game –and it was nationally televised.

How often does that happen at UCLA?

I wouldn’t miss a ranked opponent, specifically one from the trash-talking SEC Conference, attempt to bully its way into the Rose Bowl.

Honestly, my expectations of this UCLA football team, and its offense in particular, were quite miniscule, seeing that its offensive line was thrown together last minute, with inexperienced surfers and random Samoans joining forces to protect Kahlil Bell and a jittery quarterback.

That jittery quarterback – Kevin Craft - whose only success was throwing at junior college, lofted the ball as if throwing to Goliath – twice, flat out passed to the Tennessee secondary once, and threw one that was taken to the wrong endzone – for four interceptions – all in a half of play.
By halftime, everyone was calling for his head.

I headed out to get myself some expensive hot dogs to make myself feel better before the nightmare ended.

It was quite ugly.

And when this team of midgets (a Pee Wee League squad) took the field and when its quarterback threw darts across the field, we harshly declared him better than this Kevin Craft guy.

But that was just the first half of play.

Armed with perhaps the best coaching staff in the nation – DeWayne Walker, Rick Neuheisel, and Norm Chow, the game plan in the second half dramatically differed from that of the first.

I did expect the defense to execute with quickness and brutality, and they did so for the most part, getting into the heads of the best offensive line in the country, which was flagged for at least five false starts.

With mastermind Norm Chow calling out the shots, quick drops and quick pitches resulted in fresh sets of downs, and the Bruins finally effectively moved the ball. Craft completed 18 of 25 in the second half for nearly 200 yards.

Nothing was more impressive, however, than the two-minute drill he ran, as UCLA marched down the field with their back-up tight end, freshman running back, and wideouts with no game-experience.
And as Craft pounded the ball into the endzone, the Den roared. Gangsters embraced nerds. Jocks jumped on other jocks. Drunk women kissed ugly men. I hugged men.

Pandemonium.

Feel that?

The greatest victory since December 2, 2006.

So perhaps that brash advertisement declaring that the “football monopoly in LA is over,” may very well signify something.

Or that the footsteps USC is hearing are rising up into crescendo, increasing by the minute.

It certainly was a noisy entrance for a new era of UCLA football.

Feel that?