Rick Neuheisel sees no added pressure for Bruins
UCLA FOOTBALL
Bold ad doesn't concern Bruins coach, who says there is a long way to go before UCLA can undo USC's football monopoly.
An ad for UCLA football in The Times on Monday declared, "The football monopoly in Los Angeles is officially over," a bold announcement that UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel had to deal with during the Pacific 10 Conference media call today.
"It looks like our marketing program is convinced, huh?" Neuheisel said. "I saw it first time this morning. My wife said it was a nice picture. That's all I know."
USC can claim "Yahtzee" after the last six seasons, with a 70-8 record with six conference titles and two national titles. UCLA has a 43-33 record in that time. Occidental, meanwhile, has a 47-12 record and three Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles during the same period.
Neuheisel said that he wasn't worried about giving USC players extra motivation.
"That game, in my experience, is game where everybody brings their 'A' game," Neuheisel said. "I don't imagine we can get their guys to play any harder."
As for the claim of breaking the monopoly, Neuheisel said, "We have a way to go to get that accomplished. There is no use trying to hide it. That's our goal."
And what does USC Coach Pete Carroll think of all this?
"I don't know much about that," Carroll said.
BELL RINGERS
UCLA tailback Kahlil Bell, eight months removed from major knee surgery, continued to demonstrate his fitness in practice.
The next step he hopes to take will be to reduce the bulky hardware he totes around on the field. Bell is looking into using a smaller brace on his right knee.
"Hopefully that is the plan," Bell said. "I'll talk to trainers and doctors and see what they can do for me. They modify it a little bit, make it smaller, less heavy."
Last season Bell was the Bruins' leading rusher with 795 yards. He had 67 yards on four carries, including a 50-yard touchdown run, when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament against Washington State.
The surgery usually comes with a 12-month recovery and rehabilitation program, but Bell made a rapid recovery. Neuheisel said he has limited Bell's reps in training camp as a precaution and that Bell is ready to play against Tennessee in the season opener Monday.
"He looks 100%," Neuheisel said. "We haven't exposed him too much, but I'm very, very impressed with what we've seen so far. He has a lion's heart and he loves to compete. We hope he will get out there and play with the kind of reckless abandon he had before the injury."
Bell would like to reduce the brace, but he said it hasn't impaired him on the field.
"I've been training five months with it," Bell said. "I'm used to running and cutting with it. I can do back flips with it, whatever you want. It's not the prettiest thing in the world when you're running around, but if it keeps my knee safe, then I'm all for it. If they can't do anything about it, it's not a big deal. But it would be nice to get out of it."
chris.foster@latimes.com
