Ucla Football

UCLA students will receive a little financial help this holiday season, at least with football tickets. A group of donors through the Wooden Athletic Fund will subsidize tickets for students to see the Bruins play Baylor in the Bridgeport Education Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27. Tickets for students are $65, but the first 650 students will be charged a reduced price of $25. The discount is available on tickets purchased through UCLA. The donors have asked to remain anonymous. Tickets for the Holiday Bowl are on sale.

Running back Johnathan Franklin and linebacker Anthony Barr have been  named UCLA's offensive and defensive most valuable players. Franklin set a UCLA single-season rushing  record with 1,700 yards. He also set the school career rushing record with 4,369 yards. Barr moved from receiver to linebacker this season. His 13.5 sacks were the most in the nation. He also forced four fumbles and blocked a kick. Both players have one game remaining. UCLA plays Baylor in the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

The price of success is adding up for UCLA. The Bruins are guaranteed to make a bowl game appearance and have a spot in the Pac-12 Conference championship game. According to contracts, each assistant coach receives $10,000 for a bowl game and $15,000 for reaching the conference title game. Winning the Pac-12 title and going to the Rose Bowl game earns assistants an additional $25,000. The cha-ching for head Coach Jim Mora is even louder. Mora receives a bonus for each regular-season victory above five — an extra $100,000 so far. He could also earn a $50,000 bonus for being chosen Pac-12 coach of the year and $100,000 for national coach of the year, as well as bonuses for winning the Pac-12 title game, going to the Rose Bowl and winning the Rose Bowl.

The University of California fired football coach Jeff Tedford on Tuesday after a 3-9 season that ended with five straight losses. Tedford won a school-record 82 games in 11 seasons and resurrected a program that ranked among the worst in major college football. He rebuffed other job offers while patiently waiting for upgrades at venerable Memorial Stadium. Ironically, Tedford's firing comes just as the $321-million renovation has been completed. Tedford, clearly, had lost control of the program.

UCLA 38, USC 28 (final) The Bruins blocked a 38-yard field-goal try by Andre Heidari with 1:40 left in the fourth quarter to help secure the victory and earn the Pac-12 Conference South Division title on Saturday afternoon at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley completed 22 of 30 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown while also running for two scores. The Bruins' Johnathan Franklin rushed for 171 yards and two touchdowns. USC quarterback Matt Barkley passed for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns but had two passes intercepted that led to 14 points for UCLA.

A battered and bruised UCLA football team received some good news Tuesday. The Bruins are expected to have running back Damien Thigpen back for Saturday's game against USC at the Rose Bowl. Thigpen sat out last Saturday's game at Washington State because of a minor sprain in his left knee. It robbed the Bruins of one of their most effective players. "Getting Thiggy back helps us in the return game and helps spread the field more on offense," Coach Jim Mora said. Thigpen averages 26.9 yards on kickoff returns.

UCLA football players tried to hold the line Monday. "I don't remember last season," linebacker Dalton Hilliard said. And … "It's another game, another shot at playing well," running back Johnathan Franklin said. But this is USC and some things can't be held in. The Bruins face their rivals Saturday having won only one of the last 13 games in the series. Don't remember last season? USC quarterback Matt Barkley throwing six touchdown passes in a 50-0 victory? "Since the end of that game ended until today, I've heard about it," Franklin said.

I had lunch with Terry Donahue this week, happy to straighten out another UCLA football coach. As ancient as the guy is, I don't go back far enough to really know him. And Donahue has been in no hurry to let me know him better because he doesn't want anything to do with me. "You killed Karl Dorrell ," he says of my good friend Karl Dullard. Donahue remembers UCLA's 13-9 shocking win over USC, forgetting that I predicted as much in print before the game. Donahue says I was yelling at him after the win to stop so we might talk.

On the day after a UCLA football game, Bruins linebacker Eric Kendricks typically is the first one in the film room, where he'll spend several hours breaking down video. That's according to Bruins Coach Jim Mora , who said of Kendricks, "He's always there. " Lately, the third-year sophomore has played a starring role in those videos. He has recorded 30 tackles in the last two games, including 20 solo. He forced a fumble in UCLA's 66-10 demolition of Arizona and was named the Pac-12 conference defensive player of the week.

USC is coming. USC is coming. UCLA players can talk all they want about Washington State, their opponent this week, but facts are facts. An opportunity that has been absent for nearly two decades is so close the Bruins can't ignore it. Beating USC in two weeks could mean more than just beating USC. "We can see the prize," senior cornerback Sheldon Price said. That being? "The Pac-12 championship game," Price said. UCLA players talked about Washington State late Saturday night after a resounding 66-10 victory over Arizona, which beat the Trojans, 39-36, on Oct. 27. The Bruins travel to Pullman this week to face the Cougars, who have yet to win a Pac-12 game.