TCU @ San Diego State- A View from the Stands-
By Will Osgood For Football Reporters Online

You could say Saturday’s result when the Horned Frogs crushed the Aztecs was to be expected. That doesn’t make the loss any easier to swallow though for Aztec fans, or for that matter any less sweet for the boys from Texas.

What did surprise me from the stands at “The ‘Q” was seeing just how much bigger, stronger, and faster the young men from Texas were than the San Diego surfers. The overall talent level shown by TCU far surpasses that of any other Mountain West Conference team, in my opinion.

The people I watched the game with did not who TCU QB Andy Dalton was before the game. Afterwards, they were wondering if he is going to be drafted this year, and he’s only a junior.

Dalton was as accurate as any quarterback I’ve watched all year. He fired the ball around the yard with precision and touch. He made quick, smart reads and controlled the defense by keeping them off balance.
Plus, he showcased some wheels that haven’t been seen from a QB on that field since SDSU QB Kevin O’Connell two whole seasons ago. Dalton seems to have the size, smarts, and leadership ability to play himself into the top of the draft next season.
The entire TCU offensive line was gigantic, and outweighed the SDSU defensive front line quite easily. Despite their size, they were quicker and more athletic as well. Several times on screens or off tackle type runs you would see one of those big offensive tackles operating fluidly in space and making a key block to spring a long run the TCU Running Back.
And when Andy Dalton dropped back to pass, good night! He was never touched, or at least it seemed that way.
The Aztecs lone defensive prospect, linebacker Luke Laologi, was pretty much neutralized because of the great line play and a well-called game. The few times I spotted him, he was struggling to shed blockers, which is probably why he finished with only five tackles.
When the Aztecs possessed the ball, which is was rare, Jerry Hughes showed me a little something. No, he did not notch a sack in this contest, but he was firm against the run, showed good athleticism to be able to move around in space, and good recognition on a three-step drop to get his hands up and knock a pass down. Scouts will be just as, if not more impressed with those things than him dominating some poor tackle who had no chance anyway.
The other player I made sure to keep an eye on was SDSU Senior WR DeMarco Sampson who has come on very strong since Junior WR Vincent Brown left the lineup with an injury. Sampson showed he can run with TCU, and showed tremendous ball skills to come back to underthrown passes.
He did fumble once when he tried to make something happen. I’m not going to knock him too much for that though, given that his team needed a big play, and nobody else was going to make it happen.
All in all, despite the lopsided score, I saw some positive strides being made by Brady Hoke’s squad. But I was also very impressed with TCU. They are well-coached and have as much talent as any team, this side of the SEC or Big-12, plus a few others. In my opinion, they are worthy of not only a BCS Bowl, but should Texas slip, they seem to be a realistic contender for the National Championship Game. They are that good.

Report from the Rose Bowl: San Diego State vs. UCLA By Will Osgood –Football Reporters Online

If you only watched the first quarter of the San Diego State UCLA game on Saturday night, you would’ve thought the Aztecs are going to challenge for the Mountain West title this season, and that UCLA is going to go winless. But the reality is that neither of those events are going to happen. The Bruins’ play in the final three quarters assured us of that.

Being in the Rose Bowl on Saturday night gave me a unique perspective on what was otherwise not thought of by most college football fans as a big game. One could see that UCLA is a much more talented team in year two under Rick Neuheisel, and that his style and schemes are beginning to pay off. Of course, next week in Knoxville the team will have a nice little test on national television to show just how improved they are.
Regardless, Saturday night there were a few athletes that stood out, and proved 2009 will be a breakout year for their NFL stock.

The truth is that even wildfires could not stop players such as Brian Price, Alterraun Verner, Reggie Carter, Luke Laologi, and Vincent Brown from making their presence known early and often. And that is only a list of upperclassmen. UCLA sophomore safety Raheem Moore picked off three passes on the day.

Two of those three passes were thrown up in the face of pressure by SDSU Redshirt sophomore QB Ryan Lindley. And who caused that pressure? Brian Price and Reggie Carter. Price, a junior defensive tackle, left the game for a series early in the game, but came back to terrorize Lindley and give Carter and other linebackers countless opportunities to hit Lindley and shut down the running game.

Carter, the middle linebacker, did a wonderful job of getting his defense aligned properly to San Diego State’s multiple formation West Coast Offense. Beyond just aligning properly, Carter had six tackles, and pressured the quarterback on a number of blitzes.

Also contributing largely for UCLA was Alterraun Verner who proved to be an elite special teams player when he returned a blocked kick 70 yards for a touchdown. He also recorded two tackles and had zero missed tackles, a large improvement from a season ago.

For San Diego State, Vincent Brown proved that despite being a junior, the NFL is a very real possibility even this year, although I’m definitely not advocating he leave early. He looked quicker than most of UCLA’s defensive backs, save Verner, although the two rarely went one-on-one (crazy to me given they were the two best “speed” players on the field). Brown regularly beat his man to get open, and even caught a 78 yard touchdown pass on a play where Lindley just threw it up and let Brown run under the ball. Brown beat the UCLA coverage many other times and finished with five catches for 139 yards and a touchdown.

Finally, SDSU linebacker Luke Laolagi, was swarming the field all day, putting pressure on Kevin Prince on blitzes and showed great athleticism and instincts when he picked off a pass and returned it over twenty yards in the second half.