Kickoff may be at 4:45 p.m., but darkness will fall earlier on the Rose Bowl Saturday. Between San Diego State's new coaching staff and UCLA's young roster, both coaching staffs are having to work a bit harder to prepare for the opening game:

"It's as in the dark as I've ever been with regards to preparing for another program... It's an interesting time that's compounded by the fact that we're playing with so many young guys.

"There will be a bunch of coaches running around working hard on Saturday."

Having redshirted last season at UCLA and missed all but the first quarter of his senior season at Crespi High with a knee injury, UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince will start his first football game in some time Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

But the UCLA coaching staff is prepared to shepherd him through his first collegiate season.

"I don't know that he's sitting there thinking about being the starter," said UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel Tuesday. "It's been a long time since he's been out there. We've tried to create as many live action scenarios as possible.

"I just believe he's going to have a great freshman year.

"It's hard to describe all that can happen at the position without actually living it. There is no simulator."

Head coach Rick Neuheisel on the chance UCLA could start two freshmen and two sophomores on the offensive line Saturday against San Diego State:

"It is what it is. We've got a host of young players invovled in our two-deep.

"They haven't been given these jobs by default. They've earned them. You just have to trust them.

"More than worrying about it, I'm more excited about their chance to develop... I think they've got such tremendous futures."

Here's UCLA Monday statement regarding the fires near the Rose Bowl in the San Gabriel Valley:

"Our first concern is for the families affected by the fires and for the men and women fighting those fires.

At this time, the plan is to play Saturday's football game versus San Diego State at the Rose Bowl as scheduled. We are in constant contact with City of Pasadena authorities and will continue to monitor the situation."

UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel added to the statement during Tuesday morning's weekly teleconference:

"We're mindful of all the work being done to put out these fires that are plaguing the San Gabriel Valley. Our thoughts go out to the homes that are in danger and the families involved."

UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel is back for his second year in Westwood.

"I think we're a much more athletic team, stronger, more physical, but still relatively inexperienced."

"Getting our youngsters to play above their years. That'll be the key."

"I think we're on the right path. There are great things are in store for our program."

(On freshman Kevin Prince taking over the quarterback position)

"I just believe he's going to give us a chance to exploit all portions on the field. For that to be the case, we're going to endure some freshman-itis.

"Kevin Craft took a lot of the brunt and the blame last year, but the fact of the matter is we didn't protect him.

"We're going to have to do a much better about that."

UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft only threw one interception Saturday afternoon in the Bruins' 28-7 loss to No. 5 USC, but didn't do much else.

Craft completed 11 of 28 passes for 89 yards. Receiver Dominique Johnson threw the Bruins lone touchdown pass on a trick play.

"I think Kevin played hard, he worked hard to manage games and to learn our offense," said UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel. "This is not personally directed at Kevin Craft, (but) the quarterback at UCLA has to play better. For us to be the type of team that we want to be, the position of quarterback has to be played better.

"That means we have to coach it better, we have to perform better and we have to have more competition at the position."

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel on the Bruins' touchdown, which gave UCLA a 7-0 lead inside the first four minutes Saturday at the Rose Bowl:

"We had the play for the entire year."

"The play is actually called 'Tennessee,' because it was put in for the Tennessee game, but we didn't have an opportunity in that game to use it."

"So we used it today and it worked and got us off to a good start. It was exciting."

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel on the USC defense ahead of the 78th city championship game Saturday:

"They've been terrific in terms of tackling. There's been a great mix of pressure and playing off. They've gotten their opponents in a lot of third and long situations, when you do that you become more difficult to attack.

"Their defense is stifling. They just come after you. They're extremely strong at the point of attack.

"Their linebacking corps has been much-heralded, deservedly so.

"Their secondary is probably as big a secondary as we've seen and still runs like a traditional secondary.

"It's a complete defense. It's no surprise that they've run up the numbers that they've run up."

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel will coach his first UCLA-USC game Saturday:

"We're excited about the challenge that lies ahead, playing our crosstown rival, playing arguably one of the better teams in the country.

Certainly given that this will be our last game, there's no reason to leave anything on the shelf. We've just got to play with everything we've got, have to regrets and leave it all on the field, as they say."

"It's one of those things that you cherish."

"We are in the midst of building a program, it hasn't gone was well as we'd hoped this season. I do see a lot of reason for optimism in the future. I'm eager to just keep building for the future.

"You always want to put on a good showing because it's what people judge you on. But I think people are wise enough to realized that this is now and there's a future regardless of what happens this weekend.

"That doesn't mean we're not going to put everything we've got into it. We're going to try to win the game."

Averaging 51 yards per game, UCLA is ranked No. 117 in the country in rushing.

But the Bruins should be boosted Saturday against Fresno State by the return of running back Kahlil Bell, who was injured in the first half of the season opener against Tennessee.

"We're going to give Kahlil a chance," said Neuheisel. "He really wanted to play against Arizona. I did not think he was quite ready. Given another week, I think he'll be ready to play. I'm not sure he'll be 100 percent, but we're going to give him a shot."

UCLA lost Patrick Cowan and Ben Olson without playing a game.

Oregon was forced to dip to its fifth-string quarterback in last week's loss to Boise State.
Washington State lost its top two quarterbacks, Kevin Lopina and Gary Rogers, in last week's win over Portland State.

Yet UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said there is little coaches and administrators can do about the situation besides build depth.

"The fact of the matter is it's a physical game," sand Neuheisel. "It's just kind of the breaks of the game. I don't think you can make excuses about it, you just keep going."

From Star teammate Rhiannon Potkey in Westwood today:

Injury update:
UCLA lost three key players during it season-opener against Tennessee. Here is their status heading into the BYU game.
- Kahlil Bell (Senior RB, ankle) - Bell is making progress. UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said "I don't think we are ready to rule him out of the game. We will wait and see. Again, we get the bye week and a little extra day today. Hopefully, he can see where he is. Wednesday is the last day to hold out hope."
- Marcus Everett (Senior WR, toe) - Everett will not be back in time for the BYU game, but "I think will be back sooner than anticipated," Neuheisel said.
- Logan Paulsen (Senior TE, foot) - Paulsen had surgery last Friday and is out for the season.

From Star teammate Rhiannon Potkey at UCLA today:

UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel was recruiting in style last Friday at high school games. A UCLA booster donated a helicopter to Neuheisel and he used that method of transportation to beat the L.A. traffic.
"It's hard to get around in Los Angeles if you are trying to maximize your time," Neuheisel said this afternoon. "... I had the offer to do it, and the rules didn't preclude it, so it seemed like a good use of my time."
Neuheisel crossed paths with USC head coach Pete Carroll on the recruiting trail - "I knew then we were on the right guy," Neuheisel joked.
Neuheisel said the monopoly ad in the L.A. Times did not come, and he did not offer Carrolll a ride because he was heading to a different game. "I would have made him pay for gas though," Neuheisel said.

After becoming the first UCLA head football coach to win his opening game since Terry Donahue in 1976, Rick Neuheisel addressed the Rose Bowl crowd with this speech:

"No one waves the towel quite like Ed Kazarian but I'll give it a shot (waves towel overhead)."

"I can't tell you how much you meant to us tonight. We talked to the team all along about being relentlessly positive. You never know when you're winning. You just keep fighting. You just keep fighting, keep scratching and keep clawing.

"And I promise it made a difference that you kept fighting and you kept believing.
I am absolutely honored and privileged to be standing in front of these guys as their head coach. And I want you to give it up for your 2008 Bruins, they fought back and (inaudible).

" 'We're going to have a lot of work to do. We're going to go look at the films and we're going go, 'Oh my God, how did that happen? We've got things to fix.'

"But for tonight we're going to celebrate, we're going to be proud and for tonight at least, they can say whatever they want about the monopoly.

"We'll see you back here on the 20th.. I hear they've got a lot of flights to Utah, come and get with us at BYU."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it's great to be a Bruin."

Quotes from UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel's press conference after UCLA upset No. 18 Tennessee 27-24 in overtime Monday night at the Rose Bowl:

The bombast continues from the kid back on the block. Here's the image that ran in another Southern California paper Tuesday:

- GuttyLittleBruins.com

Asked about the ad, first-year UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said Tuesday, "Looks like we've got our marketing program convinced. I saw it for the first time this morning. My wife said it was a good picture, that's all I know."

Neuheisel was unconcerned that the ad could motivate the "monopoly" across Los Angeles.

"That game, in my experience, (is the type of game) that everybody is going to bring their 'A' game anyway. I don't think we can get their guys to play any harder than they would anyways."

USC coach Pete Carroll's response in Tuesday morning's teleconference was "I don't know much about that."

Later in the day, at Heritage Hall, there was this back and forth with reporters (courtesy USC sports information):

Q. Do you have any observation on what (UCLA head coach Rick) Neuheisel said, something like
COACH Pete Carroll: I don't know. I haven't been keeping track of what Rick's saying.

Q. The domination of Los Angeles is over.
COACH Pete Carroll: Really?

Q. It's a monopoly. The monopoly in Los Angeles is over.
COACH Pete Carroll: Are they talking about the Lakers? (Laughter).

Q. There's a picture of him with words above
COACH Pete Carroll: This is kind of like the presidential race, the guy has to say, I endorse this I don't know. (Laughter) Make him document it, whatever. No, I haven't paid much attention there.

Q. Is it over?
COACH Pete Carroll: What's that?

Q. The domination, is it over?
COACH Pete Carroll: The Olympics? I don't know.

I never knew there was domination in football, so I don't know what that's all about.

Asked about his offensive line, UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel was candid in Tuesday's Pac-10 teleconference:

"(I'm) concerned with a capital 'C.' I don't have an experienced guy on the sideline that I can put in. We are who we are... It's a tall order, there's no question about it."

From left to right, UCLA is expected to enter its Labor Day matchup against Tennessee with Micah Kia at left tackle, Scott Glicksberg at left guard, Micah Reed at center, Sonny Tevaga at right guard and Nick Ekbatani at right tackle, as long as Kia can play with a cast protecting his broken left hand.

"I'm optimistic that he'll be able to," said Neuheisel of Kia. "He was out at practice yesterday. If he can find a way to manage with that on his hand, he'll see some action."

Here's how UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel described starting quarterback Kevin Craft on the Pac-10 teleconference Tuesday:

"I think he's a very talented player. Hopefully he can grasp everything and play within himself.

"I don't think he needs to go out there and win the game for us, I think he just needs to manage the game for us.... He has all the tools."

In his first game-week news conference Monday, UCLA head coach rick Neuheisel made light of the Bruins offensive line situation, which has been a bit like a game of musical chairs as the season opener against Tennessee nears.

"I don't mean to make light because I really do admire the kids and how flexible they've been as far as accommodating all the maneuvering," said Neuheisel. "There has been a lot of changing to find our best five."

The one pillar has been Nordhoff High offensive lineman Micah Reed, a former walkon who started the final eight games of last year at guard. Reed will be the heart of the line this season at center.

"Micah's been that one constant in there," said Neuheisel. "His leadership is vital. He handles all the calls and given us a very solid player."

Here's the USC football preview I wrote for Sunday's paper.

I'll also post an update from Saturday's Ventura College scrimmage later today, but first I need to run down to Westwood for UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel's first game-week press conference of the new season.