Larry Brown Sports

Jim Mora has already successfully turned around the UCLA football program in only one year on the job. Now he’s looking to improve the fan support for the team. He’s even willing to pay out of his own pocket to improve fan support.

Mora tweeted on Wednesday to promote the team’s Saturday spring football game at the Rose Bowl:

5 pm Sat @ RB-FREE buses from Ucla for students, FREE admission for all, Football, Fun, Band, Spirit Squad, Contests, Autographs, Fireworks

— Jim Mora (@UCLACoachMora) April 25, 2013

He did a darn good job making it seem like a fun event. One thing you’ll notice is that he said the buses from UCLA to the Rose Bowl were free for students. Athletic department staff member Josh Rebholz said Mora was paying for the buses on his own.

One thing many people do not realize when they knock UCLA for the sometimes poor attendance at football games is that it’s inconvenient for students to attend the games. UCLA plays home games at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, which is over 25 miles and at least 35 minutes away from campus. On a game day, that’s at least an hour drive. Many students do not have cars on campus, so it just isn’t that easy to get to games and events at the Rose Bowl.

Every action that can get fans to the Rose Bowl helps, even if it means Mora paying out of his pocket.

Helmet smack to Bruins Nation

I don’t know if creepy recruiting tactics are becoming more popular across college football or if recruits are simply sharing them with us more, but I don’t like it one bit. We have all seen the creepy messages Florida wide receivers coach Joker Phillips has been posting on Twitter and Instagram since the season ended, but Rutgers may have outdone the Joker with the letter it sent to Noah Brown of Sparta, N.J.

Brown, a three-star receiver recruit, recently got the letter you see above in the mail. It featured the head of Scarlet Knights offensive coordinator Dave Cohen superimposed onto the body of a massive bodybuilder.

“If you can’t beat me, join me!” it read. “We want you … come to Rutgers!”

The letter was certainly unique, and Brown appreciated it. In fact, he doesn’t understand why people like us have been calling it creepy.

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College football will have a new playoff system in place for the 2014-2015 season, and the people behind the postseason set up a website where fans can vote on what logo they want for the College Football Playoff. Fans could choose to vote for one of four logos (seen above). The winning logo will be announced on Monday.

Voters can log on once per day to submit a vote, but one person apparently was trying to pull a fast one on everyone by hacking the system.

The College Football Playoff announced via their Facebook group Wednesday that they had caught a cheater!

Our contractor running the logo vote has informed us that it has caught a cheater with an IP address in Austin, TX who cast 50,251 votes for logo number four, in violation of our contest rules. While we’re pleased to know how popular our site is, this individual’s IP address has been blocked and all his votes have been removed from logo four’s tally.

As a result, the correct, updated tally shows logo one has 26%, logo two has 38%, logo three has 27% and logo 4 has 9%, with more than 60,000 votes having been cast in less than 24 hours.

On the advice of our contractor, the vote percentage totals will be announced twice daily at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., ET until the contest closes on Monday, April 29. This will allow the technical experts to prevent any further irregularities from occurring. We have been pleased with the excitement that has been created with the contest. In this particular case, there was a little too much excitement.

What’s so special about logo four that would have someone hack the system to vote for it? I really couldn’t tell you. But here’s the description of the logo on the College Football Playoff website:

“A star, created by a compass with a football at its center, symbolizes the pinnacle of achievement, and the path teams follow from across the nation to the playoff.”

Maybe the appeal was that the logo somewhat resembles the Texas state flag design.

Anyway, this story really should not surprise us given how nutty college football fans can be. Plus, it’s not like this is the first time we’ve seen a fan stuff a ballot box by hacking.

Jesse Bongiovi, the son of rock star Jon Bon Jovi, is planning to walk on to Notre Dame’s football team, Irish Sports Daily reports.

Bongiovi is a senior at Poly Prep Country Day in Brooklyn where he has played football and lacrosse. His father, a New Jersey native and singer of hit songs like “Blaze of Glory”, has been a fan of the Irish and was close with former Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis. He remained a fan of the football team even after Weis was fired. His son also became a big fan of the team.

“I came up here when I was in eighth grade and I just fell in love with the place,” Bongiovi told Irish Sports Daily. “The culture here, the people here, the opportunities here, they’re unreal. They’re second to none. Given the opportunity to walk on to the team and become a part of this family was an easy decision for me.”

Bongiovi, 18, received interest from other schools, but says he put that aside for the opportunity to walk on at Notre Dame. He also gave up an opportunity to play lacrosse in college.

Bongiovi is 5-foot-11 and weighs 180 pounds. He thinks defense would be the best place for him.

“I’d like to play corner, but wherever they’d like to put me,” he said. “I’m open to any suggestions for Coach.”

Below is a video of Bongiovi doing some plyometrics training in the weight room:

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The picture seen above of Johnny Manziel kissing his Heisman Trophy while the stiff arm is supposedly holding a blunt has been circulating on the ‘net, but the Texas A&M quarterback says it’s a fake.

The Manziel photo was first posted by Outkick the Coverage on Monday. Clay Travis, who posted the photo, knew it would go viral, so he asked Texas A&M for a comment. He hasn’t received a response from the school, but the QB did address the picture:

ABSOLUTELY PHOTOSHOPPED. People are always out to get me…sorry for kissing my trophy

— Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) April 22, 2013

The photo being taken on 4/20, which is essentially a national holiday for pot smokers, led Travis to believe it was legitimate, though he did allow for the possibility that it was a fake. Manziel was also in his hometown of Kerrville, Texas, over the weekend, and he had his trophy out for pictures.

Manziel was part of a photo controversy earlier this offseason when he was seen with a Texas Longhorns tattoo on his torso, which was later determined to be a Henna tattoo.

So, are you buying Manziel’s explanation, or do you think the photo is real?

Thanks to the infamous tree poisoner who played one of the cruelest pranks in college sports rivalry history, Auburn fans had to bid farewell to their 130-year old Toomer’s Corner oak trees on Saturday.

According to AL.com, a record 83,401 fans packed into Jordan-Hare Stadium to watch the Tigers’ annual spring game. Before, during and after the game, fans stopped by Toomer’s Corner to roll the oak trees for the last time before their removal on Tuesday. As expected, the toilet paper was at an all-time high. Check out some of these photos that were posted on Reddit over the weekend.

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There is no offseason when it comes to rivalries. An anonymous Michigan fan or group of Michigan fans proved that early Saturday morning when Michigan State’s Spartan statue was left tagged with a Michigan logo and Wolverine colors.

Hahahaha look what happened to sparty #HAIL #GOBLUE #VICTORS twitter.com/Haggerty70/sta…

— Buzz Schneider (@Haggerty70) April 20, 2013

For those who are wondering if there’s a point behind this, I don’t think there really is. The Spartans held their annual inter-squad spring game on Saturday, but that doesn’t have anything to do with their biggest rival.

According to MLive.com, the statue was cleaned up by Saturday afternoon. This is the second time in less than a month that Michigan State’s statue has been targeted. Last month during the NCAA Tournament, the Spartans statue was decorated with Valparaiso gear. Were Michigan State fans responsible for both acts of vandalism? I certainly wouldn’t doubt it.