Congratulations, Pac-12. Your Thursday night prime time game already featured two teams with a combined record of 4-8. One team, Arizona, had already fired their coach; the other, UCLA, looks to be on the verge of following suit with their own.
But the Bruins have not played inspired football so far (or during the season) with their coach’s job likely on the line. Arizona leads the Bruins 42-7 at the half, have scored on every offensive possession and amassed over 400 yards of offense.
But the horrid football displayed by UCLA was only topped by a bizarre end to the second quarter that featured a streaking fan (sort of) and a bench-clearing brawl. Details of the streaker -- really for a lack of a better word -- are fuzzy, but it appears a fan ran on to the field dressed as a referee, distracting the actual game officials for a few seconds.
During that time, players from the two sides began pushing one another, completely independent of the former incident, and a fight broke out between the two sides before anyone had a chance to take any preventative measures. Two players -- Taylor Embree of UCLA and Shaquille Richardson of Arizona -- were ejected.
It was an ugly scene, and that’s not even including the streaker.
Not as ugly as what will undoubtedly be the atmosphere in the UCLA locker room. The Bruins have completely quit on Rick Neuheisel.