Bruins might be ahead of schedule

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but then again, the contractors weren’t Neuheisel, Walker and Chow.

Wes Wellman

Santa Monica

Somewhere out there Coach Dorrell is still trying to figure out why Coach Neuheisel didn’t punt at the end of the game.

Brian Haueter

Ventura

For the time being, anyway, I guess Kevin Craft is the Big Cheese at UCLA.

Joel Rapp

Los Angeles

Ricky, in your game of Monopoly, you may have Tennessee Avenue, but Pete still has Park Place and Boardwalk. Fight on.

John Mark

Newport Beach

I guess the Bruins’ move from 100th or so in the nation to 23rd on the AP poll trumps the Trojans’ minor move from No. 3 to No. 1. The Bruins get a front-page story with pictures and quotes while the Trojans are relegated to the last page in Wednesday’s sports page? C’mon, did the Bruins beat the Tennessee Titans or did I miss something?

Robert J. Gagliano

Palos Verdes

Newspaper ads and first-game upsets notwithstanding, the Trojans’ domination of college football in Los Angeles is not over. The Bruins play in Pasadena and as a resident of the San Gabriel Valley, I’m very pleased they do. Now all we need is that NFL team in Walnut.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

Dear gritty little Bruins and your fans: Let’s not get too excited. I hate to pop the balloon, but you just won a shocker, not a national championship.

Dan Jensen

San Clemente

I was truly miffed to see the Excessive Celebration Police make their needless and unwanted return to college football last Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.

A simple scenario: The Trojans score a touchdown and a few players gather in the end zone to high five each other, jump a bit, and perhaps touch helmets. There was no unsportsmanlike conduct directed at their opponents and nothing “excessive” about the so-called celebration, yet the Trojans were called on it and penalized.

Is someone forgetting that this is college football; these players are very young and enthusiastic, and furthermore, sports is entertainment and the fans in the stands and at home want to see a little show biz, especially from a Hollywood team.

Susan Stoller

Los Angeles

As we start this NCAA football season, I can’t help but wonder how many more seasons USC will be able to win the Pete Carroll way, not by beating the best of the rest, but by stockpiling his bench with the competition. He preys on the egos of high school seniors who believe that they will play for him, only to sit on his bench instead of starting elsewhere. But hey, he kept Mitch Mustain from playing at Oregon, didn’t he? I am sure that you Trojans will blithely refer to this as sour grapes, but isn’t it more satisfying to win on a level playing field? You better get some practice, because these kids are about to catch on.

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

Maybe he’s tired (“I’m headed home.”) Maybe he is trying to be funny (“He [Thomas Jefferson] initiated the ‘Academical Village,’ leaving someone else to come up with the ‘training table’ ”). Either way, T.J. Simers’ reasoning is about as inelegant as Los Angeles strip-mall architecture.

Sure, USC’s football team dominated an outmanned UVA squad on Saturday. But to suggest that Heritage Hall (built in 1971 and groaning with football trophies, I’m sure) and a bronze statue of John Wayne, just west of the bucolic 110 Freeway, somehow trump the most classic and hallowed of University campuses, is more than just a reach. It’s a whiff.

It must have been a mighty, self-congratulatory chest bump Simers and Gary Capata gave each other while they chuckled, as only out-of-their-element Angelenos can do, about “ripping up the Lawn and putting in synthetic grass like they’ve done in Laguna Niguel.” Man, that’s about as funny as O.J. Simpson’s post-collegiate heroics.

Ladd Lanford

Pasadena