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Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss is remembered at celebration of life service two months after his sudden death – Daily Mail
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Asteroid’s sudden flyby shows blind spot in planetary threat detection
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – The discovery of an asteroid the size of a small shipping truck mere days before it passed Earth on Thursday, albeit one that posed no threat to humans, highlights a blind spot in our ability to predict those that could actually cause damage, astronomers say.
NASA for years has prioritized detecting asteroids much bigger and more existentially threatening than 2023 BU, the small space rock that streaked by 2,200 miles from the Earth’s surface, closer than some satellites. If bound for Earth, it would have been pulverized in the atmosphere, with only small fragments possibly reaching land.
But 2023 BU sits on the smaller end of a size group, asteroids 5-to-50 meters in diameter, that also includes those as big as an Olympic swimming pool. Objects that size are difficult to detect until they wander much closer to Earth, complicating any efforts to brace for one that could impact a populated area.
The probability of an Earth impact by a space rock, called a meteor when it enters the atmosphere, of that size range is fairly low, scaling according to the asteroid’s size: a 5-meter rock is estimated to target Earth once a year, and a 50-meter rock once every thousand years, according to NASA.
But with current capabilities, astronomers can’t see when such a rock targets Earth until days prior.
“We don’t know where most of the asteroids are that can cause local to regional devastation,” said Terik Daly, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
The roughly 20-meter meteor that exploded in 2013 over Chelyabinsk, Russia is a once-every-100-years event, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It created a shockwave that shattered tens of thousands of windows and caused $33 million in damage, and no one saw it coming before it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
Some astronomers consider relying only on statistical probabilities and estimates of asteroid populations an unnecessary risk, when improvements could be made to NASA’s ability to detect them.
“How many natural hazards are there that we could actually do something about and prevent for a billion dollars? There’s not many,” said Daly, whose work focuses on defending Earth from hazardous asteroids.
AVOIDING A REALLY BAD DAY
One major upgrade to NASA’s detection arsenal will be NEO Surveyor, a $1.2 billion telescope under development that will launch nearly a million miles from Earth and surveil a wide field of asteroids. It promises a significant advantage over today’s ground-based telescopes that are hindered by daytime light and Earth’s atmosphere.
That new telescope will help NASA meet a goal assigned by Congress in 2005: detect 90% of the total expected amount of asteroids bigger than 140 meters, or those big enough to destroy anything from a region to an entire continent.
“With Surveyor, we’re really focusing on finding the one asteroid that could cause a really bad day for a lot of people,” said Amy Mainzer, NEO Surveyor principal investigator. “But we’re also tasked with getting good statistics on the smaller objects, down to about the size of the Chelyabinsk object.”
NASA has fallen years behind on its congressional goal, which was ordered for completion by 2020. The agency proposed last year to cut the telescope’s 2023 budget by three quarters and a two-year launch delay to 2028 “to support higher-priority missions” elsewhere in NASA’s science portfolio.
Asteroid detection gained greater importance last year after NASA slammed a refrigerator-sized spacecraft into an asteroid to test its ability to knock a potentially hazardous space rock off a collision course with Earth.
The successful demonstration, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), affirmed for the first time a method of planetary defense.
“NEO Surveyor is of the utmost importance, especially now that we know from DART that we really can do something about it,” Daly said.
“So by golly, we gotta find these asteroids.”
Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Andrea Ricci
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Asteroid’s sudden flyby shows blind spot in planetary threat detection
By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The discovery of an asteroid the size of a small shipping truck mere days before it passed Earth on Thursday, albeit one that posed no threat to humans, highlights a blind spot in our ability to predict those that could actually cause damage, astronomers say.
NASA for years has prioritized detecting asteroids much bigger and more existentially threatening than 2023 BU, the small space rock that streaked by 2,200 miles from the Earth’s surface, closer than some satellites. If bound for Earth, it would have been pulverized in the atmosphere, with only small fragments possibly reaching land.
But 2023 BU sits on the smaller end of a size group, asteroids 5-to-50 meters in diameter, that also includes those as big as an Olympic swimming pool. Objects that size are difficult to detect until they wander much closer to Earth, complicating any efforts to brace for one that could impact a populated area.
The probability of an Earth impact by a space rock, called a meteor when it enters the atmosphere, of that size range is fairly low, scaling according to the asteroid’s size: a 5-meter rock is estimated to target Earth once a year, and a 50-meter rock once every thousand years, according to NASA.
But with current capabilities, astronomers can’t see when such a rock targets Earth until days prior.
“We don’t know where most of the asteroids are that can cause local to regional devastation,” said Terik Daly, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
The roughly 20-meter meteor that exploded in 2013 over Chelyabinsk, Russia is a once-every-100-years event, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It created a shockwave that shattered tens of thousands of windows and caused $33 million in damage, and no one saw it coming before it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
Some astronomers consider relying only on statistical probabilities and estimates of asteroid populations an unnecessary risk, when improvements could be made to NASA’s ability to detect them.
“How many natural hazards are there that we could actually do something about and prevent for a billion dollars? There’s not many,” said Daly, whose work focuses on defending Earth from hazardous asteroids.
AVOIDING A REALLY BAD DAY
One major upgrade to NASA’s detection arsenal will be NEO Surveyor, a $1.2 billion telescope under development that will launch nearly a million miles from Earth and surveil a wide field of asteroids. It promises a significant advantage over today’s ground-based telescopes that are hindered by daytime light and Earth’s atmosphere.
That new telescope will help NASA meet a goal assigned by Congress in 2005: detect 90% of the total expected amount of asteroids bigger than 140 meters, or those big enough to destroy anything from a region to an entire continent.
“With Surveyor, we’re really focusing on finding the one asteroid that could cause a really bad day for a lot of people,” said Amy Mainzer, NEO Surveyor principal investigator. “But we’re also tasked with getting good statistics on the smaller objects, down to about the size of the Chelyabinsk object.”
NASA has fallen years behind on its congressional goal, which was ordered for completion by 2020. The agency proposed last year to cut the telescope’s 2023 budget by three quarters and a two-year launch delay to 2028 “to support higher-priority missions” elsewhere in NASA’s science portfolio.
Asteroid detection gained greater importance last year after NASA slammed a refrigerator-sized spacecraft into an asteroid to test its ability to knock a potentially hazardous space rock off a collision course with Earth.
The successful demonstration, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), affirmed for the first time a method of planetary defense.
“NEO Surveyor is of the utmost importance, especially now that we know from DART that we really can do something about it,” Daly said.
“So by golly, we gotta find these asteroids.”
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
Reports: Twitter’s sudden third-party client lockouts were intentional
Enlarge / Twitter is blocking many third-party clients’ access to its API while continuing to provide no explanation.
Ryan J Lane/Getty Images
Twitter has not yet explained why third-party clients like Twitterific and Tweetbot stopped working late last week. But a new report and testing by one app developer suggest the outages and lack of communication are intentional.
Internal Twitter Slack chat messages viewed by The Information (subscription required) show a senior software engineer writing in a “command center” channel that “third-party app suspensions are intentional.” Another employee, asking about talking points to use when addressing the outages with product partners, was told by a product marketing manager that Twitter had “started to work on comms,” but there was no delivery date, according to The Information’s report.
Some Tweetbot users seemed to briefly regain account access early Sunday, without the ability to post, only to lose access again later. That resulted from Tweetbot co-creator Paul Haddad swapping out the app’s API keys, but all of his keys were later revoked. That result “proves that this was intentional and we and others were specifically targeted,” Haddad wrote on Mastodon Sunday evening, as noticed by The Verge.
“I wouldn’t have swapped out the keys in the first place if there was even a shred of communication,” Haddad wrote. “Figured if nothing else, this would push the issue. Oh well, on to smaller but greener pastures.”
Neither Twitter nor owner Elon Musk has mentioned the failure of third-party clients to connect. Twitter’s status page early Monday said that all systems were operational, with no past incidents listed as far back as January 2. “Enterprise” clients, such as business-minded apps that monitor Twitter engagement and track topics, appear to be functioning, as do some versions of third-party clients, like Twitterific for Mac.
Twitter has long kept third-party clients, which allow users and small teams to customize how they view, track, and engage with tweets, at arm’s length. Prior to Musk’s ownership, Twitter asked developers not to make them, restricted its API, and took away push notifications and auto-refresh for the clients.
Musk’s ownership, which commenced with large-scale layoffs and has consistently seen the company rapidly changing policy and making its intent hard to decipher, led some industry watchers and tech pundits to wonder if the third-party API shutdown was simply an infrastructure failure that the company couldn’t quickly fix.
But a more likely explanation involves ad revenue. By way of explaining his deep cuts across the company, Musk said in mid-December that Twitter was on track for a “negative cash flow of $3 billion.” The cash crunch largely seems due to the $1.5 billion debt servicing needed for Musk’s takeover debt, as well as drastically declining advertising revenue since his takeover. Twitter has been sued multiple times by landlords for lapsed rent.
Twitter recently changed its iOS app to default to a tab showing an algorithm-based “For You” feed, requiring users to regularly tap over to view a more reverse-chronological “Following” feed. Third-party clients have traditionally offered far more control over how users can sort their feeds—and, most notably, they don’t show Twitter’s “promoted” tweet advertising. The company has recently offered deeply incentivized advertising packages following drastic downturns in its ad sales.
We could not contact Twitter for comment, as its public relations and communications departments reportedly no longer exist. Musk’s latest tweet, just after midnight ET on January 16, is a lightly coded swipe at media as being quietly state-run.
‘It’s a nightmare’: Twitter’s New York City janitors protest over sudden layoffs | Twitter
Laureta, a single mother and janitor for years at Twitter’s offices in New York City, would like Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest people and the new owner of the social media giant, to know just how he ruined her Christmas.
Like other janitors at Twitter – and many other employees at the troubled company, which has shed thousands of staff – she said she never received any explanation for her sudden layoff.
“I was so happy working for Twitter. I was able to pay my bills, get babysitters for my kids. Now, it’s a nightmare for me. I don’t know how I’m going to do it or know what’s going to happen,” said Laureta, who did not want her last name used out of fear of future employment consequences. “There was no explanation. We worked Monday, the 19th, and that night we got the message. It was shocking right before Christmas. We didn’t have a good holiday. No merry Christmas, no happy new year, we were thinking about our jobs and if we were going back.”
She described having to try to explain to her six-year-old son what happened and try to reassure his concerns about having food now that she has been laid off. She has no income and will lose the health insurance for her and her children that she relied on through her employment at the end of this month.
“I want to go back to work and I want to know why Elon Musk is getting rid of us,” she added. “It’s not right that Elon Musk has gotten rid of me and all of my co-workers.”
She is one of 12 janitors at Twitter’s 245-249 West 17th St location in New York City who are protesting against the social media company’s sudden decision to lay off all janitors, who were employed by contractor Flagship Services, the latest layoffs at Twitter since Musk took over the company on 27 October 2022.
On 10 January, the workers with their union, 32BJ SEIU, protested outside Twitter’s New York City offices to demand an explanation and the return of their jobs.
The workers received a notice from Twitter on the evening of 19 December that the contract with their employer and their jobs were terminated, effective immediately. They say in previous cases where a contractor was changed, Twitter had retained the same employees who have been working at Twitter since 2015.
Merita, another janitor who has worked at Twitter’s New York offices since they opened in 2015, also criticized the layoffs, especially the impact of losing health insurance, which she relies on for stomach medication she regularly requires.
“They told us at work at the last minute. We didn’t know anything. It was a shock for us. We left the building crying because we didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Merita. “It’s pretty hard because we live paycheck to paycheck to pay bills. We’re very afraid of losing health insurance. I take medication. We need health insurance, that’s why we need to fight for our jobs back to have our union, healthcare, everything.”
Earlier in December, Twitter suddenly laid off janitors at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. City of San Francisco attorney David Chiu said he was investigating whether Twitter broke the law with the sudden layoffs due to laws mandating employers retain workers for at least 90 days during a transition between contractors.
Twitter has laid off approximately half of its employees since Musk’s takeover, the manner of which has spurred numerous lawsuits or demands for arbitration.
The termination notice provided to janitors did not include any explanation for the sudden termination of the contract with Flagship Services or information on how these workers would be replaced.
“Twitter’s decision to cancel the cleaning contract for its NYC office has upended the lives of these dedicated cleaners, many of whom have worked at this location since Twitter moved in seven years ago. NYC’s essential cleaners have done too much for this city to be treated like this,” said Denis Johnston, 32BJ SEIU’s executive vice-president and director of the commercial division, in a statement on the job cuts.
“They put their lives on the line to keep workers and the public safe throughout the pandemic and are essential to the city’s economic recovery in the aftermath of the pandemic. These union members and their families now face extreme hardship because of the loss of their good paying jobs with quality health insurance.”
Twitter and Flagship Services Inc did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Second sudden death of top official reported in Russia’s military supply chain in less than a week
Another sudden death of a top official in Russia’s military supply chain has been reported following a series unexplained deaths in the past week.
Alexei Fedorovich Maslov, former commander in chief of Russia’s ground forces turned special representative for the military corporation Uralvagonzavod — which specializes in battle tanks — was reported to have unexpectantly died at a military hospital on Christmas Day at the age of 70.
The company took to Telegram to announce his death and said he “remained faithful” to Russia “until his last day.”
An abandoned Russian military tank is seen after Russian Forces withdrew from Balakliia as Russia-Ukraine war continues on September 15, 2022 in Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.
(Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
SAUSAGE KING OF RUSSIA DEAD AFTER ALLEGEDLY FALLING OUT OF WINDOW AT INDIAN HOTEL
Maslov was reportedly born in the Kursk region, which neighbors northern Ukraine, and entered the Army before graduating from the Kharkiv Guards Higher Tank Command School in 1974 — nearly two decades before the fall of the Soviet Union, reported Euro Weekly.
By 2008 Maslov became Russia’s chief military representative to NATO.
No explanation surrounding his death has been provided, though he appeared to die in Moscow at the N.N. Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital — over 1,000 miles west of the Uralvagonzavod plant where he allegeldy worked in the city of Nizhny Tagil.
Some reports suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin was supposed to visit the tank manufacturing plant on Christmas Eve but unexpectedly canceled his plans, though Fox News Digital could not independently verify this.
Russian President Putin watches the launch of a missile during naval exercises in Russia’s Arctic North on board the nuclear missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky.
(REUTERS/ITAR-TASS/PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE Pictures of the Month August 2005)
RUSSIAN BUSINESSMEN KEEP DYING UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES SINCE PUTIN INVADED UKRAINE: REPORT
Maslov’s death also followed the unexpected passing of 67-year-old Alexander Buzakov on Dec. 24, the General Director of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Admiralty Shipyards, which produces carriers for Kalibr cruise missiles among others.
According to its website, Admiralty Shipyards has been described as the “foundation” of Russia’s navy and Buzakov reportedly attended the launch of the new submarine, Velikiye Luki, in St. Petersburg on Friday, Dec. 23.
Buzakov championed the submarine as an important step forward for Russia’s naval ability.
“It symbolizes the end of a certain major stage and, of course, promises us many successful final steps in the construction of the vessel and its handover to the Navy,” he said according to Naval News.
Russian Navy ships are docked in the Sevastopol bay on March 4, 2014. Russian forces have surrounded Ukrainian military bases across Crimea as the Russian-speaking autonomous region has been thrown into turmoil following the ouster last month of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych.
(VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP via Getty Images)
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The submarine is reportedly a part of a fourth generation non-nuclear fleet that is considered the “most modern” submarine in terms of combat power.
Details around Buzakov’s death also remain unknown.
Buzakov and Maslov’s deaths are just the latest in string of unexpected deaths among Russia’s top ranks, businessmen and dissidents since the war in Ukraine began.
China’s sudden ‘reopening’ reveals new economic challenges
People line up outside a fever clinic in Beijing on Dec. 14, 2022, just days after the country relaxed its Covid controls amid below-freezing weather in the capital city.
Yuxuan Zhang | Afp | Getty Images
BEIJING — Mainland China’s swift rollback of many Covid-related restrictions has been unexpectedly sudden, revealing a new set of economic challenges.
In the last two weeks, local and central government authorities relaxed several measures that had forced many people to stay home and businesses to operate mostly remotely. Notably, the central government said last week negative virus tests and health code checks were no longer needed to travel domestically.
Meanwhile, reports of locals falling ill have surged. Beijing city said that on Sunday, its fever clinics saw 22,000 visits — up 16 times from a week ago.
“This reopening has come rather suddenly, and rather resolutely. It’s exceeded our expectations,” said Gang Yu, co-founder and executive chairman of 111, an online seller of medicines and health-care services. That’s according to a CNBC translation of his comments in Mandarin.
Shortage of staff and medicines
Since late November, orders for fever-reducing products and related medicines have surged tenfold, Yu said in a phone interview Thursday. He said there’s an “extraordinary shortage” of medicines that factories can’t keep up with, a situation he expects will last for at least another three or four weeks.
On top of the high demand, tens of workers at 111’s warehouses or offices in different parts of China have tested positive for Covid, creating an “extraordinary shortage” of staff, Yu said.
That’s a different challenge from earlier this year, when widespread Covid lockdowns meant thousands of new orders were getting stranded at different distribution points each day, Yu said.
Delivery is still slower than normal in parts of the country.
Even as of Sunday, China’s postal agency said more than 400 distribution points in Beijing and other parts of the country remained closed for Covid-related reasons.
For a sense of scale, the postal service said Tuesday it was collecting more than 360 million parcels a day — that’s more than one package per person in the U.S.
We reckon that the incoming migration around the Chinese New Year holiday in late January could bring about an unprecedented spread of Covid and severe disruptions to the economy.
JD.com announced Wednesday that more than 1,000 couriers from other parts of the country had arrived in the capital city of Beijing. Anecdotally, in the last few days in Beijing, app-based food and grocery services that typically deliver within an hour were only doing so at far longer intervals, or a next-day basis.
Surging infections may offset easing
“Over the past two weeks, the Chinese government did a sudden 180-degree turn on ending its zero Covid policies, with most of the domestic prevention measures completely ditched,“ Nomura’s Chief China Economist Ting Lu and a team said in a report Thursday.
“Surging Covid infections may offset the positive impact of the easing in the near term.”
“The rapid surge of infections in big cities might be only the beginning of a massive wave of Covid infections,” the analysts said.
“We expect major activity indices to remain weak or even to drop further in December. We reckon that the incoming migration around the Chinese New Year holiday in late January could bring about an unprecedented spread of Covid and severe disruptions to the economy.”
China reported Thursday a worse-than-expected drop in retail sales in November, as well as slower growth in industrial production and fixed asset investment.
Get through winter first
Social activity remains subdued amid the surge of infections and below-freezing weather in northern cities. Traffic data from Baidu indicate that most people in large cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou have not ventured out, with congestion levels still very low as of Thursday.
Management at Chinese travel booking site Trip.com were also reserved in how soon domestic travel would rebound.
“We actually saw a very strong sequential increase in domestic flights and hotel reservations in the past two weeks,” they said Thursday, according to a FactSet earnings call transcript.
“But in the very near term, we are still cautious as winter is usually a flat season for both business and leisure travel,” they said.
“And it also might take some time for people to get through the first wave of infections before travel demand could fully release and rebound. But we anticipate to see a very nice rebound and growth in the domestic travel segment next year.”
Ys 8 Dev Investigating Game’s Sudden Removal from PS Plus Extra
Update: In a statement shared with Push Square, NIS America has confirmed Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana has wrongfully been removed from PS Plus Extra, and the company will now investigate.
Its statement reads: “Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA not appearing PS Plus Extra was not planned and we are currently looking into the details. We would not remove any titles from any platform without prior communication through our channels.”
Original article: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana has been removed from PS Plus Extra after the JRPG’s PS5 version released last week. The original PS4 edition had been made available on Sony’s subscription service since its revamp this past summer, but it suddenly disappeared over the weekend. The game’s removal wasn’t communicated ahead of time; there wasn’t even an expiry date attached to the title’s PSN listing.
PS Plus Essential games and titles like GTA: Vice City – Definitive Edition have been communicating their expiry dates through listings on the PS5’s hub page for the service, but Ys VIII never had one. It has left the service without a trace — both the PS4 and PS5 versions now have a £34.99/$39.99 price tag attached even if you’re subscribed, and there’s no free PS4 to PS5 upgrade available.
The move sets a concerning precedent for PS Plus: if games can be removed at will without an expiry date listed, then other PS5, PS4 titles could simply disappear overnight. Will the same thing happen when Ys IX: Monstrum Nox receives its PS5 version next year, which is currently still part of PS Plus Extra? We’ve contacted NIS America for more details.
Pac-12 crown jewels USC, UCLA steering league’s sudden resurgence while preparing for Big Ten departures
Melva Thompson-Robinson might reflect the current state of the Pac-12. Her son, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, is UCLA’s star quarterback and a Heisman Trophy candidate who has led the Bruins to an undefeated record nearly midway through the season. But her heart — at least part of it — is with her alma mater 1,600 miles away.
“My mom is a diehard Michigan fan,” Dorian said. “She’s been a little bit disappointed I can’t go play in The Big House. Shoot, even sometimes she’s watching the Michigan game on her phone while she’s at my game.”
That would be a pithy anecdote except that UCLA will soon be playing Michigan in Big Ten conference games. The resurgence of the Pac-12 this season, then, might come with an asterisk. (* Don’t get used to it.)
USC and UCLA are both undefeated and on their way out the door. For every game they win, it puts the current Pac-12 closer to a playoff berth. It’s also part of a long, painful goodbye from the conference they made famous.
Thanks to the shocking events of the summer, the Trojans and Bruins have 1 ½ seasons left in the Pac-12 before heading to the Big Ten in 2024. Meanwhile, the current state of affairs is a reminder, as the conference is back on the national radar, how weakened it will be without the two Los Angeles centerpieces.
“It’s been a long time since both L.A. schools have been this successful out of the gate,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said. “There are still a lot of games to play … but you’ve got to enjoy these moments.”
Call it bittersweet or refreshing. The West Coast is back. The Pac-12 has four teams ranked this late in the season for the first time since 2019. USC and UCLA are both 6-0 for the first time since 2005. Oregon has won five in a row. Defending champion Utah has played in three of the last four Pac-12 Championship Games.
For a league that hasn’t participated in the College Football Playoff in six years, this is heady stuff.
Also, an omen: USC and UCLA were always the shining jewels of the Pac-12. They have combined to win at least a share of 56 conference titles going back to when the old Pacific Coast Conference was formed in 1915. Together, they have played in 46 of the 108 Rose Bowls.
Now, they’re something like carpetbaggers. When they leave for the Big Ten in two years, there will be a giant hole for the conference in Los Angeles.
“I’m not giving up on L.A.,” Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said before the season.
At the same time the L.A. schools are winning, behind the scenes they are transitioning to a new league. Another bittersweet going-away reminder: There is now a possibility that one or both could be playing at “home” in the Rams’ SoFi Stadium, site of the 2023 CFP National Championship.
“You don’t want to see the Pac-12 schools go away,” Melva Thompson-Robinson said. “But, you know, it’s also a new world.”
A pair of showdowns in the next two weeks will sharpen the nation’s focus on the Pac-12. No. 6 USC plays at No. 20 Utah on Saturday. The defending champion Utes split their last eight meetings with the Trojans. Then next week, No. 11 UCLA travels to No. 12 Oregon. The Ducks been on a run since that embarrassing loss to Georgia.
Utah is 4-2 but still in line for another Pac-12 title. The key is to stay away from the league’s familiar habit: failure to produce a dominant team. There hasn’t been a one-loss or no-loss team in the Pac-12 across a full season since 2016.
For now, this is the highest of times for the Pac-12 since Washington made the conference’s last CFP appearance that season. The Huskies were quickly eliminated by Alabama in the semifinal. Since then, it’s largely been a struggle on the national scene.
Dan Lanning is Oregon’s third coach in the last seven seasons. Washington and Washington State have each had three in that span. Utah’s Kyle Whittingham is the standard. Only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz has currently been at an FBS school longer. The Utes have grown stronger as time has passed winning four division titles since 2015 and playing in their first Rose Bowl in January.
That’s part of the reason the Big 12 is interested in scooping up Utah if realignment continues.
Kliavkoff declined to comment for this story. Instead, the conference forwarded a statement from Merton Hanks, senior associate commissioner for football operations.
“Our member schools, working with the conference, have made a concerted effort over the past 18 months to elevate Pac-12 football,” read the statement in part. “… These efforts have benefited the football programs at all of our schools, and we are very pleased with the results on the field to date this season.”
For now, it’s OK just to bask in excellence. Lincoln Riley’s turnaround at USC has surpassed the most optimistic projections. Oklahoma transfer QB Caleb Williams has delivered as promised becoming a Heisman candidate himself. USC’s defense has made a quantum leap under coordinator Alex Grinch. The Trojans lead the country in interceptions and sacks.
Positivity abounds. Riley was asked this week about being undefeated at the halfway point and playing six more games.
“Just six?” asked Riley rhetorically, obviously referring to the Trojans’ season lasting longer than 12 games. “That’ll get quoted. Everybody calm down.”
It’s hard to calm down when L.A. is buzzing.
“I’m trying to stay inside my house as much as possible,” said the UCLA quarterback nicknamed DTR. “Stay out of all the noise so I can stay focused. I’ve been there before when we got a nice win and nice ranking and then it’s gotten taken away from us and nobody wants to deal with us anymore.”
Such is life in a city where you’re only as good as your next championship. UCLA hasn’t won the Pac-12 since 1998 when it was the Pac-10 and Bob Toledo came within a game of taking the Bruins to the first BCS title game. USC has won one Pac-12 title since 2008. Utah are Oregon are the established power in the league the last five years. Since 2018, it’s the Ducks (40-13, two Pac-12 championships) and the Utes (37-16, one) ranked 1-2 in winning percentage.
Meanwhile, USC is in the middle of one of the nation’s biggest turnarounds this season as it continues to rebound from a 4-8 record in 2021.
“It’s just a start,” Riley said. “It’s not a guarantee to anything. This is when it gets most fun.”
Riley should know. This is why USC spent more than $100 million over 10 years to get him. The 39-year-old coach has already been to three CFPs.
UCLA was already building something in Westwood. Dorian Thompson-Robinson chose a fifth year with the Bruins over the NFL after the program showed signs of life in an eight-win 2021. All at once, UCLA has matured. DTR and Bruins coach Chip Kelly arrived together five years ago. The quarterback was a coveted four-star prospect from Las Vegas who committed to Jim Mora Jr. (fired before DTR arrived).
Meanwhile, Kelly committed to restarting his college career after a largely unsuccessful NFL run.
All of it took a while. Kelly was extended in December by Jarmond. It was a show of support and commitment. The school could have avoided a potential $9 million buyout by allowing the original contract to expire, but that would have required an eight-figure transition to a new coach. UCLA was already upside-down budget wise, which explains a lot regarding the move to the Big Ten.
“I think I’m more focused on us building something out West and playing some great football,” Jarmond said. “To me, that’s the most important thing. There has been a narrative that West Coast football has not been national. We’re showing the best football is being played out West in Los Angeles.”
DTR has put himself in the Heisman conversation setting the school record for career touchdown passes and leading the league in passing. Duke transfer Jake Bobo has become his favorite target, leading the team in receiving and catching five of DTR’s 15 touchdown passes.
“It was a group of guys who came on official visits,” Thompson-Robinson recalled. “There were offensive linemen on the visit with [Bobo]. But I had to host those two because I needed some offensive linemen this season. Bobo was there. I didn’t know even know he was a recruit. He was kind of in the background, kind of shy.”
This sort of success has begged a previously unasked question: Can West Coast football be exported to the Midwest?
USC and UCLA minds are already drifting East. Kelly said this week his offense is “what the [Big Ten] conference is all about.” When he was at New Hampshire, Kelly was inspired by Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense. At the FCS power, Kelly called it the “See Coast Offense.”
“We see it, we like it, go run it,” Kelly said.
Sorry, but Bo Schembechler never came to mind when Kelly was chasing champions and strafing defenses with his high-powered Oregon offenses 12 or so years ago. Kelly is a forward thinker who puts an emphasis on program development, nutrition, sleep and winning the day. We’ll see how that blends with a bratwurst and beer in 30-degree temperatures.
Kelly’s new defensive coordinator is an old friend, veteran Bill McGovern. The former Holy Cross defensive back has coached west of Chicago once in 37-year career (2020 as a Nebraska analyst). The Bruins defense had to get better, and McGovern’s unit has gone from 107th nationally in 2021 to No. 2 in the Pac-12 this season.
“He lets us be free,” senior safety Stephan Blaylock said. “Anything we want to bring up, we can bring up. We had a lot of player-led meetings. We had dinner on our own. I felt like that brought us all together.”
Maybe Big Ten affiliation can grow what have been disappointing crowds at Rose Bowl this season. Attendance is down more than 24% year-over-year, the biggest decrease among Power Five programs, according to D1Ticker. The reasons are many: heat, traffic, quality of opponent, entertainment competition.
“I know the [Big Ten] fan base is amazing. Them coming out here might help fill out the stadium more,” said Blaylock, a native of nearby Compton, California. “… I tell people, ‘I don’t blame y’all for not getting out there. When I was a recruit, I didn’t want to drive to Pasadena and sit through traffic. Then the parking is crazy also.”
Sounds a lot like game day at The Big House or The Shoe. And that’s where the dichotomy emerges again.
Melva Thompson-Robinson couldn’t be more Michigan. She went to school with current Michigan AD Warde Manuel. The year she graduated, 1989, Michigan won the NCAA Tournament and Rose Bowl.
Her son still exchanges texts with Arizona coach Jedd Fisch, whom he met on a Michigan recruiting visit when Fisch was a Jim Harbaugh assistant.
“I think it will be fun for me to come back as an alum to catch some away games and some home games with how well the Big Ten travels,” DTR said.
“I still cheer for the Maize & Blue,” Melva said. “I think it would be pretty awesome if UCLA ended up playing Michigan in the Rose Bowl.”
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