This could be called the "Save the Coaches Bowl," but Kai Maiava and Mana Rosa aren't listening to any of that.
The former Baldwin High School football teammates will meet Saturday in Corvallis, Ore., in the first Pac-12 game ever for UCLA and Oregon State. Maiava, a fifth-year senior, will start at center for the Bruins (1-2) and Rosa, a redshirt sophomore, will see significant time on special teams and is listed as third string at right defensive end for the Beavers (0-2).
Oregon State opened the season at home with a 29-28 double-overtime loss to 24-point underdog Sacramento State and followed that up with a 35-0 loss at Wisconsin two weeks ago.
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Maiava
Beavers defensive tackle Kevin Frahm told The Oregonian newspaper "the vultures are circling the carcass" in Corvallis. A FireMikeRiley.com website has sprung up.
Things are worse in Westwood for beleaguered coach Rick Neuheisel.
Bill Plaschke recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "It's not the end, but it sure feels like it. The coach can still save his job, but the conditions appear unlikely and the rescue would be miraculous."
Fact Box
College Football
Thursday's Results
SOUTH
Bethune-Cookman 35, Hampton 31
UT-Martin 48, Murray St. 26
MIDWEST
Cincinnati 44, NC State 14
Wis.-Oshkosh 56, Wis.-Stout 10
*****
College Football on TV
Today
2 p.m.-C. Florida at BYU, ESPN
Saturday
6 a.m.-Notre Dame at Pittsburgh, ABC
6 a.m.-Georgia at Mississippi, KFVE
6 a.m.-N. Carolina at Georgia Tech, ESPN
6 a.m.-E. Michigan at Penn St., ESPN2
6 a.m.-C. Michigan at Michigan St.,
ESPNU
6 a.m.-SMU at Memphis, FSW
6 a.m.-Cornell at Yale, VERS
9:30 a.m.-Oklahoma St. at Texas A&M, ABC
9:30 a.m.-Arkansas at Alabama, CBS
9:30 a.m.-Florida St. at Clemson, ESPN
9:30 a.m.-Colorado at Ohio St., ESPN2
9:30 a.m.-Kansas St. at Miami, ESPNU
9:30 a.m.-California at Washington, FSW
9:30 a.m.-UCLA at Oregon St., FSWP
9:30 a.m.-Virginia Tech at Marshall,
CBSSN
9:30 a.m.-Florida A&M at Southern, VERS
11 a.m.-Fresno St. at Idaho, KFVE
1 p.m.-Florida at Kentucky, ESPN
1 p.m.-Vanderbilt at S. Carolina, ESPN2
1 p.m.-Louisiana Tech at Mississippi St., ESPNU
1:30 p.m.-Nebraska at Wyoming, VERS
2 p.m.-LSU at W. Virginia, ABC
2 p.m.-Missouri at Oklahoma, FX
2 p.m.-Tulsa at Boise St., CBSSN
4 p.m.-Florida Atlantic at Auburn, FSW
4:15 p.m.-Southern Cal at Arizona St.,
ESPN
4:15 p.m.-Oregon at Arizona, ESPN2
4:30 p.m.-Howard vs. Morgan St., ESPNU
6 p.m.-S. Mississippi at Virginia, FSWP
6 p.m.-UC Davis at Hawaii, PPV 255
UCLA's only win is a 27-17 decision over San Jose State, which was sandwiched between losses to Houston and Texas.
"There's all that talk and all that stuff going on outside of the team and we can't let that faze us in any way," Maiava said Tuesday. "We just have got to go out on Saturdays and win games."
Maiava has missed 14 of the past 16 games for various reasons. He was ineligible for the EagleBank Bowl win over Temple at the end of the 2009 season after starting all 12 regular-season games, and last year was on the Rimington Award watch list for the nation's top center but broke his ankle before the season began.
"We were playing the fall scrimmage the week before the season started and I pulled around on a linebacker on one of the plays and a D-lineman went for the tackle on the running back and fell down, rolled into my ankle and snapped my ankle," Maiava said with a chuckle. "I broke the outside bone in my ankle and tore the tendons on the inside. There's still a pin and four screws in there."
By the end of the semester, Maiava will have his bachelor's degree in history - he has one class to finish this fall and walked in graduation ceremonies in the spring.
Rosa is coming back from a shoulder injury that required surgery and cost him spring ball and most of his redshirt freshman season last year. Trouble with a knee slowed him this spring.
"I'm pretty healthy right now, but this start has been pretty tough," he said. "We started off rough, but if we work hard, I feel like our team can overcome a lot of adversity."
Maiava, who is again on the Rimington list, did not play against San Jose State, suspended after testing positive for marijuana, the Times reported. The paper said that a UCLA athlete is suspended after a third positive test and under the school's drug policy another positive test would end his career and cost him his scholarship. Maiava is not eligible to get his missed 2010 year back because he used his redshirt season after transferring from Colorado, where he was a rivals.com freshman All-American in 2007.
"That was definitely a learning experience," Maiava said of the recent suspension. "I'm 22 now, I'm a grown man and I'm able to learn from my mistakes and that is something I have got to deal with and I am glad it is behind me already because I am getting ready for Oregon State."
Maiava hopes to get to the NFL, joining his brother Kaluka, a linebacker for the Cleveland Browns.
"The NFL is somewhere on my mind, but until that time comes, I'm just focused on the season and I'm just more concerned about winning football games," Kai Maiava said.
Maiava remembers seeing Rosa, as a freshman, run onto the upper field on the Wailuku campus in the fall of 2005.
"I remember how big he was," Maiava said. "I remember him coming in and thinking, 'Man, that is a big boy.' He was always talented and a real coachable player. Everything you told him he would listen and he would use all those coaching points to his advantage. He proved himself on the football field."
Rosa and the Maiava brothers have spent summers working out together.
"Playmaker," Rosa said of Kai Maiava. "He was always where the ball was, he just never gave up until the whistle blew. He was always just battling on the field, just working hard in the weight room. We have been watching film on him and he is looking good."
Rosa said going against Maiava in practice was "crazy, he was big and it is like running into a wall. If he got ahold of you, you are basically done."
Kai Maiava said he talks to his brother about once a week, usually on Fridays, but rarely about football. Kaluka Maiava attended Southern California after Baldwin, but the siblings never played against each other in college.
Baldwin currently has eight players in the NCAA D-I ranks among the 17 from the Maui Interscholastic League.
"It shows that Maui boys can compete with anybody," Kai Maiava said. "Before everybody was from Oahu and that was all anybody knew and recruiting only happened on Oahu and now, with my brother going to SC, it kind of opened the gate. It has been good, good to see the Maui boys getting out and playing in the big leagues. It brings some pride to me. I know where we came from and how we grew up. I'm just real, real excited that more and more boys are getting off the rock and pursuing their dreams in football."
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com
College Football
Thursday's Results
SOUTH
Bethune-Cookman 35, Hampton 31
UT-Martin 48, Murray St. 26
MIDWEST
Cincinnati 44, NC State 14
Wis.-Oshkosh 56, Wis.-Stout 10
