You’ll see a variety of Trojans and Bruins enthusiasts, with a bit of luck a incredible sport, and probable plenty of sunshine, but you realize one element you gained’t see a whole lot of at Saturday’s USC-UCLA soccer sport? NFL scouts. According to our Sam Farmer,
“The remaining time USC played UCLA on the Coliseum, NFL scouts have been like birds on a twine. Twenty of them coated the second one row of the clicking field, scribbling notes on their pads, protecting binoculars to their eyes, and documenting the whole thing they might about opposing quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen.
Everyone became interested in the passers.
But while the colleges meet again Saturday at the identical field, the league will take little greater than a passing interest.
As of Thursday afternoon, best 5 NFL scouts have been credentialed for the game, despite the fact that USC changed into waiting to pay attention from two extra.
It’s a signal of the times for two packages with a fair percentage of younger talent, however only a handful of draft-eligible players who truely intrigue pro evaluators.
For the final 15 years, heading into this crosstown competition, The Times has accrued the observations of NFL group scouts at the gamers from UCLA and USC probably to land up playing on Sundays next fall.
Typically, NFL scouts are secretive about their evaluations; it’s a surprisingly competitive commercial enterprise, and statistics is guarded closely. But talent evaluators from NFL teams — diagnosed as Scouts 1 and a pair of — agreed to open their notebooks and proportion mind on strengths, weaknesses, and potential draft range of some of those gamers.
“I suppose it’s just one of those years,” Scout 1 stated. “USC has a variety of underclassmen talent, mainly subsequent yr’s [draft] elegance. I love Clay Helton as a coach, and he’s high-quality for us as scouts. Whoever the instruct is next 12 months, if it’s now not Clay, is not walking into a bare cupboard. They’ve were given a few definitely high-quality skills if they maintain them in college.”T
Scout 2 isn’t as convinced the clouds will clear as fast.
“I suppose it’s down throughout the board,” he said. “The Pac-12 is down. UCLA and USC are down. High faculty soccer’s down. It’s a lot specific than it was. A lot of the coolest gamers are going to the South. It used to be that players who left California were going to Washington and Oregon. But now some of the great ones are going to Alabama and places like that.”
A Congressional committee launched an research Thursday into what it known as “potentially unfair and deceptive practices in the stay event ticketing industry.”
Six leading price tag and event companies — which includes AEG, StubHub, Live Nation and Vivid Seats — had been asked to provide files explaining how tickets are allocated, how costs are decided and disclosed, whether tickets might be positioned solely at the secondary market, and the way clients could have a fair danger to buy a ticket at face cost.
Six contributors of the House Energy and Commerce Committee — 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans — signed the letter to each organization. The groups additionally had been asked to time table briefings with the committees by Dec. 12.
“The Committee, which has broad jurisdiction over patron protection troubles, is concerned about doubtlessly unfair and misleading practices taking place in the number one and secondary ticket marketplace, many of which have been documented in client proceedings, press testimonies, and government reviews,” the letters examine.
As price tag costs on the secondary market have risen for famous activities, teams and event promoters have tried to capture as a great deal of the resale value as possible. If the face fee of a ticket is $40 and the resale value is $eighty, teams and promoters wish to price that price ticket as near $eighty as possible, often the use of partnerships with price ticket corporations and marketplace analysts.
Laura Dooley, director of presidency family members at StubHub, said her enterprise welcomed the Congressional examination of the price ticket business.
“StubHub applauds the Committee’s research into the live event ticketing industry,” Dooley said in a assertion. “We share the Committee’s hobby in addressing anti-competitive practices. We trust that a fair and competitive ticketing industry unequivocally supports the pastimes of enthusiasts. We look forward to being a companion on this system.”
RAMS
Rams receiver Brandin Cooks, who suffered two concussions this season and four within the remaining 21 months, stated Thursday he by no means taken into consideration completely stepping far from football.
“Absolutely now not,” Cooks said emphatically for the duration of a news conference after practice. “No doubt about it. When it occurred that in no way went thru my mind, and even now it’s not going through my thoughts.”
Cooks’ last concussion befell inside the Rams’ Oct. 27 sport against the Cincinnati Bengals. He sat out two games at the same time as recuperating and meeting with medical doctors, but he has cleared concussion protocol and is on track to play Monday night time against the Baltimore Ravens on the Coliseum.
LAKERS
The goggles Kyle Kuzma wore to defend his right eye abrasion whilst taking greater pictures after Lakers practice Thursday will become a part of his tools beginning with Friday night time’s recreation in Oklahoma City.
He sustained the injury at some stage in Tuesday night’s victory over the Thunder whilst Oklahoma City’s Darius Bazley inadvertently struck Kuzma in his eye with a fingernail and an elbow, causing the Lakers forward to lose some of his sight.
Kuzma become held out all through the second half of of the game at Staples Center, however he has vowed to play within the rematch in Oklahoma City. He’ll simply should wear the goggles, channeling his inner James Worthy, who famously wore goggles for the duration of his Hall-of-Fame career with the Lakers.
“Doing better, however the day prior to this [my eye] became absolutely shut,” Kuzma stated after practice. “Now it’s open, so I can see a little bit better. Still blurry. I went to the health practitioner, had like 4, five scratches in the eye. It’s all proper even though.”