BruinBlitz.com was able talk and with new Bruin offensive line coach/assistant head coach Jim Colletto. Colletto played his college ball at UCLA and has been a member of previous Bruin coaching staff. He played in two of UCLA's more memorable games and talks a bit about both. He also discusses his present job at UCLA.

BruinBlitz.com: The first football I ever watched from start to finish was the 1966 Rose Bowl. For our older UCLA fans could you reminisce a little bit about that game?

Colletto: "Well it was a phenomenal game for all of us because we were such large underdogs and nobody gave a us a chance."

"We knew we had a chance, Michigan State didn't. They thought they were going to roll through us but we won a lot of games that year and had a lot of belief in what we could do and belief in the coaches and for a lot us it was our last game. We weren't very big so we weren't going to play pro football so we were going to make the most of it."

BruinBlitz.com: Tell us about Tommy Prothro. What kind of coach was he and what kind of man he was?

Colletto: "Well he was probably the best fundamentals teacher I have ever seen in football. I'm sure there were others who are equally as good, but I've never seen any."

"He took a bunch of guys who hadn't won many games and taught them how to play and he was a guy the players really believed in. When he said something you did it."

BruinBlitz.com: Thank you for that little bit reminiscing. I'm sure our older fans are going to enjoy that memory, I sure did. Now you have come back home. Welcome back home, how does it feel to be back on the campus where your college career pretty much began?

Colletto: "It is really kind of neat. It is very nostalgic in a lot of ways. My wife and I walked by her sorority house the second day we were back here and we were sitting on that porch 42 years and were wondering where all that time went to, but it is neat."

"It's getting used to college players again. In the NFL it is a little different style and their older and it's getting acclimated to that again. But it seems to be an energetic environment with all the other students around here."

BruinBlitz.com: I know it's only spring but is there anybody who is stepping up along the offensive line who has impressed you?

Colletto: "I think Shannon Tevaga is doing real well. There is a lot of guys who are getting a lot of new chances. They are all trying and they are all making some errors, which is to be expected. He's (Tevaga) played a lot so he should be a guy to be a little bit ahead."

"So right now, I don't know if any one guy is standing out, but they're all having their good moments."

BruinBlitz.com: How about Aleksey Lanis?

Colletto: "Aleksey is a guy that I'm going to make a real effort to make him into a real player because he's got good size, he's got good speed, he's got good quickness and he just needs to learn. There are a lot of young guys out there that just needs to learn."

BruinBlitz.com: How about Nathaniel Skaggs?

Colletto: "He's playing center and it's a big change for him. He played that one game against Northwestern and did a nice job, but he's playing against a lot defensive stuff right now. He's almost like a center starting from scratch. He's making strides."

BruinBlitz.com: You have your work cut out for you. How is the progress so far?

Colletto: "Its been okay, we're going to have Robert Chai and Chris Joseph back in the fall and those are important guys."

"We're trying to get them all to mesh together and there are some real good freshmen coming in so it will be a very good competitive environment too. We've made some progress spring practice used to be 20 days of full contact when I played it goes by too fast now."

BruinBlitz.com: How is the competition with your guys? Are you pleased with the overall athleticism of your group?

Colletto: "I think it is pretty good. We have to keep working on that, but we have some guys who can move and are athletic. P.J. Irvin has been doing well and is showing some real toughness and acceleration. Everybody has had their turn in good and bad so to speak, which what spring is all about."

BruinBlitz.com: What is the biggest difference between the NFL and college?

Colletto: "There is really two. The speed of the game is much faster and the size of the defensive linemen and the speed of the defensive linemen that you play day in and day out and game in and game out. There is two differences there."

"But it is really basically the same game. The fundamentals, the tackling, the blocking and all those basic things are all the same. The major thing that really jumps out at you is the speed and how fast it is and it's no different that the difference from high school to here, the speed steps up another notch."

"The game doesn't change. The basic concepts, the tenets that Prothro talked about when we played for him they're no different whether it is pro football or Pop Warner."

BruinBlitz.com: One more memory. The 1965 USC game you guys were down, what was it 20-6?

Colletto: "No it was 16-6."

BruinBlitz.com: 16-6, fourth quarter did you guys think you were going to comeback against those guys?

Colletto: "Well I was thinking in all honesty with about six minutes left to go in the game what I was going to be doing New Year's Day. That's what I thought."

BruinBlitz.com: Gary Beban had other plans…

Colletto: "Yeah, then on third down he hit Kurt Altenberg or Byron Nelson or Geoff Whitcher can't remember all those names now but it went from watching games on TV to getting to play on New Year's Day."

"You didn't think you were going to do it because we hadn't moved the ball much on them all day, but we hit those two big plays and it made all the difference in the world."

BruinBlitz.com: Was that the only time you beat USC?

Colletto: "That was the only time we had beaten them so it was a great memory and growing up in those days in California, the Rose Bowl was the thing and to have an opportunity to play in it, that's what you dream about as a kid and to be able to win it and all that you couldn't put a better ending to the story for all those players."