Bruins need to get off the roller coaster

If you blinked, or sneezed, or dashed out for a Labor Day latte, you missed it.

The UCLA Bruins went from toast on Monday around 7 p.m. to toast-of-the-town by midnight.

---

FOR THE RECORD:
College football: A Chris Dufresne column in Thursday's sports section said that Tulane's football team was practicing this week at Sanford College in Alabama. The team was practicing at Samford University in Alabama. —

---

After a win over Tennessee, and a postgame fireworks show, UCLA rocketed from number nothing to No. 23 in the Associated Press media poll.

The national title game this year, for your information, is Jan. 8 in South Florida.

You bring Kirk Herbstreit and I'll bring the sunscreen.

Oh wait . . . there are 11 more games.

As teddy-bear huggable as the Tennessee win was, first-year Coach Rick Neuheisel knows enough about UCLA's erratic blood-sugar levels to distinguish one shining moment from a dynasty.

"They're going to call it a fluke," Bruins lineman Micah Kia said after Monday's thrilling overtime win. "But we're for real."

Neuheisel needs to pull out a projector and a pie chart . . . fast.

In September 2000, UCLA improved to 3-0 after beating No. 3 Michigan at the Rose Bowl, inspiring a postgame podium quote from quarterback Ryan McCann: "I think this proves we're No. 1 in the nation. I don't know who else we can beat or what else we can do."

Bob Toledo, then the UCLA coach, was standing in the back of the room and almost had to be resuscitated.

A week later, No. 6 UCLA lost at unranked Oregon, 29-10, and the Bruins finished the year 6-6.

During his years as coach, Karl Dorrell's teams were notorious for leading people on.

In 2005, UCLA scored an incredible comeback win at Stanford to get to 8-0 and to No. 7 in the polls, only to lose at Arizona the next week, 52-14.

Two years ago, UCLA followed up its unfathomable 13-9 win over USC with a loss in the Emerald Bowl.

Last year, with talk of a possible 11-0 start, No. 11 UCLA hopped on a plane to Utah and limped home after a 38-point loss.

Neuheisel, to his credit, has studied up on all this stuff.

"We're going to address that," he said. "That can't be who we are. We've got to bring that kind of enthusiasm, that kind of passion, every week if we expect to have good results.