London Calling for a Strong Finish

This may not be how Justin London envisioned his college football career ending, but the senior linebacker isn’t complaining about playing in the Sun Bowl on Friday against Northwestern.

“This is big game because only six teams in the history of the university have won 10 games in a season,” London said about the 9-2 Bruins. “That’s a nice accomplishment for us to reach.

“We set goals at the beginning of the season and one was to go to a bowl game in 2006. We’re a couple of days off, but we still want to come out and finish strong.”

For London, the last two seasons have not been great personally. He has not been completely healthy since injuring his right ankle during training camp before the 2004 season.

He underwent surgery on the ankle last January but re-injured it against Washington State in UCLA’s sixth game. He has still played in nine of 11 games, though, and is sixth on the team in tackles with 41, including five for losses.

“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” said London, who was sidelined by injury for four games the last two seasons. “Yeah, I think of the what ifs, but that’s just something that I have had to overcome.”

London will start his final game at UCLA alongside fellow senior linebackers Spencer Havner and Wesley Walker.

London said that despite never winning a Pacific 10 Conference championship, the Bruin seniors have plenty of incentive.

“A win accomplishes something that we can be proud of,” London said. “It would be big for the program because next year UCLA will be in the preseason rankings and the team would start out the season in better position. That’s important.”

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Non-scholarship freshman Jimmy Rotstein beat out Brian Malette for the field-goal kicking job for Friday’s game. With starter Justin Medlock suspended, Rotstein impressed Coach Karl Dorrell with his accuracy on field goals. Malette will handle kickoffs because he has a slightly stronger leg.

“It was really close ... it went back and forth,” Dorrell said. “They both did a great job getting ready for the opportunity.”

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Northwestern Coach Randy Walker on why Friday’s Sun Bowl may not be a high-scoring game: “Defenses love time. They don’t want a three-day turnaround to prepare for a game. They love to have time to look at an offense and break down tendencies.”

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UCLA center Robert Chai will not play Friday because of a knee injury. Redshirt freshman Nathaniel Skaggs will start in his place with Aaron Meyer as his backup, according to Dorrell.... UCLA has been practicing on natural grass at a local high school here, while Northwestern has worked out on a turf-grass field, which is similar to the AstroPlay field at Sun Bowl Stadium. UCLA will wear home blue jerseys.