Column: UCLA looks like a title contender in 62-27 crushing of Arizona State

It was not a shock UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley played Thursday night, less than two weeks after hyperextending his left elbow against Texas.

Arizona State Coach Todd Graham, who isn’t a doctor and doesn’t even play one on TV, emphatically predicted Hundley would be in the starting lineup at Sun Devil Stadium.

The shock was how well Hundley played, as in off-the-charts well.

He pitched by far, his finest game of the season in UCLA’s crushing 62-27 win over Arizona State.

Hundley, in fact, may have never played better in a UCLA uniform.

He totaled five incomplete passes, nearly 300 yards passing, 71 yards rushing, with four touchdowns and no passes intercepted.

Then they played the fourth quarter, in which Hundley added the rushing touchdown that took UCLA to 62 points.

This was the Hundley who inspired preseason talk of the Heisman Trophy, not the Hundley who entered Thursday’s game ranked No. 38 in NCAA pass-efficiency rankings.

That’s not bad, except that he ranked behind nine other Pac-12 quarterbacks.

After a sloppy start in 98-degree heat, UCLA finally played like the team picked to win the Pac-12 South and compete for first College Football Playoff.

Improving to 4-0 and starting 1-0 in the rugged Pac-12 does not make a season, but it’s a solid start.

This could be one of those years during which everything breaks right for the Bruins. It happened before, in 1998, all the way to the Miami game.

If opposing quarterbacks keep getting knocked out with concussions, and forced into walking boots, UCLA might play all the way to AT&T Stadium.

Sometimes a team needs fortune before it finds its legs. UCLA did not play well in opening wins against Virginia and Memphis.

It got to play a revolving-door Texas team without injured quarterback David Ash, lost to career-ending concussion syndrome.

Hundley injured his elbow early in that game, only to be rescued by backup Jerry Neuheisel.

Hundley’s injury, it turned out, was not that serious. He got a bye weekend to rest up before Thursday’s Pac-12 opener for UCLA.

Arizona State was not so lucky. Taylor Kelly, its star quarterback, was injured Sept. 13, in Colorado. It was the same day Hundley went down in Texas.

Arizona State, though, couldn’t mask the seriousness of Kelly’s foot injury. The walking boot and look on Kelly’s face told the story.

Arizona State hoped backup Mike Bercovici could do what Neuheisel had done in place of Hundley.

“I owe it to Taylor to keep this team in the national championship race,” Bercovici told Times staff writer Chris Foster. “I have to get us a week closer to Taylor’s return.”

It was too much to ask Bercovici, though, to match Hundley’s brilliance. Bercovici put up points and numbers but also had Arizona State’s first two intercepted passes of the season.

Thursday’s loser was not eliminated from the national title chase, but climbing back will be difficult.

It’s easier to recover from a tough nonconference defeat than a loss in your own division.

Michigan State lost by 19 points at Oregon but might be able to recover if the Spartans go undefeated through the Big Ten schedule.

The problem with losing a divisional game is you need the team that defeated you to lose twice in order to win the division.

Making the playoff as a one-loss, non-divisional winner only seems to work for the Southeastern Conference.

Alabama, in 2011, advanced to the Bowl Championship Series title game without winning the SEC West. The Crimson Tide lost to Louisiana State in the regular season, but still finished No. 2 in the BCS standings and avenged the LSU defeat in the BCS title game.

Last year, Alabama lost the SEC West on a last-second loss to Auburn. The Crimson Tide, though, would have likely made a four-team playoff as it finished third in the final BCS standings.

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott, speaking at halftime of Thursday’s game, said he thought it was “certainly possible” his league could place a “non-division” winner in the playoff.

He even thought the one-loss loser of the Pac-12 title game would have a chance, depending on circumstances.

There is also chance the league will cannibalize itself and get left out of the mix.

“Obviously,” Scott said, “if you’ve got multiple losses the chances are you’re going to be at risk.”

It doesn’t take much to turn a season on a dime.

Last year, Kelly led Arizona State to a win over UCLA that helped the Sun Devils to the Pac-12 South title.

Kelly took the field Thursday, too, but only to conduct the coin flip. He hobbled out on crutches, his right foot dangling in a fitted boot.

Arizona State expects Kelly back at some point this season, but it might already be too late.

It was killing Kelly not to play, yet he shook the hand of every official before he left the field.

Sometimes things just don’t work out your way.

For UCLA, though, this might be the year where everything does.