UCLA, USC Are Wary Favorites Tonight : Bruins Take San Diego St. Seriously

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue has a serious problem this week. He’s serious, and people are snickering at him. No one will take him seriously.

It’s so bad he has started to preface every statement with disclaimers--”I know you won’t believe this, but . . . “--and to follow every statement with defensive testimony--”People aren’t going to believe that, but that doesn’t matter, it’s true.”

Donahue is trying to convince everyone that UCLA’s football game tonight at the Rose Bowl against San Diego State--a team that finished tied for fourth place in the Western Athletic Conference last season--is going to be a tough one.

UCLA struggled to beat BYU and to tie Tennessee, and now Donahue is saying: “San Diego State is every bit as good a team as Tennessee.”

Can you believe he said that?

“The psychology of the game is a difficult one for us, there’s no question about that,” Donahue said. “The public perception is that UCLA ought to win. That makes it a difficult game.

“I don’t believe any team has a sure victory. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times--I’ll take it to my grave: There is total parity in college football.

“If you don’t believe that, go talk to Florida.”

Rutgers surprised Florida with a 28-28 tie last Saturday.

Every time there is a major upset, or someone scoffs at a matchup, Donahue takes off on his parity speech.

“I know that it is difficult for people to believe, but parity has arrived,” Donahue said.

The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. adopted legislation in 1974 limiting all teams to 30 scholarships in one year and 95 overall. The 30-95 rule was meant to reduce costs as well as bring parity.

The plan was phased in, so it was four or five years before all teams were at 95 total scholarships. And it was another year or two before the effects were felt, but coaches have been harping on the 30-95 parity since about 1980.

“You just don’t see that much difference between teams anymore,” Donahue said. “I’ve said this so many times, my team doesn’t even want to listen to me any more, but honestly, in the last several years, week after week, I feel like any game we’re in, we can win it, but so can the other team.

“We have been on the field with one team that I thought was clearly a better team, and that was Nebraska. Other than that, we might have lost any game that we won, and we might have won any game that we lost. It’s that close.”

That list includes San Diego State, which UCLA beat last season, 18-15. The Bruins didn’t even score a touchdown on the Aztecs last time out. John Lee kicked six field goals.

The evidence from that game should help Donahue’s case, right?

“Maybe,” he said. “Kids tend to forget.”

So he has tried to remind them.

Donahue: “Bill Rees scouted San Diego State for us and was very, very impressed. They are vastly improved over what they were a year ago. They appeared to be quite strong and physical, and they have some big-play people.

“Todd Santos (who passed for 288 yards against the Bruins last season as a freshman) is more mature and is better than ever. He’s in the same category as the first two quarterbacks we faced.”

Donahue said: “I don’t want to give anyone the impression that we should not be favored in this game. We should be. But I wish people would believe me when I say we have our work cut out for us.”

Bruin Notes Tonight’s game will be broadcast on XTRA (690) radio because of a conflict with the Angels on KMPC. The game will not be televised. . . . UCLA (1-0-1) is ranked No. 10 by AP and No. 13 by UPI. San Diego State is 1-0 after a 34-14 victory over Cal State Long Beach. . . . Sophomore tailback James Primus will start in place of Gaston Green, who is out indefinitely with a knee injury. . . . If UCLA wins tonight, Coach Terry Donahue will become the winningest coach ever at the school. He is now tied with Bill Spaulding, who compiled a record of 72-51-8 (.573) over a 14-year period, 1925-1938. Donahue, who is in his 10th season as Bruin coach, has a record of 72-29-6 (.701). Interestingly, Donahue could break Spaulding’s record against the same team that Spaulding started his list of victories with. Spaulding’s UCLA team beat San Diego State, 7-0, in the 1925 opener. . . . The loudspeakers on the UCLA practice field, used to blast crowd noise to simulate a game atmosphere, were ordered turned off Thursday as the team prepared for San Diego State--not because the crowd will be small, which it will be, but because the a tennis tournament was taking place next door.

The shuttle bus that ran from the Parsons parking lot in Pasadena to the Rose Bowl will not run today. According to Steve Salm, associate athletic director at UCLA, the school decided to discontinue the service when Pasadena chose not to share the cost. Salm said that the bus service would be revived, on a game-by-game basis, to cut down on traffic for some of the bigger crowds.