UCLA’s Stevens Given Mild Vote of Confidence : But Donahue Knows Something Has to Be Done to Ignite Bruins’ Offense

After four weeks of watching his quarterback get blitzed from all sides in what has been a most disappointing season so far, UCLA Coach Terry Donahue decided Monday to give Matt Stevens something he really needed.

Yes, Donahue gave Stevens a vote of confidence. Sort of.

Of course, that means that Stevens is rock solid as the Bruin starter. Sort of.

For his part, Stevens would have preferred that someone had stolen the ballot box. “I don’t need no vote of confidence,” he said.

The way it works out in sports, the guy getting voted on always feels the way about such elections as Stevens does.

Votes of confidence being what they are, right now, Stevens appears to be looking much more like the UCLA quarterback of the past than of the immediate future.

“If we don’t win . . . we have to face reality,” Donahue said. “So, what happens, eventually you have to look for an answer. Maybe a different guy in the game is an answer. I’m not saying it’s not.

“I’m not saying I’m going to have blinders on,” Donahue said. “All I’m saying is that I don’t think to change quarterbacks right now is an apropos move. I think it’s premature. I don’t think the quarterback has had a fair and total evaluation yet.”

Off to their usual dismal start in the conference race, the 0-1 Bruins probably cannot lose another Pacific 10 game and have much of a chance for the Rose Bowl.

If the Bruins lose again Saturday, and they’re going to be favored to do just that against Arizona, and if Stevens also plays poorly, then it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if Donahue decided to ground Air Matt.

After all, Stevens said, he expects to get blamed anyway.

“(Sometimes) you have to make changes in personnel,” he said. “If I’m the scapegoat, so be it. I don’t think everyone else should get blamed.

“I’m not panicked at all,” he said. “My confidence isn’t shattered a bit. I know they’ll live and die with me. Hopefully, they’ll live.”

So far this season with Stevens at quarterback, the Bruins have never strayed too far from the life-support systems. The fifth-year senior has thrown for 535 yards in four games and completed 50.5% of his passes.

But other than his 18-for-26, 211-yard, 2-touchdown game against weakling Cal State Long Beach, Stevens’ statistics aren’t very good. In the three other games he has a 43% completion rate, 324 yards, 1 touchdown, 5 interceptions.

“At times, Matt Stevens has been very good,” Donahue said. “And at other times, he’s needed a great deal of improvement.”

Even though Stevens admitted he hasn’t been consistent, he said it would be wrong for him to take the rap for UCLA’s 2-2 record all alone.

“After the (Oklahoma) game, I took all the blame,” he said. “But for me as a quarterback right now, you can’t pin everything on me.”

No, but that’s what seems to be happening. One reason there has been more pressure on Stevens, as well as a lot more scrutiny, is that UCLA’s running game has been largely ineffective.

Except for James Primus, the running backs are either injured or getting over injuries, which means that Air Matt has risen to an unexpected level of importance in the UCLA scheme.

Tailback Eric Ball has played just over two quarters in three games. Gaston Green, yet another tailback, has missed two games and part of a third.

Starting fullback Mel Farr Jr. played Saturday in spite of a bad knee. Marcus Greenwood, the No. 2 fullback, has played only small parts of two games and has carried the ball once.

There are some other reasons Donahue hasn’t yet bailed out on Stevens.

“I don’t think by a longshot that some of the problems we’re having offensively have anything to do with Matt Stevens,” Donahue said. “I’m not saying that Matt doesn’t have any shortcomings. I’m not saying that at all.

“But when a wide receiver doesn’t block on a running play and we make two yards instead of eight yards, that has nothing to do with the quarterback. When the wide receiver drops a ball right in his hands, the quarterback can’t do much about that.

“And when we go back to pass and you get a 280-pound angry guy in your face that some guy up front didn’t even touch or didn’t even slow down, that’s got nothing to do with the quarterback.”

Donahue said he wishes to avoid a quarterback controversy, but unless the Bruins turn themselves around, this one probably won’t just go away because he hopes it does.

But what happens if Donahue decides it’s time to show Matt the door?

Sophomore Brendan McCracken is next in line. Faster than Stevens and more mobile, McCracken is highly rated on option plays, which the Bruins found themselves running, almost out of desperation, in Saturday’s 16-9 loss to Arizona State.

Donahue said, however, that the Bruins aren’t so low that they are going to convert to the wishbone.