Arizona Has Best of Times to Play UCLA : Injuries and Inconsistencies Get the Bruins Off to Another Slow Start

These may be the worst of times for UCLA’s football team.

Although the Bruins’ much-discussed injury situation seems to be improving, it may not matter much.

This morning at the Rose Bowl, UCLA will play Arizona, a team that is unbeaten and ranked ninth by United Press International, in a game that has Rose Bowl game implications for both teams.

If the Wildcats win, they will remain a strong candidate for the Rose Bowl game, which they have never appeared in. The Wildcats sound as though that must have been an oversight.

“We deserve it,” said Arizona linebacker Byron Evans. “We feel like it’s our turn to play in the Rose Bowl game. We’re trying to obtain that, our goal, and UCLA just happens to be in our way right now.”

An Arizona victory would probably also mean that UCLA is no longer a Rose Bowl contender.

This is the predicament in which Coach Terry Donahue finds his once-ranked, twice-beaten, and oft-bandaged Bruins, who are struggling to keep their heads up and their injuries down.

Before practice this week, Donahue took a look around the field and surveyed the number of injured players on the sideline.

“It looks like Gettysburg,” he said.

Maybe so, but reinforcements are on the way,

Tailback Gaston Green’s sore toe is better and so are both of fullback Marcus Greenwood’s sore ankles. This has to be considered welcome news to an offense that has failed to score a touchdown in two of its four games.

Against Arizona State, flanker Karl Dorrell played wearing a knee brace, and fullback Mel Farr Jr. played despite a sore knee that probably should have kept him out.

Cornerback Marcus Turner, whose sore foot has kept him out of all but a couple of plays since the opener against Oklahoma, has finally recovered, which may mean that UCLA’s defense won’t give up as many big plays in its nickel formation as it did in last week’s 16-9 loss to Arizona State.

Dennis Price, another cornerback who plays in the nickel defense, will not play, however. Neither will tailback Eric Ball, who is still out with a pulled hamstring; linebacker Chance Johnson, who has a pinched nerve in his shoulder, or left offensive tackle Russ Warnick, who has a sprained big toe.

“I think most of our problems, and I’m not trying to alibi, are that we’re not a really healthy football team,” Donahue said.

Be that as it may, if the Bruins go out and get beat by the Wildcats, who are a robust 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the Pacific 10, it will still count, because there is no distinction between losing while injured and just losing.

And if UCLA does lose, the Bruins can pretty well plan to spend the rest of the season playing spoiler in the Pac-10.

“It’ll be more difficult to go with two losses as we did a year ago,” Donahue said. “We lost to USC and Washington and still went to the Rose Bowl and won it. Who would have thought that would happen?”

Few think it could happen again, though, and if the Bruins don’t beat Arizona, such a possibility looks even more remote because UCLA still has USC and Washington left to play.

The game looms as a great chance for Arizona, because Coach Larry Smith’s team seems to be playing UCLA at exactly the right time.

The Wildcats could also cash in again on a break they got two weeks ago, when USC defeated Washington.

“That was probably the best thing that could have happened to us, because we don’t play Washington this year,” Smith said.

“But as far as playing UCLA, I said it before the season and I’ll say it now--UCLA is the favorite in the conference and I still believe it,” Smith said.

“No. 1, they’re the defending champ. No. 2, all their people were returning and No. 3, they’ve been there before.”

On the other hand, here’s a short list of rebuttals to Smith’s. No 1, the Bruins are 2-2. No. 2, they’re inconsistent. Twice UCLA has scored more than 40 points and two other times they haven’t crossed the goal line. No. 3, they’re injured.

So while the Bruins’ physical rehabilitation course continues against Arizona, add up some more numbers. If by the end of the afternoon UCLA is 0-2 in the conference, the Bruins won’t just be hurting. They may also be out of the title picture.

Bruin Notes Kickoff today will be at 11:30 a.m. and a crowd of 52,000 is expected at the Rose Bowl. . . . Representatives from the Fiesta Bowl, the Freedom Bowl, the Holiday Bowl and the Florida Citrus Bowl will be watching the game. . . . In the last four seasons, the Bruins have been 0-2-2 in their conference openers, but their combined record afterward is 26-4.

Byron Evans, Arizona’s senior linebacker, is a 6-foot 2-inch, 222-pound senior regarded as one of the Pac-10’s best, along with Cal’s Hardy Nickerson. Evans, however, has gotten off to something of a slow start. Although he leads the Wildcats with 52 tackles, he has no sacks, interceptions or fumble recoveries and hasn’t yet tackled anyone for losses. “I’ve started slowly, but I’m coming around now,” he said. “All I want to do is get to the Rose Bowl. We really need to beat UCLA, which I feel is the biggest game on our schedule. We’ve got eight or nine really good teams in the conference, so one less and that kind of puts the pressure on the team that loses. I guess they are really backed up against the wall, but we need a win, too.”

Arizona tailback David Adams, only 5-6 and 167, had a cast removed from his left ankle this week that had protected his stretched tendons. Adams is expected to play today. . . . UCLA is 6-3-2 against Arizona, and scored a wild 24-19 victory last season in Tucson. . . . The Bruin defense will likely have its hands full with the Wildcats’ offense, directed by quarterback Alfred Jenkins. Arizona averages 435 yards a game and has had at least 200 yards rushing in each of its four game this season.