COLLEGE FOOTBALL: TONIGHT’S GAMES : FREEDOM : Fitting Match: UCLA vs. BYU

Maybe UCLA and Brigham Young University deserve each other. The way they journeyed through their football seasons, it seems only fitting that they should wind up playing each other at the end.

So we have the Freedom Bowl, which celebrates its third year of existence in Anaheim Stadium. A crowd of close to 55,000 is expected to show up and watch teams that stumbled over themselves getting here. UCLA (7-3-1) lost one and tied one of its last three games and BYU (8-4) split its last four.

But then, if the Bruins and Cougars had won those final games, they would surely be in other bowl games. And that would have robbed everyone of what actually appears to be a semi-interesting match-up of two teams that fell from the top to the bottom with mind-numbing swiftness, bounced back, then finally settled somewhere in the middle.

On paper, it looks like a classic match-up of teams that couldn’t get themselves straightened out for very long.

Consider the Bruins. They begin the season ranked No. 4 in the country. That did not sit too well with Coach Terry Donahue, who prefers the underdog role. He liked it even less when his team got hammered in the very first game at Oklahoma, 38-3.

But UCLA regrouped with a pair of blowouts against the very toughest teams they could find on the beach, San Diego State and Cal State Long Beach. The Bruins scored 86 points in those two victories. They scored nine points the next weekend, opening the Pacific-10 season by losing to Arizona State.

Once again the Bruins got back on track. They won four straight Pac-10 games. They scored 32 points in one game, 36 in another, 54 in a third and then 49. The next weekend they scored 23 and lost at home to Stanford, then scored 17 and were tied by Washington, only to finish with a 45-25 rout of USC.

The Cougars started off with a bang, but that didn’t last long. They beat Utah State, 52-0, and two weeks later lost to Washington, 52-21. BYU finished with a 6-2 record in the Western Athletic Conference, but along the way, they also lost a game to a Pac-10 team in a result that doesn’t look at all good right now.

BYU was beaten, 10-7, by Oregon State, a team UCLA had beaten only two weeks earlier, 49-0.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, BYU was also beaten, 10-3, by San Diego State, which UCLA had defeated, 45-14.

Let’s see. Those scores must make UCLA the favorite by anywhere from 41 to 52 points, right? Not according to Donahue.

“I don’t believe in comparative scores,” he said. “If football games were won on comparative scores, we could just play the season by computer.”

Donahue expects a low-scoring game in his coaching duel with LaVell Edwards, who this season added something new at BYU, a defense. The Cougars finished with the NCAA’s 10th-best overall defense and had the 6th-best defense against the run, allowing only 88.8 yards a game on the ground in conference play.

“We might have some trouble moving the ball on them because they have a very good defense, particularly the defensive line,” Donahue said.

How well BYU defends against the run may determine the outcome. Gaston Green, UCLA’s best runner, hasn’t gained fewer than 100 yards in any game since Oct. 11.

Green closed out the regular season with 224 yards against USC, the sixth consecutive game in which he gained at least 100 yards. Green ran for 1,139 yards, which ranked No. 11 in the nation, and his 113.9-yard average was the best in the Pac-10.

Green, however, is just as worried as Donahue about the Cougar defense. “BYU has always given us trouble and their defense is really tough this year, “ he said. “And now their quarterback situation looks together.”

Next season, when he will be a senior, Green believes he has a chance at the Heisman Trophy, but he thinks next year starts tonight against BYU.

“I have a great chance in the Freedom Bowl to get a victory over BYU and get in people’s minds for the Heisman Trophy,” he said. “I think you have to have at least 100 yards a game and over 1,500 for a season to be considered.”

Donahue has said he doesn’t believe UCLA is in the business of promoting Heisman winners, but is instead concerned about winning games. Green doesn’t care. He thinks he can only gain if UCLA wins.

“I’m not at all concerned about being promoted for anything,” Green said. “I want to win games, too. That award is really just a goal for myself. And all that matters is if I have a shot at doing it. I think everything will fall into place.”

If next season begins with the Freedom Bowl, then this season also ends in the same place. For UCLA, this is not the Rose Bowl, nor is it a New Year’s Day game. Whose fault is that?

“It’s our own fault we’re not in a better bowl,” Green said. “We didn’t play up to our abilities all season. Now, we’ve only got one more shot.”

Freedom Bowl Notes Kickoff will be at 5 p.m. and Channel 11 will televise the game. . . . UCLA is 6-7-1 in postseason play but has won its last four bowl games. The Bruins are appearing in a bowl game for the sixth consecutive year. . . . BYU will be playing in a bowl game for the ninth straight year. The Cougars are 4-6 in bowl games. . . . For the first time in 10 years, BYU did not win outright or share the Western Athletic Conference title. . . . Comparing quarterbacks: UCLA’s Matt Stevens threw for 1,787 yards and 11 touchdowns. BYU’s Bob Jensen threw for 465 yards and 3 touchdowns after taking over from Steve Lindsley, who threw for 2,247 yards and 12 touchdowns in the first 11 games.

BYU lost four starters during the season in scandals involving illegally obtained pain-killing drugs. The starters were linebacker Steve Sanders, tight end Trevor Molini and linebackers J.C. Von Colln and Ladd Akeo. Sanders was suspended early in the season and the three others were suspended after a separate incident the week before BYU’s final regular-season game against Air Force. Only Akeo has been allowed to return to the team, although he is not listed on BYU’s depth chart for the Freedom Bowl game. Molini, Von Colln and Akeo were charged in Provo with third-degree felonies. According to police reports, the three altered or forged prescriptions for controlled substances or obtained controlled substances by fraud or misrepresentation. The substances involved, according to police reports, were Percodan and Percodet, pain killers unavailable without prescription.

UCLA has shuffled its offensive line. Left guard Frank Cornish is out with the flu and Jim Alexander, who was replaced by Cornish when Alexander broke his hand, has his old job back. At right guard, Onno Zwaneveld has a sore throat and will not start. Joe Goebel will move from center to right guard and Tory Pankopf will start at center. . . . Fullback Mel Farr, who broke several small bones in his back against Stanford, may not be ready to play, so either James Primus or Marcus Greenwood will get the start.