Even Oregon State Worries Donahue : Beavers Are 2-6, but UCLA Coach Points to Other Factors

Dave Kragthorpe, Oregon State football coach, is not going to decide who will start at quarterback against UCLA today until just before kickoff. So, UCLA Coach Terry Donahue is fretting and stewing.

Forget, for the moment, that UCLA hasn’t lost a conference game all season and that Oregon State hasn’t won one. And forget that UCLA has beaten Oregon State the last four times out.

Donahue is concerned about this game.

He’s been saying all week that he hopes Erik Wilhelm, the Beavers’ record-setting junior quarterback, is still too much bothered by his sprained left ankle to play against the Bruins.

Donahue, of course, is remembering how Wilhelm passed for 340 yards against the Bruins last season. And he’s thinking about the streak of three straight 300-yard games Wilhelm had going before he went down in the Washington game last Saturday.

Oregon State’s backup quarterback, Mark Bennett, also was injured in that loss. He’s out for the season with a dislocated right shoulder. Wilhelm practiced in pads Thursday, but if he can’t play, Kragthorpe is left to choose between freshman Ed Browning and walk-on freshman Kent Riddle.

Donahue figures either freshman would be easier pickings than Wilhelm.

But let’s think about that.

What did Wilhelm do against UCLA the last time out besides pass for 340 yards? Well, he also threw six passes that were intercepted.

Six interceptions. And the Bruins won the game, 49-0.

Shouldn’t Donahue be drooling at the thought of facing Wilhelm again?

“I hope he misses this week,” Donahue said. “I hope he isn’t severely hurt, but he can get well later. Their quarterback can get hot.”

But for all his yardage, Oregon State has won just two games, over San Jose State and Akron.

They were blown out at Georgia, 41-7, and at Texas, 61-16. But they were close to Arizona State, 30-21, and Washington, 28-12.

“(Arizona State Coach John) Cooper told me that Oregon State wore them out,” Donahue said.

With UCLA’s depth, it’s more likely the Bruins will wear out the Beavers, although the Bruins have been having some injury problems of their own.

Tailback Gaston Green went out of UCLA’s game at Arizona State last Saturday during the first quarter when he reinjured a pinched nerve in his neck, causing his arm to go numb temporarily.

Green did not make the trip here, but Donahue is waiting until game time to decide whether the starter will be Eric Ball, who is coming back from an injury, or freshman Brian Brown, who rushed for 134 yards and 2 touchdowns last Saturday in relief of Green.

Despite records and what would appear to be UCLA’s overwhelming superiority, Donahue cautions against basing opinions on games past.

Games must look a lot different from the sideline than they do from the stands, or even in the small-print statistics the next day, because Donahue had this impression of last year’s 49-0 victory over Oregon State: “When that game was over, I felt like we had won a 10-0 game or a 7-0 game. That’s how hard it was. The truth of the matter is, we never did stop Oregon State.

“Oregon State stopped Oregon State. They threw the ball to the wrong-colored shirts.

“The game was not as lopsided as the score was. . . . Our defense scored 21 points. We can’t expect that to happen every time.”

Bruin Notes

UCLA goes into today’s game as the only undefeated team in the Pac-10. The Bruins are 5-0 in the conference, 7-1 overall. Oregon State is 0-4 and 2-6. . . . Although UCLA has won the last four over Oregon State, including last year’s game at Portland, the Beavers won the last time they played the Bruins at Parker Stadium here in 1978. That UCLA team was ranked ninth in the nation and had a record of 8-1 (6-0 in the conference) when the Beavers pulled off a 15-13 upset. That was in Terry Donahue’s third season as head coach. He now says he would rather play Oregon State in the Rose Bowl, Portland, or even Japan, where he has won games.

Oregon State has an offensive lineman, senior right tackle Owen Hooven, who is listed as 6 feet 9 inches, 301 pounds. . . . Beaver running back Brian Taylor, a junior running back, is second in the Pac-10 in all-purpose yardage and ranks 10th in the nation, averaging 154.3 yards a game. He had 207 yards against Arizona State, 254 against San Jose State and 205 against Texas. He averages 8.9 yards every time he touches the ball.

UCLA will start redshirt freshman Corwin Anthony at tight end. Joe Pickert, who had been the starter, had arthroscopic knee surgery last Sunday and is out for the regular season. Randy Austin, who has been backing up at tight end, is bothered by a shoulder injury, but he made the trip. Mel Farr Jr., who has been playing at fullback and tight end, also made the trip despite a knee problem.