COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Flipper Puts On Show for Bruins, but He Calls It Another Day at Office

You remember Willie Anderson. Senior split end at UCLA. Plays for the same offense that has Gaston Green, one of the top running backs in the country, and Troy Aikman, among the best quarterbacks. Quietly working his way up the list among the best Bruin receivers ever.

Well, the one they call Flipper made quite a splash Saturday afternoon, pretty appropriate considering he played a big role in UCLA’s 52-17 tanking of Oregon State. With Green a no-show because of an injury and Aikman having a down game, Anderson stepped to the forefront and looked as if he could have walked on water, too.

He caught 7 passes for 154 yards, the second-most ever by a Bruin in a game, and 2 touchdowns. He showed great agility and hands on his first score late in the first half, wrestling the ball away from Oregon State cornerback Calvin Nicholson in the end zone, juggling it and then holding on for a 13-yard score. He flashed some speed on the first drive of the third quarter, bolting down the left sideline and catching an over-the-shoulder line drive from Aikman for a 47-yarder.

Then, he wondered what if he would have played the whole game, instead of leaving early in the third quarter.

“I can’t even say,” Anderson said. “I had a real productive game. If I would have played the whole game, there’s no telling how many I would have caught.”

Seven will satisfy him, though. It will also move him past Paul Bergmann and Kurt Altenberg into fifth place on UCLA’s career receiving list, the 90 catches trailing Jojo Townsell (100), Cormac Carney and Karl Dorrell (108) and Mike Sherrard (128).

This was hardly a re-emergence for Anderson--he had a career-high 130 yards in receptions last week in the key Pacific 10 Conference win over Arizona State. More like an affirmation of his skills, or a reminder.

“I’ll promote him for the (NFL) draft,” Aikman said. “I think he’s incredible. He’s by far the best receiver I’ve ever worked with.”

And from Bruin Coach Terry Donahue: “We wanted to use the word balance. Today, we tried not to concentrate on any one part of the game, but we knew we could throw the ball on their defensive backs because they’re not good enough to handle our receivers. They don’t have the skill. I’m not saying that derogatorily, but it’s just a fact that these kids had too much speed for them.

“Flipper Anderson and (flanker) Paco Craig are playing as well as anyone on the team right now.”

For Anderson, it was simply a matter of picking up some of the slack.

“We knew coming in that we didn’t have the big running back (Green) and that a lot of players were down or dinged,” he said. “We were ready. We had a lot of three-receiver formations. We knew the passing game had to get it done.

“Last week was a bigger game. This was more like a day at the job. Just taking care of business.”

It really wasn’t that simple. Despite UCLA’s 618 yards in total offense, including 303 through the air, Oregon State covered Anderson tightly on the touchdowns. And this wasn’t exactly the type of performance Aikman (15 of 26, 279 yards, 2 touchdowns) would like to put in a time capsule, or even have to review next week.

“I didn’t throw the ball as well as I’m capable of doing today,” Aikman said. “But the receivers did a great job. I just didn’t do a good job getting the ball to them.”

Craig and Fritz Jordan caught 3 passes each, Craig’s good for 62 yards. In all, the four Bruin quarterbacks threw to six receivers. The seven catches by Anderson give him 33 for the season for 659 yards, an impressive 20 yards per catch average.