Beyond Aikman, Donahue Sees Unsettled Questions

As far as Coach Terry Donahue is concerned, it’s no mystery why UCLA, with only eight returning starters, is ranked among the nation’s elite in most preseason college football publications.

“We’re picked high because we have a fabulous player at the quarterback position in Troy Aikman,” Donahue said Saturday as he greeted the media on the eve of fall practice. “I think it’s safe to say that Troy is one of the four or five best players in the country, and perhaps the best.

“And we’re being picked high on the basis of that one player. And that’s OK, because we’ve got him. But I don’t think the rest of the team merits where it’s being picked. . . .

“That isn’t to say that Troy’s the only guy on the team who can play. We have some real good players. . . . But I don’t know why we’d be picked so high, other than for Troy, because we have so many unsettled questions.”

Aikman, of course, is one of the starters back from a team that was 10-2 last season, including a 20-16 victory over Florida in the Aloha Bowl.

The 6-foot 3 1/2-inch senior, a transfer from Oklahoma who could have been the No. 1 pick in the National Football League draft last April if he had made himself available, completed 65.2% of his passes last season, throwing for 2,527 yards and 17 touchdowns.

After spending almost two months of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation in passing efficiency, he wound up No. 2 behind Don McPherson of Syracuse, falling from the top spot after he threw three interceptions, doubling his season total, in the Bruins’ 17-13 upset loss to USC.

The defeat accounted for one of the few black marks on an otherwise noteworthy year for the Bruins, who had only twice before won 10 games in a single season.

Although they won a bowl game for the sixth straight season, tying a national record they share with Georgia Tech and Alabama, the Bruins undoubtedly would rather have gone to the Rose Bowl, even if they had lost there to Michigan State, as did USC.

“There were a lot of goals we failed to accomplish last season, so I think our team is motivated this year,” Donahue said.

It’s also a team in transition. Donahue, who said the Bruins have fewer returning starters than any team in the Pacific 10 Conference, has never had a team with less experience, he said.

“This is a rare experience for me because, generally, the team has always been settled and the quarterback position has been unsettled,” said Donahue, who started the last five seasons with a new quarterback. “This year, the team is unsettled and the quarterback is settled.

“It’s kind of unique. I hope to live through it.”

Aikman’s presence, Donahue hopes, will help ease the way.

Bruin Notes

The Bruins, who begin two-a-day drills Monday, will open the season against San Diego State Sept. 3 at the Rose Bowl and will play six other games in Pasadena, including a nationally televised game against Nebraska on Sept. 10 and the regular-season finale against USC on Nov. 19. . . . Only Oklahoma and Miami, last season’s national champion, had more players drafted than UCLA last April, when the Bruins sent 10 former players into the National Football League.

In addition to quarterback Troy Aikman, three other Bruins--linebacker Carnell Lake, tight end Charles Arbuckle and kicker Alfredo Velasco--have been named to various preseason All-American teams. . . . Arbuckle, who caught 22 passes last season, has had two arthroscopic knee operations in the last year and missed spring practice, but Coach Terry Donahue said that the 6-2, 233-pound junior “has as much potential and as much athletic talent as anybody on our team.”

Velasco was an All-Pacific 10 Conference selection last season when he was successful on 20 of 24 field-goal attempts, but the junior kicker “did not have a particularly good spring,” Donahue said. . . . Senior Eric Ball, who rushed for a record 226 yards and 4 touchdowns in the 1986 Rose Bowl but spent most of the last two seasons in the shadow of Gaston Green, is listed as the No. 1 tailback. However, he is expected to be pushed by sophomore Brian Brown, who rushed for 421 yards last season to Ball’s 373. “Ball will start out as No. 1 because he’s a senior,” Donahue said.

Flanker Mike Farr, who caught 24 passes for 294 yards, is the only returning wide receiver who caught more than 4 passes last season. . . . Senior Brendan McCracken, who was Aikman’s backup last season, has been moved--at McCracken’s request, Donahue said--to flanker. . . . Outside linebacker Eric Smith, a starter in 1986, is expected to reclaim his position after missing last season with a back injury. . . . Sophomore Mark Estwick, a walk-on who earned a scholarship with his play in spring drills, is listed No. 1 on the depth chart at fullback.

Kevin Williams, the Bruins’ highly regarded freshman tailback from Spring, Tex., pulled a hamstring muscle before coming to Los Angeles and did not participate in non-contact workouts with the other recruits last week. Williams also missed the last half of the track season last spring at Spring High. . . . With a career record of 98-36-7 entering his 13th season, Donahue has accounted for almost 25% of UCLA’s 396 victories.