Remembering Its Nightmare, the Bruin Defense Stays Awake

One loss can carve the heart from a college football team, like taking a knife to a pumpkin. It can take otherwise solid young men of muscle and sinew and leave them empty inside. It can leave them with the kind of hollow feeling that was commonly found on campus in Westwood after the pre-Halloween horror show that was Washington State 34, UCLA 30.

Senior nose guard Jim Wahler and some of his teammates found that bad dream somewhat difficult to block out, at least before they snapped back a week later to beat Oregon, 16-6. “We were somber, disappointed, depressed,” Wahler remembered. “We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t even want to go outside. We sat around thinking, ‘Everything’s gone. The Rose Bowl’s gone. The national championship’s gone.’ We were hurting.”

Classmate and teammate Bobby Menifield, an offensive tackle, heard Wahler talking about Washington State and looked up.

“I cried,” Menifield said.

“I know what you mean, man,” Wahler told him.

Yet, all was not lost. One game was all that was lost. Coach Terry Donahue drummed this onto and into everybody’s helmets, all week long. “He told us to use it as motivation, to take a negative and turn it into a positive,” Wahler said. “He said it was like falling off a horse, that we had to start riding again, right away. So, that’s what we did. And now it’s hi, ho, Silver.”

Three more games, all at home. This becomes UCLA’s goal now. First, play Stanford at the Rose Bowl. Next, play USC at the Rose Bowl. Ultimately, play the Rose Bowl at the Rose Bowl. If the Bruins have their way, see, they can skip all trips for the remainder of the season. Three road games over the course of an entire season, including the one here Saturday, would be all they would be obliged to play. Not a bad schedule.

Flying up to this part of the country never particularly bothers UCLA. The Bruins continue to dominate in Eugene. They have not been beaten at Oregon since 1957, when the Ducks themselves made it to the Rose Bowl. Eugene has a lot going for it, including autumn-leafed backdrop scenery that is right out of a Grant Wood painting, but when it comes to championship football, these people generally watch it on television rather than play it.

For quite a while Saturday, the Ducks drove UCLA daffy. The score was 3-3 until late in the third quarter, when Troy Aikman, having the poorest passing day of his Bruin career, finally connected with David Keating for an 11-yard touchdown pass, thereby providing a few points for a squad that had been averaging 38.8 a game. Twice-beaten Oregon was out there playing as though it had absolutely no intention of going down for a third time.

What saved the winners, in the end, was a defense sparked by Wahler, who led UCLA in tackles and personally threw ballcarriers for losses 4 times. Free safety Eric Turner also donated a couple of interceptions, linebacker Chance Johnson kept busy making Mark Gastineau-worthy takedowns and celebratory gestures, and at one point, Mike Lodish and Eric Smith practically took the Oregon quarterback’s head off, without so much as yelling: “Duck!” They nearly turned him into an Oregon donor.

For once, a UCLA game was not another bid for the Heisman Trophy so much as it was a bid for the Outland, Lombardi and Butkus trophies.

“I’m glad it was this kind of game,” Wahler said. “It gives the defense a lot of confidence for the games we’ve got left. We didn’t give a good account of ourselves against Washington State. We let the offense down. Let’s face it, we were crappy. Today’s game makes us feel as though we’re holding up our end of the bargain.”

The defense thoroughly distinguished itself this time, particularly late in the first period, when, catching the Bruins in a blitz, the Ducks sent Randy Willhite on a quack-opener to the UCLA 13. Little Latin Berry then did a loop-de-loo to the 8, but the Bruins held firm, stopping Oregon inside the 5 and making it settle for a chip-shot field goal. After that 34-point giveaway of a week ago, nobody was going to cross UCLA’s goal line this day.

The important thing from now on is to pretend that the Washington State thing never happened. Easier said than done, but possible. A team with an 8-1 record and a high national ranking should be thinking good thoughts, not reliving the past. Forget the 1, enjoy the 8.

“After you get beat, you’ve got two choices,” Donahue said. “You can get beat again, or you can get up and fight. I’m glad to see us get up and fight.”

The coach would just as soon make his team believe Washington State was nothing but a dream, a bad, bad dream.

“He wouldn’t even show us the Washington State films this week,” Wahler pointed out.

Maybe somebody burned them.

“I hope so.”