It’s a Tennessee Waltz Over UCLA : Volunteers Score Fast, Furious in 24-6 Victory

About the best that could be said for the dawning of the post-Troy Aikman era at UCLA Saturday night was that the Bruins weren’t shut out.

Otherwise, it was a flameout of monstrous proportions.

Is there life after Troy?

Not on this night.

Fifteen-point favorites, the sixth-ranked Bruins were steamrolled by Tennessee, 24-6, before a crowd of 54,316 at the Rose Bowl.

“The game obviously was a tremendous, tremendous disappointment to us,” UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said.

At least, the battered Bruins could take some solace in the fact that, for the 206th consecutive game dating to 1971, they avoided a shutout.

Freshman quarterback Bret Johnson completed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Moore with 7 minutes 48 seconds left.

Other Bruin highlights were few and far between.

Their defense was beaten up.

The Bruins, who gave up an average of fewer than 100 yards a game on the ground last season, allowed the Volunteers to run over them for 247 yards, including 134 by Chuck Webb, who also scored two touchdowns.

Offensively, UCLA wasn’t able to move the ball effectively until after it fell behind, 24-0, in the third quarter.

“I didn’t think this would happen the way it did,” Tennessee Coach Johnny Majors said. “I thought our offense had to control the game in order for us to win, and they did that better than I could imagine.”

And better than Donahue would have imagined, too.

“It was an absolutely flawless performance by Tennessee,” Donahue said. “They were a faster, quicker, more physical team and gave us a real beating.

“I was surprised at the way we were manhandled physically.”

It didn’t start out that way.

Tennessee’s first two possessions went three plays and out, and its third was about to go that way, too.

The Vols’ quarterback, Sterling Henton, was pinned against the sideline on third and five at the Vols’ 15, but he broke free from linebacker Craig Davis, gained seven yards, and Tennessee was off and running.

The Vols stayed on the ground throughout a 90-yard, 15-play drive that ended with Henton slipping through the arms of defensive tackle Brad Bryson to score on a two-yard run with 11:44 left in the first half.

The drive appeared to have died at the Vols’ 37-yard line, but a personal foul against the Bruins gave it new life.

The 15-yard penalty put the Vols into UCLA territory at the 48-yard line, and from there they rolled into the end zone. Webb carried three times for 33 yards, gaining 21 on the first one. A nine-yard run by Reggie Cobb, who gained 78 yards in 17 carries, moved the ball to the six.

Henton scored on third and goal.

UCLA was concerned about its lack of depth in the secondary, but the Vols didn’t seem interested in testing the Bruin backfield.

They had 20 consecutive running plays at one point.

UCLA was more diversified offensively, but far less effective.

Its running game, expected to be a strength, produced only 104 yards, little more than half of what it averaged last season.

Of course, some of that had to do with UCLA’s predicament.

Johnson, faced with a 24-point deficit in the third quarter, posted Aikman-like numbers, completing 26 of 42 passes for 253 yards. But the Bruins seemed to miss Aikman, the National Football League’s No. 1 draft choice who is a rookie starter for the Dallas Cowboys.

Johnson moved UCLA downfield after the opening kickoff, but the drive stalled at Tennessee’s 37-yard line when tailback Brian Brown was stopped inches short of a first down.

Brown came so close to gaining the necessary yardage on the fourth-down run that referee Bill Richardson, after calling for a measurement, got down on his hands and knees to make sure the play had fallen short before turning the ball over on downs to the exuberant Vols.

“It gave us a big lift,” Tennessee’s Preston Warren said of the stop.

Apparently unimpressed by the Bruins’ next three possessions, each of which produced one first down before fizzling out, Donahue turned to backup quarterback Jim Bonds late in the half.

Bonds, however, was no more successful than Johnson, who completed eight of 11 passes in the first half for 55 yards.

Tennessee led at halftime, 7-0.

For UCLA, it was about to get much worse.

In a hurry.

Eleven minutes into the second half, the Vols led, 24-0.

Tennessee took the second-half kickoff and ripped through the Bruins, driving 81 yards in nine plays, all but one of them on the ground. Webb scored on a two-yard run through the left side.

Greg Burke’s kick made it 14-0 with 11:14 left in the quarter.

UCLA, too, stayed on the ground in its first four plays of the second half, with tailback Shawn Wills gaining 42 yards.

But after UCLA reached the Vols’ 34-yard line, Johnson overthrew his receiver on first down, overthrew his receiver again on second down and underthrew his receiver on third down. Kirk Maggio came on to punt.

Tennessee steadily moved the ball back the other way, quickly moving 89 yards to another touchdown, this one scored on a 10-yard run by Webb.

As if a 21-0 deficit weren’t enough to discourage the crowd, Brown was stripped on the kickoff, fumbling the ball to the Vols.

No doubt growing weary at that point, the Vols were unable to muster a first down, settling for Burke’s 45-yard field goal.

That made it 24-0 with four minutes left in the quarter.

Finally, UCLA started to move.

Johnson took the Bruins to the Vols’ 10-yard line, completing five of six passes for 47 yards, but a pass intended for Mike Farr in the corner of the end zone was intercepted by Warren, a junior cornerback.

Johnson’s touchdown pass to Moore ended an 87-yard drive.

It was much too late.

“I think we’re a better team than what we showed,” said Mike Lodish, the Bruins’ highly regarded defensive tackle.

They’d better hope so.

Bruin Notes

Michael Williams, a UCLA walk-on who started at cornerback in place of the injured Randy Beverly, was given a scholarship by Coach Terry Donahue, who has long had a policy of giving scholarships to walk-ons who earn spots on the first or second teams. . . . UCLA tight end Charles Arbuckle was held out because of an ankle injury. A preseason All-American, Arbuckle has missed 10 games since moving into the starting lineup two years ago as a sophomore. “He is an outstanding player who just doesn’t play very often,” Donahue said last week.