Bruins Look to Get Even

When the San Diego State football team heard that UCLA lost last Saturday’s season opener to Tennessee, it was not sure if it was reason to hope or fear.

The hope came from a belief that the Bruin team it will play host to tonight at 7 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium might not be as good as those that have soundly beaten the Aztecs in the past.

But the fear came from a feeling that No. 20 UCLA might be a bit more inspired to play the winless Aztecs after that 24-6 loss to then-unranked Tennessee. Judging from comments by UCLA Coach Terry Donahue, that concern is justified.

“I’ll say our team will go down there with a different attitude than if we had blown Tennessee out of the Rose Bowl,” Donahue said.

That can only mean trouble for San Diego State, which lost its opener, 52-36, two weeks ago at Air Force and has lost all five UCLA games by increasing margins since the series was resumed in 1984 after a 50-year break.

Only one of those games was close--18-15 in San Diego in 1984--and the past three have had a combined score of 151-34. Last year’s 59-6 victory in the Rose Bowl was the Bruins’ easiest since a 62-3 defeat of Washington State in 1976.

With recent history as a guide, the game against the Aztecs figures to be only an easy diversion between the Tennessee loss and next week’s game against No. 2 Michigan in the Rose Bowl. But in light of the showing against the Volunteers, Donahue also has issued some words of caution.

“We’re not a good football team right now,” Donahue said. “Some of our problems can be corrected, but some, quite frankly, cannot.”

Donahue said he is most concerned about defense, particularly linebackers and the secondary.

“We don’t have the depth that we have had in the past,” he said.

The Bruins yielded 376 yards to Tennessee, including 247 rushing.

That might sound like a lot to Donahue, but it is stingy when compared with San Diego State. The Aztecs allowed 618 total yards and a school-record 559 rushing to Air Force’s wishbone offense.

The performance was typical for an Aztec defense that has ranked near the bottom of National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s Division I-A the past two seasons. But it was upsetting to Al Luginbill, San Diego State’s first-year coach. Luginbill, a former defensive coordinator at Arizona State, took over the Aztec program last November with a pledge to build a strong defense after serving three years as an assistant athletic director at the school.

Predecessor Denny Stolz was fired, two years after leading the school to its first Western Athletic Conference title, largely because of poor defensive play that contributed to records of 5-7 in 1987 and 3-8 last year. But despite the emphasis on defense in practice, Luginbill found little immediate improvement in his first game.

“Fifty-two points, that was a new experience,” Luginbill said.

The showing was enough for Luginbill to shake up his starting lineup. Steve Matuscewicz, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound sophomore from La Puente Nogales High, will start at defensive end in place of junior Jason Swaney. Just two weeks earlier, Luginbill had said he planned to red-shirt Matuscewicz.

Luginbill expects a different kind of running game from the Bruins than the wishbone the Aztecs faced against Air Force.

“UCLA is as physical as I’ve seen them tackle to tackle,” Luginbill said. “(We will learn) what will happen if someone hits us in the mouth, and that will happen Saturday night.”

Bruin Notes

UCLA quarterback Bret Johnson (hip pointer), tight end Corwin Anthony (knee), inside linebacker Pat McPherson (hamstring), cornerback Michael Williams (broken thumb) and free safety Eric Turner (bruised knee) are all expected to play despite minor injuries. Tight end Charles Arbuckle (sprained ankle) and cornerback Randy Beverly (broken toe) did not play against Tennessee and are listed as questionable. . . . San Diego State will be without wide receiver Patrick Rowe, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday to repair cartilage damage in his right knee, and reserve defensive Milt Maples (knee sprain). Offensive lineman Steve Blyth, who missed the opener at Air Force two weeks ago while recovering from knee surgery last spring, has been cleared to play. The status of cornerback Marlon Andrews (ankle sprain) is uncertain. He has been replaced in the starting lineup by Gary Taylor. . . . UCLA leads the series, 11-0-1. The tie came in the third meeting, 13-13, in 1924.