Make No Mistake, Bruins, Bears Make Plenty of Errors

Saturday marked the 60th meeting between the UCLA and California football teams, so to celebrate, a punter passed (it was incomplete) and a center punted (another player, not the ball).

Cloaking themselves in the spirit of such a festive occasion were the Bruins. They had 12 players on the field one play, 10 players on the field another play, thus offering conclusive proof of what’s really wrong with them.

They can’t count.

But they can beat Cal, which UCLA accomplished for the 18th consecutive year, 24-6, before 50,183 at the Rose Bowl, who surely must have been surprised by what they witnessed.

Four games into the season, the Bruins and the Golden Bears unveiled a nouveau brand of football. They seemed to be saying, “If we can’t play this game great, then we’ll play it downright quirky.”

Possibly, this was what UCLA center Frank Cornish was thinking when he was ejected after the first play of the second quarter.

Trailing, 3-0, the Bruins had just driven from their 34-yard-line to the Cal one, where on third and goal, quarterback Bret Johnson fumbled the ball into a pile of players.

Travis Oliver, Cal’s right cornerback, wound up at the bottom of the pile, with his hands on the football and a foot in his, well, rear.

Oliver picks up the story: “Me and a UCLA guy, both of us had our hands on the football. We was wrestling for it. What (Cornish) did, he walked behind me and kicked me in my butt.”

What did you think about that?

“I don’t think that’s necessarily classy,” Oliver said. “But sometimes, your emotions run wild.”

In the official Cornish version of what happened, he did not want his emotions to run, just to get off the ground.

“All I was trying to do was to get off the ground after lying there about 10 minutes . . . to get out from under about 20 guys,” Cornish said.

“It’s not the most comfortable position to be in,” he said.

Uncomfortable? After playing football to Cornish’s foot, Oliver can tell you about uncomfortable.

“He just got upset and kicked me in the behind,” Oliver said.

Although UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said his starting center deserved to be ejected if Cornish was indeed guilty, he said he isn’t totally sure Cornish did it. Donahue said he will have to look at the game films.

Cal, which had a receiver run out of the end zone and then sneak back in to catch a pass, an illegal move, was apparently just warming up.

The Golden Bears trailed, 7-3, but their second-quarter drive was kept alive when UCLA had 12 players instead of 11 on the field when Cal was forced to punt from its 26-yard line.

So, Cal kept the ball. Minutes later, its coach, Bruce Snyder, received a warning from referee Pat Flood for stepping on the field.

Snyder, pleading guilty, said: “That was me, all right, out there complaining too much.”

Eventually, UCLA held Cal at the Bruin 48, where on fourth down, punter Robbie Keen was summoned. Everyone expected a nice, normal punt.

Surprise! Keen took a step and a half forward and launched a pass for the goal line. Unfortunately, it didn’t get far enough. The ball looked as if it had gone flat as it approached startled punt returner Shawn Wills.

What had happened was a trick play. Keen, a quarterback in high school, was supposed to loft it high enough that Darrin Greer, who was in disguise on punt coverage, could grab it.

There were other options. Wills could catch it, get tackled, and then it’s as good as a punt.

Maybe somebody would block Greer, thinking he was coming down to cover the punt return, while the ball was in the air. That would be pass interference. But because UCLA had only 10 men on the field, nobody blocked Greer.

What happened may go down as a classic:

(1) Keen threw too far. “I surprised myself,” he said.

(2) Wills never knew it was a pass. He waved his arms and signaled for a fair catch.

(3) Nobody caught the ball. It fell incomplete, too far from Greer, and UCLA got the ball two yards from midfield with 2:23 left in the first half.

(4) Johnson drove UCLA to a touchdown and a 14-3 lead 20 seconds before halftime.

Other than that, it was a brilliant maneuver.

“The worst that can happen is what happened,” Snyder said.

Donahue said it was a great play, but . . .

“It cost them 45 yards of field position,” he said. “When it works, it’s a great move. But when it falls incomplete, you wish you had punted.”

Donahue said that if Keen had thrown the ball better, it would have been a touchdown. But he didn’t, and it wasn’t.

With that, the Cal-UCLA series moves into its seventh decade next year. If nothing else, it’s a fun show.