Donahue Sees Some Progress Despite Defeat

With a weekend to think about it, UCLA Coach Terry Donahue was philosophical about his team’s 28-21 loss to Arizona Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

“We were lucky to beat Stanford and unlucky to lose to Arizona,” Donahue said Monday.

He was referring to his team’s 32-31 victory over the Cardinal Sept. 15, achieved with one second remaining.

UCLA is 2-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference and 2-3 overall. Few teams with two losses have won the league championship.

Donahue said that a cup is either half empty or half full, and he prefers the latter symbol in regard to his football team.

“Our team has made substantial progress from a year ago despite our 2-3 record,” Donahue said. “We’re getting better and we’re close to being good again.”

The Bruins were 3-2 at this point last season. Then they didn’t win another game, finishing at 3-7-1.

While stressing that UCLA had several opportunities to beat Arizona and that officiating wasn’t the determining factor, Donahue accepted one call and disputed another.

UCLA led, 21-14, early in the fourth quarter when Scott Miller returned a punt 51 yards for an apparent touchdown.

However, a special teams player, Pat McPherson, was cited for clipping and the touchdown was nullified.

“It was a close call and I see why he (an official) called it,” Donahue said. “I can also say that 1,000 such blocks aren’t called. But I have no complaint. I accept it.”

Donahue disputed an offensive pass-interference penalty called against wide receiver Michael Moore in the third quarter when the Bruins had a first down at the Wildcats’ 43-yard line.

“That call was very, very poor and very disturbing and certainly a costly call,” Donahue said. “If anything, it should have been defensive pass interference, but that would have been a poor call, too. It was just two kids going for the football.”

There was also a non-call in the third quarter that was puzzling at the time.

On the play preceding the offensive pass-interference penalty, UCLA’s Brian Brown fumbled and Arizona recovered. However, the play was nullified because of an inadvertent whistle and the down remained the same.

UCLA will play San Diego State Saturday night at the Rose Bowl and the game could last nearly four hours because of the number of passes that will be thrown.

The 2-3 Aztecs, 52-51 losers to Wyoming Saturday, feature quarterback Dan McGwire. The 6-foot-8 senior has thrown 133 consecutive passes without an interception.

The Bruins had to come from behind in the fourth quarter to beat the Aztecs, 28-25, last year at San Diego.

Quarterback Tommy Maddox has assumed much of the blame for UCLA’s loss to Arizona. He threw three interceptions, the last resulting in a 70-yard return by cornerback Darryl Lewis for the winning touchdown.

Said Donahue of the 19-year-old redshirt freshman: “Quarterbacks get too much recognition for victory and too much criticism for defeat. Tommy Maddox is going to be a quality football player. He’s very young in terms of his age and in terms of his maturation as a player. He’s going to be tremendously talented, gifted and successful.

“He has to learn to keep the ball away from the opposite-colored jerseys. He’s not doing a good job of that right now.”

Although Maddox has thrown eight interceptions in five games, he has also thrown seven touchdown passes and leads the Pac-10 in average yards per pass, 8.65, and average yards per completion, 16.38.

On the 70-yard interception, Maddox threw a pass intended for split end Reggie Moore on an out pattern on first down from the Arizona 36-yard line. Lewis scored with only 50 seconds to play.

It seemed to be a dangerous pass into the flat when the Bruins needed only a field goal to win the game.

“The same people who called that play were the same people who called the fourth-down-and-two play to Scott Miller for a touchdown,” Donahue said.

“My point is that sometimes you call them and they work and sometimes they don’t work. Do we wish we had that play back? Yes. In hindsight we wished we had run the ball.

“It was a poorly thrown pass and not a good (pass) route. We flat misfired.”