Bruins’ 42 Points Are Record for Their Most Without Winning

It’s small consolation to UCLA, but the 42 points it scored in losing to USC, 45-42, Saturday at the Rose Bowl was the most ever by the Bruins without winning.

The previous record for scoring futility was a 41-40 loss to Oregon in 1970 at the Coliseum.

Moreover, UCLA’s 42 points was the most ever scored by a USC opponent in a losing cause. The previous record was a 48-41 victory over Arizona in 1982. Larry Smith, USC’s coach, was Arizona’s coach at the time.

Tommy Maddox, UCLA’s redshirt freshman quarterback, earned a footnote in the opponent’s section of the USC media guide.

He passed for 409 yards, second only to the 526 yards Notre Dame’s Joe Theismann compiled in 1970 against USC. Like Saturday, it wasn’t enough to win. USC won that year, 38-28.

Maddox set a school passing yardage record and also one for total offense. He had 445 yards, breaking the record of 400 set by Steve Bono against Brigham Young in 1983.

There were five lead changes in Saturday’s game, prompting Smith to say: “There has never been a better game for a rivalry game that I’ve been involved with. It’s just too bad that we weren’t playing for the Rose Bowl (bid).”

The condition of Raghib (Rocket) Ismail, Notre Dame running back and kick returner, is day-to-day regarding whether he will play Saturday at the Coliseum against USC, according to Notre Dame. A thigh bruise kept Ismail out of the second half of last Saturday’s game against Penn State.

One of Coach Lou Holtz’s rules has been that a player must practice at least twice during the week to play in a game.