Bruins Go on the Offense, 54-14 : UCLA: After tough loss to Cal, Maddox throws four touchdowns passes in rout of Arizona. Williams and Wills each rush for more than 100 yards.

All in all, it was a great time to be a UCLA Bruin at the Rose Bowl Saturday night.

Nobody complained about the play-calling, nobody complained about the offense and nobody complained about the coaching.

Mostly, though, nobody could stop Kevin Williams and Shawn Wills, least of all the Arizona Wildcats, who were laid to waste in UCLA’s biggest scoring outburst in three years, 54-14, before 45,944.

With representatives from five bowl games looking on, the Bruins stacked up 533 yards of total offense, including 175 yards and four touchdown passes by Tommy Maddox.

Williams and Wills led a suddenly rejuvenated UCLA ground attack that looked so sickly in last week’s 27-24 loss to California. That defeat led to a surprisingly vocal outbreak of complaining by Bruin loyalists, who barely stopped short of branding the entire group a mere bunch of tackling dummies.

“It would have been easy to come out flat,” Maddox said. “It was good we let go of the Cal game. We were still talking about that (as late as) Thursday.”

Williams had 151 yards in 19 carries, including a 45-yard touchdown run in the first quarter that got the Bruins off and running. Wills slashed for 118 yards in 15 carries and scored on a three-yard helmet-butt of a run up the middle.

Airing out his right arm, Maddox completed 13 of his 22 passes and threw three of his four scoring passes to Sean LaChapelle. Paul Richardson caught the other.

For at least one night, the Bruins were wildly offensive instead of merely offensive.

And who would have thought they would see this: Coach Terry Donahue, rarely considered the riverboat gambler-type, going for a first down on fourth and three at the Arizona 15 with a 40-14 lead late in the third quarter.

It worked, but on this night, nearly everything clicked for the Bruins.

Arizona continued to walk a mean street, outscored 108-14 in the last two weeks. At quarterback, the Wildcats started Bill Prickett, a walk-on senior whose previous experience as a major college quarterback had been seven plays in two games. That’s if you don’t count practice, which has not exactly been Prickett’s forte--his left hand has been broken twice in separate accidents.

Prickett had to start because in last week’s 54-0 loss at Washington, ambidextrous quarterback George Malauulu was injured, which meant he couldn’t throw with either hand.

But with the score 40-14 in the third quarter, Malauulu was summoned. He fumbled on the first play.

Maddox experienced a rollicking first half, which ended with the Bruins leading, 33-14.

Supplemented by a suddenly potent rushing attack, anchored by Williams and Wills, Maddox’s passing efficiency soared in the first 30 minutes. He completed eight of 15 passes for 96 yards and had two second-quarter touchdown passes to LaChapelle.

On the ground, Williams and Wills exploited a banged-up Arizona defense, dominated by the UCLA offensive line, as UCLA unveiled its new-found rushing game.

Williams had 108 yards and Wills had 107 in the first half, which helped UCLA to its biggest first-half offensive outburst of the season. Williams got the ball rolling with a 45-yard sprint across the middle and to the outside to even the score, 7-7.

After Chad Ross delivered a 10-yard deep snap about 10 yards too deep, Marvin Goodwin tackled Wildcat punter Adam Grand in the end zone for a safety, which led to another Bruin score--a 19-yard field goal by Louis Perez after Ricky Davis returned the free kick 33 yards.

Williams, who left the game briefly when he suffered a pulled leg muscle on the field goal drive, was replaced by Wills, and he found the Arizona defense equally inviting.

“He may have matured, really blossomed tonight,” Donahue said.

On first down, Wills got seven yards. On second down, he got 53 yards. That play, which brought the ball to the Arizona 30, deserves a place in the permanent Wills highlight reel--a pitch right, cut back left, down the sideline.

Six plays later, on second and goal from the three, Wills burst up the middle for a touchdown and a 19-7 UCLA lead.

It didn’t last long. Two plays after the kickoff, Wildcat fullback Billy (Black Shoes) Johnson bounced off cornerback Carlton Gray and outran everyone still standing 53 yards into the end zone. Suddenly, the UCLA lead was 19-14 midway through the quarter.

Gray extracted his revenge by intercepting two passes, numbers five and six for the season, returning the second 41 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown and a 53-14 lead.

However, in the rest of the first half, UCLA devised a potent game plan. Here is how they split it up: Wills and Williams would run the football, Maddox would keep the drive going and LaChapelle would end them by catching touchdown passes.

UCLA didn’t have to go very far for its last two scoring drives of the half--52 and 57 yards.

After a Williams-inspired drive picked up three first downs, Maddox struck. From the 16-yard line, Maddox spotted LaChapelle running a slant from the right side and delivered the ball to him as he barely dived across the goal line.

UCLA’s lead grew to 33-14 in the last 30 seconds of the half. On first and goal from the five, Maddox lofted a pass into the corner of the end zone and waited for LaChapelle to run under it, which he did.

Wills had done his part in the drive by snapping off runs of nine, eight and 16 yards, but so had Maddox, who completed three of four passes and finished the half completing eight of 15 for 96 yards and two touchdowns.