Bruins Hope for Alternative to This Pattern

UCLA has been in a rut since the start of the 1990 football season, alternately losing and winning since then in a pattern that has reached 16 games.

The Bruins beat Arizona, 54-14, Saturday night at the Rose Bowl, so by the order of things, they should lose their next game.

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Oregon State is UCLA’s next opponent Saturday night at Corvallis, Ore., and not only are the Beavers winless in five games this year, they have lost 10 straight since midway through last season.

So Bruin Coach Terry Donahue should be privately dry washing his hands in anticipation of winning two straight games.

However, he’s seemingly concerned about the Beavers.

“This is a hard week because the players will be hearing all week that Oregon State isn’t very good and the game is won before it’s played,” Donahue said. “My job this week is to try and educate the players to the fact that Oregon State is nowhere near as bad as people would make them think, or the record might indicate.

“However, if we don’t play as good as we’re capable of playing, we won’t get our fourth win of the season. I’m not so hung up on this won-lost, won-lost and all that, as I am trying to generate some momentum.”

Donahue is aware that in UCLA’s last visit to Corvallis in 1989 the Bruins were upset, 18-17.

“That was a lousy experience to be associated with,” Donahue said, adding that Corvallis is not an easy place to play.

“It’s a very difficult situation because people have already cast the die on the game, determined that the game has already been played and won,” he said. “You look at Oregon State on film and you’re astonished that they haven’t won a couple of games. They have some people.”

And those people are young.

In Oregon State’s 24-7 loss to Arizona State last Saturday, the Beavers started four freshmen on offense and three on defense, and had a total of 14 freshmen on the two-deep roster.

Moreover, free safeties Brent Huff and Paul Montgomery were injured in the Arizona State game, and another free safety, Earl Zackery, recently had arthroscopic knee surgery. So the Beavers have only seven players to play the four positions in the defensive backfield.

Passing against an inexperienced and injury-depleted secondary shouldn’t hurt Tommy Maddox’s confidence.

The UCLA quarterback said the win-lose rut “has been kind of a burden for us.”

“For the most part, we’ve had back-to-back hard games, and we’ve played a tough schedule. Once we do win two straight games, maybe we can get on a winning streak,” Maddox said.

UCLA’s Oct. 26 game against Arizona State at Tempe, Ariz., originally scheduled for 7 p.m., has been rescheduled for 12:30 p.m. It will be regionally televised by ABC.

Bruin cornerback Carlton Gray had two interceptions against Arizona, returning one 41 yards for a touchdown.

He has six interceptions in five games to lead the nation with an average of 1.2 a game. Two other players have six interceptions, but in six games.

“Carlton has had a great year in hawking the ball,” Donahue said. “The biggest area Carlton is working on to improve is his tackling. He’s a better tackler this year than he was a year ago. If you chart him, you can see steady progress in terms of his tackling ability.”

Arizona’s Billy Johnson broke a tackle by Gray and scored on a 52-yard touchdown run in the second quarter Saturday night.