Kicking Sand in Bully’s Face

Operation Bruin Storm went into enemy action Saturday night. Little resistance was encountered.

Now unquestionably Best of the West in a 1993 college football season full of surprises, a UCLA team that keeps getting better and better week after week put the big squash to previously undefeated Arizona, 37-17, leaving the self-congratulatory Operation Desert Storm defense as flattened as a sand dune beneath a tank.

Arizona went down harder and faster than Tommy Morrison. Unable to get so much as a first down on many of their possessions, the astonishingly mild Wildcats spent much of the Pasadena evening looking up at a full moon. I haven’t seen this many people flat on their backs on a Saturday night since Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman started seeing patients.

As a result, this UCLA outfit suddenly looms as the wildest bunch in college football west of Lincoln, Neb. Take it from me, this team is definitely going places. I can see it now--billboards with Terry Donahue’s face on them, saying: “Be a Bruin. Beat Notre Dame.”

OK, beat Ohio State. Because actually, what this was for UCLA was the big, big step toward changing the Rose Bowl from the name of a stadium into the name of a 1994 event.

True, the ever-improving Bruin Storm cannot afford to let up for a minute throughout the rest of its campaign, something Donahue will preach from here to eternity. The coach will have to stand in front of the team and give speeches worthy of Gen. George Patton, who, as it happens, hailed from Pasadena himself. One slip, Donahue will remind his players, and the Rose Bowl bid will go to somebody else.

For now, the Bruins can bask in the feeling of a job well done. Wayne Cook in particular can take a bow, quarterbacking the offense against Arizona’s touted defense with precision and poise. J.J. Stokes can take a bow, too, as always. This guy could catch passes on a freeway ramp.

It was the defense, though, that was really put to the test, and if General Donahue awarded medals instead of game balls, he wouldn’t have enough to pass out. Series after series, the Bruins mobilized and pushed their opponents backward, stopping rushers in their tracks and knocking the enemy quarterback right out of the game.

On its first three-down possession, Arizona gained four yards.

On its second, Arizona gained nine.

On its third, Arizona gained six.

Much of the night went like this. If it wasn’t Donnie Edwards putting a crunch on somebody, it was Jamir Miller chasing somebody halfway to Monrovia. If it wasn’t Marvin Goodwin pilfering a pass or prying a fumble loose, it was Nkosi Littleton taking off like a bat out of Westwood. This wasn’t defense, baby. This was devastation.

Arizona rarely knew what hit it. But the big thing that shook the Wildcats’ confidence was the way Cook, Stokes and company shredded that nationally recognized defense of theirs. And when Cook wasn’t looking for Stokes, he was airing one out to flanker Kevin Jordan, who’s going to pick up the nickname “Air” if he isn’t careful.

Further taking the wind out of Arizona was a 57-yard boomer of a punt by UCLA’s Darren Schager that traveled so far, Jackie Sherrill will probably accuse him of filling the ball with helium. The punt trapped Arizona two yards from its end zone, and when the opposing punter obliged with a shank job, the Bruins were in business.

They converted that bit of luck into seven points when Cook, operating out of the shotgun, dodged the onrushing 230-pound Shawn Jarrett, stepped forward, threw off the wrong foot and found the leaping Stokes far downfield. Across the goal line he strode with a 36-yard touchdown pass, merely the latest in the continuing All the Way With J.J. highlight series.

The score got to be 30-0 by the time Arizona was willing to fight back. Perfect through seven games, the Wildcats were expecting UCLA to give them a battle Saturday, but nothing like this. UCLA made Arizona look so vulnerable, maybe the Phoenix Cardinals aren’t the second-best team from that state after all.