COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY UPDATE : ROSE BOWL : Badgers Have Familiar Look

There were players in pads and the hitting was reminiscent of August, but it was UCLA at practice on the Monday of Christmas week, still shaking off the rust of a month since it beat USC, 27-21, to earn a trip to the Rose Bowl.

There, the Bruins will play a team that “probably reminds me most of Washington,” Coach Terry Donahue said when asked if he has seen enough of Wisconsin, the Bruins’ Rose Bowl opponent, to form an opinion. “They are very physical in the offensive line and have an effective running game, with two backs that they pound at you.”

The backs, Brent Moss and Terrell Fletcher, rushed for 2,407 yards and accounted for 47% of the Badgers’ offense.

“I’m not sure we’ve seen a running team like that in our conference,” Donahue said. “They probably run better than we do. We probably throw better than they do.”

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Wisconsin will arrive in Pasadena on Christmas night, with closed workouts beginning the next day at Citrus College.

Wisconsin’s fans will arrive shortly thereafter, and in force. The Pacific 10 said 22,000 tickets went to the school. “They said they could sell 15,000 more,” conference spokesman Jim Muldoon said.

UCLA’s allotment was 38,000 tickets, from which each Pac-10 school got 500.

There are no more tickets available to the schools. Capacity for the Rose Bowl is 100,184, about 3,000 fewer than in previous years because of modifications made to accommodate soccer’s World Cup next summer.