NEW YEAR’S DAY BOWL GAMES : A Clash of Styles in Rose Bowl : College football: UCLA’s finesse reputation gets an equally stereotyped rival in smash-mouth Wisconsin in today’s big game in Pasadena.

All together now:

Pacific 10 football is finesse football. Big Ten football is physical football.

“It’s kind of hard to say which style is best,” said Terrell Fletcher, Wisconsin’s No. 2 running back, or No. 1-A, depending on who is counting.

If the stereotype holds, Fletcher will get his answer on the scoreboard in today’s Rose Bowl game, the 80th in the series.

It has been the storyline since Wisconsin became the Big Ten representative by beating Michigan State in Tokyo on Dec. 4. People have tried to pigeonhole the Badgers: a smash-mouth Midwest team that wins by pounding its opponent on the line of scrimmage.

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue is having none of it.

“I wish they were a one-dimensional team,” he said wistfully.

True enough, ninth-ranked Wisconsin (9-1-1) runs first, then throws. The Badgers feature Brent Moss, the nation’s No. 3 rusher with 1,473 yards and 14 touchdowns, playing the game’s first two series. Then Fletcher, with 932 yards and nine touchdowns, gets a chance. And the back who is hotter plays the lion’s share of the remaining downs.

But Wisconsin also has quarterback Darrell Bevell, who at five days away from his 24th birthday is perhaps the nation’s oldest sophomore player. He has completed 69.1% of his 256 passes for 2,294 yards and 19 touchdowns.

The Badgers rush for an average of 250 yards a game, pass for 214.

Both numbers are higher than those generated by UCLA.

“I would liken Wisconsin’s running game--though it would be slightly stronger--to those of the University of Washington and Arizona State,” Donahue said. “Both have strong, physical lines, and Wisconsin has the running backs--Moss and Fletcher. It’s nice for them to have a situation where if you stop one, they can come back with the other.”

The 14th-ranked Bruins (8-3) beat Washington, 39-25, and lost to Arizona State, 9-3.

And Pac-10 finesse? “I’ve said it all along,” Wisconsin Coach Barry Alvarez said. “The team speed of UCLA is better than any team in our league.

“But to say they’re just fast and can’t pound you isn’t true.”

That, Donahue will buy.

“I think it’s a perception created by the media and by tradition,” he said of the Rose Bowl stereotypes. “I watched the Rose Bowl last year, and Michigan was faster than Washington. The year before, Washington was faster and more physical, too. I think you have to be careful when you generalize.”

Still, the coaches’ nightmares fit the myth.

Alvarez sees long-distance hookups between UCLA quarterback Wayne Cook and wide receiver J.J. Stokes as potential Badger-killers. “We have to keep them from getting big plays,” Alvarez said. “Their speed concerns me with big plays (on offense), and with their defense stopping our ability to get plays.”

Donahue sees clock-running, ground-eating Wisconsin drives lulling the Bruins and their eight-man defensive front, then Bevell throwing to receivers such as Lee DeRamus and waking things up.

For all of that, the most important thing for both coaches is simply being able to look across the field at each other today.

It is Donahue’s sixth Pasadena New Year, fourth as a head coach after one each as a player and assistant, and he has never been involved in a losing Rose Bowl. He has won eight bowls in a row and is tied with Florida State’s Bobby Bowden as the only coaches to do so.

But it has been eight seasons since the Bruins have played in the Rose Bowl. This for a team that has a sign in its athletic office building: “This is what you come to UCLA for. To play in and win the Rose Bowl.”

“We thought by now we’d have three or four Rose Bowl rings,” said tackle Vaughn Parker, a senior who has seen seasons come and go without one. “So we put it all on the line for this game. This makes up for a lot of heartache.”

Wisconsin’s absence from Pasadena has been much longer. It has been 31 years since the Badgers last played in the Rose Bowl, but that’s for the alumni and fans who are clamoring for the toughest ticket in Southern California in a decade. The players are resisting such baggage. They don’t want to know about the last 31 years unless it’s a question on a history mid-term.

“We’ve talked to our kids about setting new standards and not worrying about what happened previously in Wisconsin football,” said Alvarez, who is in his first bowl as a head coach after serving as an assistant in nine.

Those standards can include the first 10-victory season in the school’s history, if Wisconsin wins today.

To do so, it will have to stop a Bruin running game that carried much of the load in a bowl-clinching victory over USC. Tailback Ricky Davis rushed for 153 yards in that game, the last regular-season start of his Bruin career. He will line up again today, sharing time with freshman Skip Hicks.

And the Badgers will have to slow Cook and Stokes, who caught passes for 1,005 yards and 17 touchdowns, 15 of them from Cook.

A flu bug that has burdened the Bruins for much of the season might help Wisconsin. Cook missed the first three days of practice this week and, because of a sore throat, could not call signals when he returned. Medication has been taken to remedy that, said Donahue, who added that he did not expect Cook at 100% today but that he did expect him to be physically able to perform.

Wisconsin has never won a Rose Bowl, losing three. Donahue has never lost one.

At stake today is a part of history, and the Badgers’ goal is to break with precedent.

UCLA’s is to maintain it.

ROSE BOWL UCLA Bruins vs.

Wisconsin Badgers

* Television

Channel 7, 1:30 p.m.

* Radio

KMPC (710)

* Records

UCLA 8-3

Wisconsin 9-1-1

* Rankings (AP)

UCLA--No. 14

Wisconsin--No. 9

* Footnote

The Badgers try for their first victory in four Rose Bowl appearances, their first in 31 years. The Bruins return after an eight-year absence.