COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Bruins’ Run Didn’t Surprise Anyone : UCLA: Oregon defenders were waiting for Abdul-Jabbar behind Ogden on final play, and they stopped him.

Oregon defensive end Troy Bailey knew it was going to be a run the moment he saw UCLA’s offensive line wearily settle into their blocking stances one final time. So did Duck linebacker Jeremy Asher, who started yelling, “Run! Run!” moments after UCLA broke from the huddle. So did strong safety Jaiya Figueras, who began inching toward the line. So did cornerback Kenny Wheaton, who, when it was all over, acknowledged, “If they would have passed, I think they would have caught us off guard.”

Instead, with one play, two yards and four seconds separating Oregon from becoming Ore-goners, UCLA did exactly as the Ducks expected: It ran. Karim Abdul-Jabbar took the handoff, avoided a tackler, bounced to the outside, made a mad dash toward the left corner of the Oregon end zone . . . and was stopped just short of the goal line.

Cornerback LaMont Woods hit him first. Figueras hit him last. Together they helped save a 38-31 Oregon lead and, in the process, stick a green and yellow sock in everyone who had the defending Pacific 10 Conference champions eight places below the Bruins.

“The [voters] are idiots,” Bailey said.

For a moment there, first-year Oregon defensive coordinator Charlie Waters almost got stuck with the tag. It was Waters who pulled starting middle linebacker Rich Ruhl out of the lineup and inserted another defensive back on UCLA’s final series.

“We thought they were going to pass,” Ruhl said.

So what happens? Bruin freshman quarterback Cade McNown tried squeezing through the left side of UCLA’s massive offensive line and gained a yard. UCLA used its last timeout with 12 seconds remaining.

Then McNown aimed a pass toward wide receiver Eric Scott in the end zone. Incomplete. Then he tried Abdul-Jabbar in the flat. Incomplete. Then came the final play. Waters kept Ruhl on the sideline, but in the Duck huddle, Oregon’s players knew better.

“It was fourth down and everyone was saying, ‘They’re going to run,’ ” Wheaton said.

“I knew they were going to run to [Jonathan] Ogden’s side,” Bailey said, referring to UCLA’s left tackle, considered to be the one of the best offensive linemen in the country.

They did. And on the Oregon sideline, where the Ducks had taken the seven-point lead only 58 seconds earlier, time stood still.

Oregon quarterback Tony Graziani, who was nursing a sore throwing shoulder, lay flat on his stomach as he watched the Bruins make their way to the line. Wide receiver Cristin McLemore, whose three-yard touchdown catch from Graziani had put the Ducks ahead with 1:02 to play, kept glancing at the scoreboard. When it came time for the final play, McLemore asked former Duck quarterback Danny O’Neil, who was on the Oregon sidelines, to kneel with him.

“Come pray with me, Danny,” he told O’Neil. “I can’t watch.”

So they prayed and then, as McNown took the snap, McLemore covered his eyes with his white and green jersey.

When Abdul-Jabbar had been stopped, McLemore listened for the noise. All he heard was the sound of Oregon fans seated near the opposite end zone.

“My heart’s still getting over it,” he said, as he walked into the Oregon locker room.

Graziani sprinted toward midfield, jumped into the arms of offensive guard Seaton Daly and then collapsed to the ground in joy. There on the Rose Bowl turf he stayed, his hands on his head.

“We can’t have too many like that or it’s going to kill me,” he said.

Figueras, who made the final hit, said, “I felt like I was dreaming.”

After the tackle, Figueras stood up and looked toward the Oregon fans. So dazed was Figueras that he had forgotten what down it was and how much time, if any, remained. When he saw the Duck fans applauding and pointing at him, he knew.

New Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti remembered thinking he wanted to run off the field, “before anything could change.”

Later today, when the latest weekly rankings are released, something will be different, namely Oregon’s place in the polls.

“I leave us off,” Bailey said when asked where he’d rank the Ducks. “We’re Oregon. We don’t matter.”

Don’t mention that to UCLA.