COLLEGE FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : UCLA : Donahue: Calls Correct Ones

Coach Terry Donahue defended his play calling in the final 28 seconds of a 38-31 loss Saturday to Oregon at the Rose Bowl. UCLA had four plays and one timeout to go three yards but managed 2 1/2. Tailback Karim Abdul-Jabbar was stopped just short of the goal line by four Ducks as time expired.

“I’m not really sure what all differently people would expect us to do,” Donahue said. “I know one thing: I wouldn’t run any of those four plays again because none of them worked. I would go back and select four new ones. I do have enough sense to figure that out and that’s what you all are doing and what fans do.

“ ‘Well, those four weren’t any good so they [must have been] bad calls.’ Quite frankly, that’s a bunch of BS. I don’t know how else to describe it.

“They weren’t bad calls. We got four plays off in 28 seconds. You people don’t have any idea how hard that is. Two runs and two passes. That’s hard. We did a great job doing that. They just didn’t work. . . . There’s no reason not to get the ball in. You’ve got to score. If you don’t score, you have to answer questions. But we didn’t squander any plays. There wasn’t a wasted play. They just didn’t work.”

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Starting quarterback Ryan Fien, who sat out last Saturday’s game because of a concussion, will get his job back this week against Washington State, according to Donahue, as long as none of the symptoms of the concussion return.