Pacific’s Fall Benefits Bruins

When Pacific went out of the football business in January, the calls went out. The Tigers were not a particularly strong team, and definitely not a deep one, but coaches with holes on their rosters scurried to Stockton to pick over the remnants of a once-proud program.

“We needed a ‘cover guy,’ ” said Bob Toledo, now the coach at UCLA and once coach at Pacific. “Bob Lee is the athletic director there, and I knew him and called him.”

The Tigers had twins who could play defensive back, and Wasswa Serwanga ended up in Westwood. His brother, Kato, ended up at California.

They were born in Uganda and came to Sacramento as 4-year-olds. The names are Swahili; Wasswa means “younger twin,” Kato “older twin.”

“We had played together, but we decided that for the future, we had better separate,” Wasswa said. “Our coach at Pacific helped me, and I spent my last $30 sending film to UCLA. This is where I wanted to play.”

It’s where he is playing--at roverback for the Bruin defense.

“It’s the best seat in the house,” Serwanga said. “You cover, you rush, you play the run, you do everything, and you line up differently on every play.”

The Serwanga brothers will play against each other Oct. 26 when UCLA travels to Berkeley.

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The Bruins went to full pads for both workouts and the intensity--already high--went up. So did the results, with quarterback Cade McNown completing a 70-yard pass to Derek Ayers in the afternoon practice.

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Freshman lineman David Plenty Hawk, likely to redshirt this season, missed Wednesday’s practices to attend the funeral of an uncle. . . . Backup punter Justin Segoian graduated and will use his final year on scholarship in the graduate school of education.