Top Heavy : Bruins Open at No. 2-Ranked Tennessee, Then Are at Michigan Two Weeks Later

All together now:

“We’re at UCLA, so we want to play the best. . . . “

It’s the company line in Westwood, a mantra among coaches and players, and it’s easy to believe the players, who are sure of their ability and want to demonstrate it in the biggest arena possible, and preferably on national television.

But there is the suspicion, deep down, that the new coaches wish Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton still had football programs.

Open with the 49ers, instead of going to Tennessee.

Game 3 against the Titans, instead of going to Michigan.

Put a victory over Northeast Louisiana in that sandwich and head off for the Pacific 10 Conference opener at Oregon with a 3-0 record . . . instead of the 1-2 that is more likely.

“We’re going to play Tennessee and they’ve increased their stadium, they’re going to have over 100,000 people,” says Coach Bob Toledo. “And, of course, we’re going to go back to Michigan and play in the big house, over 100,000. I’m not going to make a lot of promises and guarantees, but I will guarantee we probably will lead the nation in average attendance away after the first month of the season.”

It’s the only safe bet. The smallest place the Bruins will play in September is the Rose Bowl.

They are over-scheduled and undermanned. It’s UCLA ‘96, a season in which the accent is on the new, from Toledo and a largely new staff, to a new offense, new defense, new uniforms and some new bodies to put in them.

“We’re a very young and very inexperienced football team,” is the way Toledo puts it.

Said sophomore quarterback Cade McNown, as important to the Bruins as milk is to a baby: “The way I see it, we’re young, but we’re good. We’ve got a lot of talent, and the guys who play this year are the guys they’re going to be talking about next year because they’re going to prove themselves this year.”

They will have to for UCLA to find any success.

Toledo hired Al Borges as offensive coordinator because they tend to think alike. He hired Rocky Long as defensive coordinator because Long put together a smoke-and-mirrors defense at Oregon State that drove UCLA coaches nuts.

Long brought his smoke and mirrors along, and the defense defies description: It’s a 3-3, except when it’s a 3-4 or, occasionally, a 3-5 or a 5-3, though when the ball is snapped all bets are off.

“Our defensive players like the attack that we have,” Toledo said. “We’re taking a few more chances, we’re playing a little more man[-to-man pass coverage]. It’s an aggressive style of play and I believe we have the athletes who can play that style of defense.”

One of them is Abdul McCullough, moved back to strong safety after taking one for the team last season as an undersized linebacker.

“He’s an aggressive coach,” McCullough says. “The first thing he told us was, we’re going to put some points on the board. Come out throwing. Wet and wild. And that’s how I like it. Teams that win pull out stops.”

And stop other people, which could be a problem.

Defensively, the Bruins will start one player bigger than 260 pounds: 278-pound defensive end Travis Kirschke. The other end is Damon Smith, a 260-pounder, and the nose guard is 230-pound Weldon Forde, though Jeff Ruckman, at 250 pounds, will spell him.

It’s a prospect that would have the 300-pound offensive guards and tackles across the line from them salivating--if Kirschke, Smith, Forde and Ruckman would go where they are supposed to go. But that’s the idea behind Long’s defense: not going where you’re supposed to go, and filling in gaps with linebackers Phillip Ward, moved from defensive end at his request; Brian Wilmer and Danjuan Magee, plus roverback Larry Atkins or Wasswa Serwanga and, frequently, McCullough or his safety running mate Shaun Williams.

Any of them could come at a quarterback from any direction in a sort of feast-or-famine, organized chaos that could yield some big plays--for either team.

That leaves the Guidry brothers, Paul and Javelin, at the cornerbacks, hoping that somebody gets to the quarterback before a receiver has time to work some one-on-one magic.

It’s a stopgap defense, hoping to hold the line until some bigger people are recruited. And it will depend on the Bruins being more rugged than they have been in the past.

“We’ll have to play it with intensity,” says Long. “I think we have the people here to do that. I see the intensity--though not as often as I want to see it.”

The offense is fashionable, which is to say you could apply the TV buzzword “West Coast offense” to it, as long as you’re not around Toledo and not willing to say “Bill Walsh offense,” after its developer.

“We call it the Westwood offense,” Toledo says.

It’s “ball-control passing,” says Toledo, as did Walsh in his first incarnation as Stanford’s coach almost two decades ago. The idea is for McNown to throw short passes and square-outs to wide receivers Eric Scott, Derek Ayers, Jim McElroy and Danny Farmer. This will allow McNown to take short drops in order to help a young and inexperienced offensive line by throwing before the defense can get set.

The idea is not for the quarterback to run, although McNown is the leading returning rusher. He was second to Karim Abdul-Jabbar last season with 311 yards in 71 carries, but much of that yardage was a product of desperation in an unlikely freshman season.

The other thing is to occasionally throw a bomb to thwart defenses that get sucked in to deal with the short stuff.

“I think you’ve got to be about a 60% completion passer, and in that I think you’ve got to hit a few home runs,” says Borges, who came from Oregon, where he coached Duck quarterback Tony Graziani, the Pac-10 total offense leader last season and a McNown play-alike in that they both can run and throw. “I think you’ve got to be able to get a few strikes.”

The keys to the whole approach are enigmatic running back Skip Hicks, without injury for the first time in four seasons, and a line on which only junior right tackle Chad Overhauser can be called experienced.

It is the youngest line in the Pac-10, with freshman giant Kris Farris, 6 feet 9 1/2 and 300 pounds, at the other tackle, where he will be replacing Outland Award winner Jonathan Ogden; sophomore right guard Andy Meyers, junior left guard Chad Sauter and sophomore center Shawn Stuart.

And not much else, although 300-pound seniors Gene Waters and Darren McClure offer practice--if not much game--experience.

It’s a line that worked together all summer on its own, in the weight room and on the practice field because the players know they don’t command much respect and want to prove the critics wrong.

There’s even a thought of including the tight end in the passing game, something that hasn’t happened at UCLA since the Corwin Anthony-Charles Arbuckle-Randy Austin troika moved on six seasons ago.

Sophomore Mike Grieb has shown he can catch the ball, and 220-pound freshman Gabe Crecion has shown he will push Grieb for playing time.

Hicks offers a ray of hope for the running game, four seasons after he was a key to the Bruin Rose Bowl team. He carried 100 times in 1993, and only 56 times since because of various injuries, most suffered while working out with the track team.

“If Skip Hicks can play, he’ll make me a better coach,” Toledo says.

If Hicks can’t play--and there is no sign of that yet--the offense falls back on lightweight Ryan Roques, a redshirt freshman, and some real freshmen, the best of whom is two-time All-City high school player Durell Price.

The fullback is Cheyane Caldwell, a sophomore who is going to catch some passes.

The kickers are veterans Bjorn Merten and Greg Andrasick, for field goals and kickoffs, respectively, and Chris Sailer, who punts, although he would like to do all of the kicking, and play a little soccer on the side.

Daily, they all repeat, “We’re at UCLA, so we want to play the best,” and they’ll start with the second best in No. 2 Tennessee, which has the nation’s best college quarterback, Peyton Manning, and the ability to not only beat teams but leave scars.

“Football coaches believe that somehow they’re going to win every game and I believe that,” Toledo says. “I believe we’re going to win every football game. But on the other hand, I’m smart enough to realize a lot of things go into a game and into a season.”

There is some familiarity.

“When I was at Texas A&M;, Peyton Manning and his dad, Archie, came through, visiting schools on their own,” says Toledo. “He was a great kid. I wish Texas A&M; had gotten him.”

The Aggies didn’t. UCLA gets him on Sept. 7. Better it was Long Beach State.