They’re Winless, but Certainly Not Losers

Bob Toledo is off to a 0-1 start as UCLA football coach.

So far, so good.

Honest.

Toledo’s debut against Tennessee in front of half the state at Neyland Stadium on Saturday night was supposed to be decided not long after the invocation.

The Volunteers were ranked second in the nation in both polls.

The Bruins were ranked fifth in the Pacific 10 Conference in the media preseason poll.

Al Gore gave Tennessee a pep talk on Friday.

UCLA didn’t even hear from Richard Riordan.

But Tennessee couldn’t land the knockout punch until 6 1/2 minutes were left in what would be a 35-20 game.

Toledo’s team was enthusiastic, imaginative, brave, physical and somewhat outmanned.

I had only one complaint about the play calling.

The Newspaper Play of the Week didn’t work.

The tricky double reverse-lateral-forward pass was snuffed out by the Volunteers in the second quarter.

Toledo named the play after the L.A. Times, but, please, don’t blame us.

And don’t say anything too nasty about the Bruins’ performance this particular night.

Sure, they made mistakes.

But so did the juggernaut that is being billed in these parts as Clockwork Orange.

For much of the pleasant, 74-degree evening, the rivals traded big plays and big mistakes.

At times, it got ugly.

In the first quarter, the Volunteers lost the football on a fumble and the Bruins did the same thing on the next play.

In the third quarter, the Bruins committed a holding penalty that sent them back to their three-yard line on third down--and on the next play the Volunteers committed a personal foul that gave UCLA a first down.

The Bruins never got discouraged, not even after Terry Fair ran back a punt 86 yards to give the Volunteers a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Sophomore quarterback Cade McNown responded four plays later by teaming with freshman wide receiver Danny Farmer on an 88-yard touchdown pass.

It took a wonderful play-action call on third-and-two, Peyton Manning to Joey Kent for 53 yards and six points, to finally put away the Bruins.

Manning threw three touchdown passes, two to his receivers and one to UCLA safety Abdul McCullough, who returned an interception 51 yards.

McNown completed as many passes as Manning in four fewer attempts.

UCLA controlled the ball for 33:04 and was outgained by merely 47 yards.

“I was kinda off throwing the ball,” Manning said. “Somebody said it wasn’t a typical performance. But that wasn’t a typical team we were playing.”

The Volunteers couldn’t have won many first-place votes during their CBS prime-time exposure that lasted well into late night.

They were beaten by Florida, 62-37, last year.

In two weeks, they might hold the Gators to 61.

“I don’t think we were looking ahead to Florida,” Coach Phillip Fulmer said.

‘Give UCLA credit,” Fulmer said. “They’re a fine team. They have a very complicated defense that’s hard to play against. As the season goes along, some teams might catch on to what they’re doing by watching the game films.”

Among the most interested observers in the press box was CBS analyst Terry Donahue.

Ninety minutes before the kickoff, Donahue was looking at videotape of him being carried off the field on the shoulders of his players after UCLA beat USC for the fifth consecutive time.

“I felt great,” Donahue said. “If every game was like that, I’d still be coaching.”