Bruins Could Be In for a Bruising at Washington

Jim Lambright has seemingly been around as long as Lake Washington, and his frame of reference reflects it.

No. 25 Washington, 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, was hammered by Notre Dame, 54-20, a week ago, but it has been worse.

“I remember being rolled over by a Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant-coached team when Don James was first here,” Lambright said. “It was actually worse, because our plane back home was like a M*A*S*H unit. We had them laying in the aisles of the plane with broken legs and whatever.”

Lambright was an assistant to James in 1975, when Alabama beat the Huskies, 52-0.

“And we also faced a Colorado team a few years ago where we just happened to play them the week after a death on their football team, and they came here to Husky Stadium and they were crazy. They just beat the tar out of us. Yeah, I’ve been there before.”

Lambright was the defensive coordinator when Washington lost, 45-28, to Colorado in 1989.

From all of this, he has learned that history is best buried quickly, so that there is no residue the next week, but few in Seattle are letting him do it. Lambright is drawing criticism for his coaching and the team’s preparation.

“It’s real clear,” he said. “It’s not like ‘Did you write a good column or a bad column?’ This was a column that people burned. We certainly didn’t help the Pac-10’s image the way we played.”

To a man, UCLA (2-3, 1-1) hopes today that the memories linger.

“That makes the first couple of series important for us,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “We want to establish something quickly, to take the crowd out of the game.”

Husky Stadium is the loudest place to play in the Pac-10.

Mainly, though, UCLA wants to establish that its memories are proscribed to the archives, that giving up 21 points in the fourth quarter of a 42-34 loss to No. 4 Arizona State is yesterday’s news.

“We watched the film on Monday, talked about it, learned from it and then went on to Washington,” Toledo said. “It’s been a good week of practice.”

The Bruins want Washington to remember that Notre Dame rolled up 650 yards, 397 of them on the ground, against a team that had given up only 387 total in the four previous games.

“Yeah, but we’re not Notre Dame,” Toledo said. “Washington has always been a hard team to run on.”

Perhaps making it a bit easier is the loss of Washington’s leading tackler, linebacker John Fiala, who underwent arthroscopic surgery this week for knee problems.

Or perhaps not. The Huskies still have linebacker Jason Chorak, their leading sacker with eight. He has 11 1/2 tackles for losses.

“He has a defensive personality in that he’s kind of half-wired all the time,” Lambright said.

No UCLA tackler has more than two sacks.

Last week, the Bruins ran up against Arizona State’s Derrick Rodgers, who has nine sacks. One of them came against the Bruins.

“They’re kind of alike, but Chorak is bigger,” Toledo said.

Chorak is 255 pounds, Rodgers 220, and both require special attention in the Bruin blocking scheme.

When quarterbacks escape Chorak, they often find Washington vulnerable. The Huskies are last in the Pac-10 in pass defense, giving up a completion rate of 59.3% and 11 touchdowns. Complicating the Huskies’ problems have been two freshman cornerbacks, Mel Miller and Jermaine Smith, although Smith is hampered because of a knee problem.

UCLA’s pass defense has had its problems, giving up only 48.1% completions, but hurting itself by giving up big plays.

Three weeks in a row the Bruins have been beaten by wide receivers who have been double-teamed.

“We should never get beat on double coverage,” Toledo said.

With that in mind, Paul Guidry returns to the starting lineup at cornerback after dealing with a thigh bruise that has hampered him for four weeks.

In part to try to protect freshman quarterback Brock Huard, Washington unleashes running backs Corey Dillon and Rashaan Shehee as often as possible. Dillon, second in the Pac-10 in rushing, is a 220-pound junior college transfer who starts. Shehee, from Gardena by way of Bakersfield, is a known quantity. He ran for three touchdowns in a 38-14 victory over the Bruins last season in the Rose Bowl.

UCLA counters with Skip Hicks, the conference’s leading rusher with 508 yards, and freshmen Durell Price and Keith Brown, both of whom will get playing time early, and a defense that wants to put pressure on Huard.

“We know what we have to do,” linebacker Brian Willmer said. “We just have to get it done. Talk is cheap.”

But talk remains at Washington of Notre Dame and disaster.

“It’s a game that gauges how you compare nationally, and Notre Dame put us in our spot and showed us where we have weaknesses and gave us something to learn from this week,” Lambright said.

UCLA’s wish is that the lessons are yet to be learned.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TODAY’S GAME

UCLA at WASHINGTON

* Records:

UCLA (2-3, 1-1), Washington (3-2, 2-1)

* Time: 3:30 p.m.

* TV: Channel 9

* Radio: KLAC (570)