UCLA Hoping to Regain Sweet Taste of Victory

You’re Steve Mariucci, and you’re like a kid in a candy store.

Your team can run the ball, it can throw it and today you play a UCLA team that has shown itself vulnerable to both.

You’re Bob Toledo, and you’re looking into a candy store.

Your team can run the ball, if not so well lately, and it can throw it, well, some, and today you play a California team that has shown itself vulnerable to both.

What to do?

It begins with the run.

“If they can run the ball, they’re a good football team,” Toledo said. “If we can run the ball, we’re a different football team. If we’ve got to line up and throw the ball, we’re not a good football team.”

Cal couldn’t run the ball at Washington State a week ago, falling behind early and picking up only 44 yards on the ground in a 21-18 loss. UCLA couldn’t run the ball at Washington a week ago, falling behind early and picking up only 12 yards on the ground in a 41-21 loss.

The difference is that it was the Bears’ first defeat in six games. Losing is something new to Cal this season.

Losing is getting old to UCLA, 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

“Now we know [about losing], and, believe me, it was a quiet bus ride to the airport Saturday night and very quiet plane trip home,” said Mariucci, in his first season as Cal’s coach. “It was interesting to see how this team was going to react, and they didn’t know how I was going to react either. I didn’t know how I was going to react.

“We’ll find out how when we come out of the blocks. This is a big game and a very important game. . . . We’ll find out a lot about ourselves this week in how we play the game.”

Coming out of the blocks may be a key for both teams. Seldom does a coin toss before a game have the effect it could today in Strawberry Canyon.

UCLA wants to receive, not only to get the ball first, but also to keep its kickoff team on the field no more than necessary.

The Bruins have given up an average of 26.4 yards per kickoff return. That figure was swelled by a 99-yard return by Arizona State’s Tony Battle, and by returns of 60 and 20 yards by Washington’s Jerome Pathon--the latter on an onside kick--and 38 yards by the Huskies’ Joe Jarzynka.

“Our special teams have to play better,” Toledo said.

It might be difficult for them to play worse.

If they can play better, particularly on kickoff coverage, the Bruins aren’t out of the woods.

Cal’s offense, led by quarterback Pat Barnes, the Pac-10’s top passer, gains yardage in big chunks. The Bears average 283.5 passing yards and 175.2 rushing yards a game.

That puts pressure on the UCLA defense, which faltered last week against Washington and which is struggling with injuries. Free safety Shaun Williams suffered a knee ligament injury Tuesday in a passing drill and is sidelined at least for this week.

Strong safety Abdul McCullough is playing with a broken right hand and fared poorly in Seattle while trying to protect it.

That leaves Glenn Thompkins to sub for Williams, with Eric Whitfield also getting time, and it could leave Larry Atkins playing instead of McCullough.

Two rookie safeties against the league’s best passer.

“They got scholarships too and now they’re getting their chance,” Toledo said. “They’re going to have to look at themselves in the mirror Saturday and Sunday morning and ask how they did. Everybody wants to play, everybody wants an opportunity. Well, some guys are going to get an opportunity. Now, they’ve got to perform.”

There’s a way to help them.

“We can’t turn the ball over,” Toledo said. “Offensively, we’ve got to control the football and keep it away from their offense. Their offense is second and third [in the Pac-10] in most categories. They have about 85 snaps a game, and we can’t let them have that many, so there’s a lot of pressure on our offense to keep it away from their offense.”

UCLA has fumbled seven times and lost all seven. And to control the ball, the Bruins must run, with Skip Hicks holding his starting job at tailback by a thread in a rare midseason scrimmage. He is being pushed by freshmen Durell Price and Keith Brown.

“If he did anything differently, he might not have held onto the spot,” said Toledo of Hicks’ performance [five carries, eight yards, but most important, no fumbles] in the scrimmage. “There’s some competition there, and I wanted him to know it.”

He does, and so does the Bruin defense. The unit needs to get some breaks, and to get some, it has to make some.

“We’ve got to get to the point where we’ve got to make some big plays to stop drives, cause a fumble, intercept a pass, sack a quarterback on third and four,” defensive coordinator Rocky Long said.

It’s a way to even the breaks UCLA has given on special teams and on turnovers. And a way to close the candy store.

UCLA Notes

Freshman quarterback Dylan Aquino was released from UCLA Medical Center on Friday after doctors said tests showed that problems he has had this week with shortness of breath, dizziness, passing out and erratic heartbeat are not related to the heart itself. More tests will be run on Aquino. While in the hospital and on monitoring systems, some of the symptoms recurred, leading doctors to rule out problems with his heart.