Reynosa Handling Situation Well

UCLA’s leading punt returner will be in Southern California today, watching the Bruins play Stanford on Channel 9.

Mark Reynosa, who has returned seven punts for 51 yards, a 7.3-yard average, is not with the 60-player traveling squad playing the Cardinal.

“As a walk-on,” he began and then hesitated. “Every time I read a paper clipping, in front of my name it mentions walk-on. It’s something you can’t do anything about, so you have to live with it.”

The reason, he is sure, is a fumble two weeks ago against Oregon State. After two returns that set up Bruin scores, a third punt was fumbled on the UCLA 39.

The next punt was handled by Jim McElroy, who was still recovering from a concussion suffered the previous week.

“I think that botched punt return against Oregon State really hurt my chances,” Reynosa said. “I worked hard as a walk-on to even get up to that position to back up Jim and I botched it.”

He returned to fair-catch a late-game punt, but a week later watched while McElroy was back.

“It’s difficult, but I had no expectations coming here as a walk-on,” said Reynosa, who handled kicks and punts for two seasons at Saddleback College. “I’m disappointed because I’m a competitor, but I had no expectations so I’m not surprised.”

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UCLA can match its longest winning streak in the ‘90s--seven games--with a victory today. The Bruins won seven in a row in 1993. . . . UCLA is averaging 425.3 yards a game in total offense. Extending that over a 12-game season, including a bowl game, would give the Bruins their sixth-best offensive year ever. The top season was 1991, when UCLA picked up 5,287 yards in 12 games, an average of 440.6 a game.