Husky Hurdle

It was a lousy feeling, and he had a lot of time to feel lousy.

Skip Hicks is a brooder. Outwardly calm, he masks his feelings behind a demeanor of indifference and spoken confidence. The trials of the past are prologue to success. A tackle for a loss sets up a long gain, maybe even a touchdown.

A bad game sets up a good one.

There is ample precedent. He has scored 20 times for UCLA this season, as he scored 20 times for the Bruins in 1996.

He has had 12 100-yard rushing games in his career.

But internally he broods, suffering in relative silence the criticism, and never has there been more than a year ago in Seattle.

“I hate leaving a field disappointed, feeling I could have done something different,” he says. “Especially when we lose.”

UCLA lost to Washington, 41-21, on that day in Seattle, and Hicks ran seven times for eight yards. He scored a touchdown, certainly, but he also a fumble on the Bruin 41 that the Huskies’ Tony Parrish scooped up and returned 30 yards.

It was Hicks’ fourth fumble of the season, and three had been turned into opponents’ touchdowns.

The Bruins had run one play in the second quarter, and Hicks trotted to the sideline on what would be a one-way trip, at least for that afternoon.

There were almost 12 minutes until halftime. On the next play, Corey Dillon ran the final 11 yards to make it 21-0.

Hicks had gone into the game leading the Pacific 10 Conference in rushing, with 101.2 yards a game. Dillon was less than half a yard a game behind him.

At day’s end, Dillon had 145 yards in 33 carries, and had scored five touchdowns.

Seven carries, eight yards. Hicks would be behind Dillon in the Pac-10 rushing statistics the rest of the season.

“I’ve never had a worse game, anywhere,” Hicks says. “I felt like I had wasted a Saturday, and you don’t get that many. You only get 11 a year if you’re lucky enough to play in all 11. It’s a tough feeling to carry back home on the plane. A tough feeling Monday with the films, in the practice all week to wait for that next game.”

A tougher feeling, because three days later, in a rare midseason scrimmage, he had to audition for the starting job he had held since the season began. Durell Price ran four plays. Keith Brown ran four plays. Hicks ran four plays. Nobody gained much, but Hicks held onto the ball.

And the job.

A week later, California was a 146-yard, three-touchdown victim.

Fast-forward a year and three weeks and Hicks prepares for another date with Washington, Saturday in the Rose Bowl.

Washington. Nemesis.

Three games over his career. Fifteen carries for 24 yards. He has had 100-yard games against everybody in the Pac-10 except Washington and Oregon State, and UCLA really hasn’t needed his yardage in dominating the Beavers.

Washington is another story.

“I wouldn’t really say it’s personal,” he says about the Huskies, again taking an edge off the past in his personal perspective. “It just so happens I haven’t had too good a game against them. I’m not really thinking about that. I’m just thinking about going out there and playing hard.

“I’m not worried about the last time, ‘I only got seven carries for eight yards.’ I’m thinking about ‘OK now, I’m in there and now and I’m going to be trying to get the ball in the end zone and get whatever yards I can.’ ”

It’s not enough. It’s never enough. Hicks has run for 2,736 yards as a Bruin, and he has scored 49 touchdowns. Why not 2,737 yards, or for that matter, why not 3,737 yards? Why not 50 touchdowns, or 59?

“Skip is never going to run hard enough for me,” Coach Bob Toledo concedes. “I love him dearly, but here’s a guy that can run for 133 yards and three touchdowns and we’re still not satisfied.

“He’s playing as hard as he can possibly play and he’s playing hurt and my hat’s off to him, but I’m still waiting for that perfect game.”

Perfection is never qualified or quantified, making it therefore unattainable. You only know what it isn’t. Seven carries for eight yards is definitely not perfection.

“I learned in high school that you can’t do everything perfect enough to make a coach happy,” Hicks says. “It’s one of those things that I don’t let too many things get to me. I just go out there and try hard. I’m confident in myself that if I try hard, I’m going to get great results.”

But not enough results.

People see a 6-foot-1, 230-pound frame on a guy with sub-4.5-second speed in the 40-yard-dash and wonder what could be, what could have been?

They see him glide into the line or around an end and wonder why he hasn’t blasted a small hole into a canyon.

“It just comes with the territory,” Hicks says. “Being in the situation I am and how people look up to me, expectations are sometimes way out there.

“I just go out there and try my hardest to try and meet them, and as long as I am trying my hardest that’s all I can do. Basically that’s all anybody asks for, whether I reach them or not.”

It’s not. Everybody asks for more.

“Sometimes I think about it, but then I think also that I’ve got to accept that because of what I do and where I’m at,” Hicks says. “I’ve got to expect that impatience is going to be high. People are going to expect the best out of you, or maybe beyond the best. That’s just how coaches are. Fans are like that too. If somebody gets 2,000 yards, they think you should be better and get 3,000 yards.”

He has 878 yards in 177 carries this season. Before Game 1, he had set a goal of 2,000 rushing yards. Then it was modified to 2,000 total yards.

He suffered a bruised bone near his knee against Oregon and is still recovering, so personal expectations have been lowered and the parameters for personal satisfaction have been broadened.

Washington has a role in his reaching them.

“I’m happy because, even with all of the stuff I’ve been through, now I’m in a situation where I can help my team get a Rose Bowl shot,” he says. “We’re in the top 10. Just being able to help my team be among the best in the nation, and have that opportunity to go to the [NFL], which is another dream of mine, how can I not be happy?

“Even though I didn’t rush for the 2,000 yards or this or that, I’m reaching most of my goals so I can’t help but be happy. . . .

“I know there are some goals I didn’t reach, but if we can . . . win these next two games, go to the Rose Bowl and end my college career on a great note, I can leave as a winner.”

His videocassette recorder will be on Saturday.

“This is one of those games that I’m going to record, and it’s going to stay on the shelf for a while,” he says. “I think it’s going to be one of those big exciting games that we’re going to record and watch down the line, because whenever you want to watch a good game, you’re going to pop this game in.

“This game is going to go in a box. It’s not going to be seven carries for eight yards.”

The seven-for-eight game was recorded last season.

A week later, he recorded over it.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Wishy-Washy

Washington is the Pac-10 team Skip Hicks has had the most difficulty against: HICKS VS. WASHINGTON

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1993 6 17 0 1994 2 -1 0 1996 7 8 1 Totals 15 24 1

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