UCLA vs. WASHINGTON

* Time: 12:30 p.m.

* Site: Husky Stadium, Seattle

* Records: UCLA 8-0, 6-0 in Pacific 10;

Washington 5-4, 3-3

* TV: Channel 7

* Radio: XTRA (1150)

* The offenses: Washington has a dangerous passing game with quarterback Brock Huard, even if his leading receiver, Dane Looker, has mainly been picking away at teams with short-yardage receptions. Huard is ninth in the Pacific 10 in passing efficiency, but fourth in yards through the air and total offense. Looker, averaging 9.8 yards a reception, needs 14 catches against UCLA and Washington State to pass Mario Bailey and Jerome Pathon for No. 1 on the Huskies’ single-season list. He had 12 in one game this season, Oct. 31 at USC. The biggest problem has been the running game. Washington has two true freshmen, Willie Hurst and Braxton Cleman, atop the depth chart at tailback and a redshirt freshman, Jamaun Willis, starting at fullback. No Washington runner has had a 100-yard game all season, and the Huskies’ 119.4 yards rushing per game is on pace to be the lowest at the school since 1972.

* The defenses: UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said he was encouraged by what he saw at practice this week, but this remains a unit very much under scrutiny, not to mention the assistant coaches who also have been put under the microscope. The Bruins are giving up more yardage than any conference team except Stanford. “I think the players feel like they’re the albatross of this UCLA football team,” defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said. “That’s unfortunate for these young men. They don’t deserve that.” The Bruins hope to simplify their schemes, thereby giving a young unit less to digest and allowing improvement in fundamentals. “I feel bad for these kids,” said Aliotti, who got some, but not all, of the blame from Toledo this week for the faltering. “My God, they’re 8-0. Some of these kids have won 18 straight games. I’m not trying to deflect the heat. But they should feel better about themselves.” The play of end Kenyon Coleman continues among the positives. He has four sacks in the last three games, a major boost to what had been one of the Bruins’ glaring weaknesses.

* Key to the game: It’s in the trenches. Washington is No. 1 in the nation in sacks and has four of the top five individuals in the Pac-10, and UCLA is No. 1 in the conference in the fewest sacks allowed. If the Bruins can wall off the wave, or at least have a solid showing, Cade McNown and his receivers will get time to work against a porous pass defense.

* Fast fact: The Bruins have scored at least 40 points in 13 of the 31 games Toledo has been head coach. They have won all 13.

* Line: UCLA by 7 1/2.

NOTES / Bruins Hope Practices Will Keep Them Perfect

No one needs to tell the Bruins, losers in their last two visits to Seattle by a combined 78-31, about the difficulties of playing at Husky Stadium, so they spent part of the week preparing for today’s visit by working with wet balls and silent snaps.

Coach Bob Toledo isn’t much for full practices with the wet ball, figuring they slow things down too much, so he instead had a few put in buckets for some individual drills. At least UCLA has some recent experience, having played in a steady drizzle at Corvallis, Ore., a week ago for most of the first half and on a damp carpet the entire game.

But the Bruins did actively prepare for what is arguably the loudest crowd in the Pacific 10, practicing plays that had players watching for the snap from center Shawn Stuart instead of listening for signals from Cade McNown. It is not a major adjustment for receivers, who are trained anyway to look for ball movement before taking off, but it could be a challenge for linemen used to looking straight ahead and going by sound.

“It’s kind of weird,” split end Brian Poli-Dixon said. “You get Cade’s rhythm down, his cadence. It’s weird this way. But it makes you focus.”

Toledo decided against getting some big speakers out to Spaulding Field and turning the volume to migraine.

“I can’t coach over that,” he said. “I’ve tried it before and I got a headache and I have to yell and scream and I get hoarse. And it bothers the people in the community.”

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HOW THEY COMPARE *--*

UCLA Washington 41.3 Scoring 26.4 26.5 Points allowed 28.1 293.5 Passing 236 184.9 Rushing 119.4 478.4 Total offense 355.4 270.4 Passing defense 276.3 133.4 Rushing defense 125.9 403.8 Total defense 402.2

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