Lewis Rushes Away the Guilt

Jermaine Lewis sounded as if he had just won a court case, not a football game.

“It’s good to finally clear my name,” the UCLA running back said.

Football, like the legal system, usually gives you a second chance--although it often takes a while. In the case of Lewis v. Washington State, justice was more than 13 months in the making.

Skip Hicks took heat for staying on the sidelines at the end of a crucial drive at Washington State on Aug. 30, 1997, but it was Lewis who brought it on by failing to score from one yard in the final minutes of a 37-34 Cougar victory. To make it worse, Lewis (a redshirt freshman at the time) ran to the wrong hole on the play.

Although it was the first game of the season, it wound up going down as the single play that cost the Bruins a trip to the Rose Bowl.

“I just let it go last season,” Lewis said. “But it carried over a little bit . . . to this game. Everything started happening again, people started bringing it back up. It was still in the back of my mind.”

It’s a new season. Hicks is gone.

Now the bad feelings from last season can go away too.

The starting tailback job belongs to Lewis, and Saturday he got the Bruins started on a 49-17 victory over Washington State.

He broke off a 15-yard gain on UCLA’s first play from scrimmage. When the drive reached the 10-yard line, he got two shots and came through with a pair of five-yard runs that put UCLA into the end zone.

He finished with two touchdowns to go with his 94 yards in 15 carries, and it looks like the 5-foot-7 running back is becoming a larger and larger part of the UCLA offense.

He ran for a career-high 113 yards in the season-opener against Texas, then tied a school record by rushing for four touchdowns against Houston two weeks ago.

Lewis already has eight rushing touchdowns, putting him on a pace to beat the Pac-10 single-season record of 22 set by Hicks last year. (It would help if he played 11 games; yet another reason to reschedule the Miami game).

On a day that provided better news for UCLA’s championship hopes than Cade McNown’s Heisman Trophy candidacy, the Bruins learned they didn’t need McNown at his best. Not as long as the offensive line keeps clearing space and the Bruins can roll up 256 rushing yards.

Many more games like Saturday’s and McNown won’t be traveling to New York in December. He completed 14 of 27 passes for 205 yards and one touchdown.

“That’s encouraging when you score 49 points and your quarterback is very average,” Coach Bob Toledo said.

McNown’s biggest completion came on one of his worst passes, a running, off-balance, underthrown ball that Danny Farmer came back to snatch and take to the Washington State three-yard line for a gain of 51.

Most of the work Saturday was done by Lewis, backup Keith Brown and rapidly rising freshman DeShaun Foster, who had 77 yards in 12 carries.

“If they keep producing, we’ll keep running the ball,” McNown said. “I didn’t think the passing game got a good rhythm today, but think we can work this out.”

Even McNown was better as a runner Saturday. From the Washington State six in the first quarter he rolled out, set his sights on the end zone and jumped over linebacker Steve Gleason at the goal line to score.

Not only was it an athletic play, it was clever. At the end McNown executed a neat little half-gainer to avoid crashing into the ground helmet-first and landed safely on his back. You can’t contend for the Heisman with a cracked neck.

Of course, it was hard for McNown to rack up a lot of passing yardage with so little room in front of him. The first two Bruin drives began in Washington State territory. The third began on the UCLA 48. The fourth began at the UCLA 41. For the game, three UCLA drives began inside the Washington State 15.

UCLA’s incredible field position throughout the day came thanks to the defense, which produced four turnovers, and the special teams, which blocked two punts. And it’s safe to say the Washington State offense isn’t the same now that Ryan Leaf is spending his time squabbling with reporters in San Diego.

If UCLA played as horribly on offense as Washington State did Saturday, the Bruins would be moping around for weeks.

Most coaches would be heaping superlatives on their offense with the type of output the Bruins had Saturday. Toledo simply said, with a touch of disappointment, “Offensively, I thought we played well enough to get some yards and score some points.”

They can do better, because they know McNown can do better.

But it would be tough to ask for more from the running backs. The ground attack, led by Lewis, looked solid.

“It’s just good game planning by the coaches,” Lewis said, not coincidentally just as Toledo was sitting down next to him.

Smart move. Any “in” in what Toledo said is a “tailback by committee” situation will help.

For Lewis, it was obvious the memories of last year helped his cause--and added to his enjoyment--Saturday.

“Personally, I wanted to go out there and destroy this team,” Lewis said.

Lucky for him he said those things after the game. Because on the football field, anything you say can and will be used against you.