Practice Makes a Perfect Start for Mitchell

The play was coming for almost a year, since the first time Freddie Mitchell stepped onto Spaulding Field in a uniform, two months late because of academic deficiencies.

That day, he ran a couple of routes, caught a couple of passes and returned them to sender.

The sender was Cade McNown, and he was about 55 yards away at the time.

Mitchell was auditioning.

“I’m always auditioning,” he said.

The audience picked up his act quickly.

“Did Mitchell throw that?” asked UCLA Coach Bob Toledo, whose back was to the end-of-practice play while he talked with reporters who were looking over his shoulder.

Assured that Mitchell had thrown the ball the width of a football field, the wheels in Toledo’s gadget-minded brain began turning.

On Saturday, they cranked out the 34-yard touchdown pass from Mitchell to Brian Poli-Dixon that got UCLA started toward a 49-31 victory over Texas.

“I didn’t know he could throw it until that practice,” Toledo said. “I knew he was a baseball player, so I knew he had some kind of an arm. But I didn’t know he could throw the football as well as he can.

“We decided the first time we had the ball over the 50 on the right hash mark, we were going to use it.”

The play is derivative of one that UCLA used to beat USC when Toledo was the Bruins’ offensive coordinator and Jim McElroy threw the ball. It was run again successfully against Washington State after Toledo became a head coach with a reputation for hocus-pocus and McElroy was still around.

The faces have changed, but not the result. On Saturday, McNown handed the ball to the tailback--in this case Jermaine Lewis--who handed to Mitchell, who passed to Poli-Dixon, his roommate, in the end zone.

Freddie Mitchell, center stage. It’s his turn now, in more ways than one. A hiatus, which included a reluctant redshirt season, had ended.

“It’s been so long,” said Mitchell, who had last played in a football game 22 months ago, in November 1996 in high school in Lakeland, Fla.

“People have talked about, ‘Can he do it in a game? He’s awesome in practice.’ I guess I just showed them today.”

Some already had an inkling.

“I told him [Friday] night that ‘They don’t know you now,’ ” said strong safety Larry Atkins, in what, for him, was a speech. “I said, ‘After tomorrow, they’ll know you.’ ”

By game’s end Saturday, people learned that Mitchell can throw touchdown passes and catch them. His final play of the day involved hauling in a 79-yard scoring pass from McNown for the Bruins’ final points.

“It was a turn-and-go route,” Mitchell said. “You have to be a pretty good actor to do that one.”

Texas cornerback Joe Walker was convinced.

People also learned Mitchell can run the ball. He did, for 30 yards, turning the reprise of the reverse pass play into a rush.

He also returned three punts for 17 yards and three kickoffs for 78.

All told, he gained 233 yards, plus the 34 covered in throwing to Poli-Dixon, who was ready to spread the word.

“When I first saw him in practice, I said, ‘We’ve got a lethal weapon there,’ ” Poli-Dixon said.

What was needed was the proper stage. The Rose Bowl provided it.

“We knew he could play from practice,” said Al Borges, the Bruins’ offensive coordinator. “What we didn’t know is, with 70,000 people in the seats, would he revert to high school days? He didn’t. He played just like he was coached to play.”

And more, because you can’t coach the kind of speed he used in zipping past Walker, and you can’t coach an arm that can throw a ball 50 yards, and hands that can catch one thrown that far.

“Everybody was talking about, ‘He can do this in practice, what can he do in the game?’ ” Mitchell said. “I think the game is easier than practice. My players know what I’m going to do in practice.”

And now people know what he can do in a game.

“He’s no secret now,” Atkins said.

Freddie Mitchell may well be as good as he believes he is.

And that’s plenty good.

“I think so,” Poli-Dixon said.

Others are beginning to know so.