UCLA Has Almost Hit Bottom

The depths are within sight. Of despair, and of the Pacific 10 Conference.

The opponents are obvious. The Oregon State Beavers, and themselves.

The UCLA Bruins need a victory today at Reser Stadium, for reasons that can be found in the conference standings and their own emotional standing, both of which are on the line.

Lose and go into last place, a greater indignity than the drop of only one spot.

Lose and go . . .

Into the tank?

Into a tailspin that could cost the Bruins (3-4, 1-3) a winning record and knock them out of bowl contention with a month still to go--which is saying something in this conference--or simply knock them out, period?

It’s enough to make a Bruin long for the days of internal conflict. What takes its place is a sense, from no less a qualified observer than Coach Bob Toledo, that this is a team at a critical stage, and not in any way that has to do with postseason hopes.

This has suddenly become about survival of another kind.

“The thing that obviously concerns a coach is, I’ve demanded a lot of them,” Toledo said. “I’ve been positive with them. I’ve tried not to get down on them, although I got after them pretty good Monday in our meeting, and we’re practicing very hard. And if you don’t win one, all of a sudden they say, ‘Well, what are we doing? We’re working so hard and it’s not paying off.’

“At some point, you’ve got to show some dividends. That’s the only thing that concerns me, because I want the kids to hang in there. We need to finish strong.

“I think the biggest thing is that because we’re practicing so hard, they need to show some rewards for their efforts. It’s like everything else. You keep doing something and it doesn’t happen, all of the sudden you say, ‘Well, why am I doing this?’ Those are the things that are in the back of my mind.”

A loss could become a setback in ways that don’t get tracked in the standings.

“They’re working hard,” Toledo said. “I think they’ve got a great attitude. I’m really pleased with their effort and attitude. I’m not too pleased with their execution right now, but they’re trying hard. They’re giving me good effort. And that’s all I could ever ask for.

“We’ve still got a chance for a winning record. We’ve still got to play SC at the end. There’s other things out there. I’ll always reset our goals to give them some hope. That’s part of motivation. That’s part of being a head coach. I’ve got to find things to keep them going.

“Every team reacts differently too. Sometimes an older team might really go in the tank. A younger team might say, ‘Hey, let’s keep working and get better for the future.’ Every team is a little different. I don’t know how they’ll react.”

This would be a younger team.

That would have been the case anyway, but might be even more so today because two senior starters, Danny Farmer and Durell Price, could be limited because of injury to spot duty.

Meanwhile, the running game is looking very much as it did in Week 1, thanks to poor line play, the inconsistency of the freshman quarterback has the coach concerned about Cory Paus’ “fragile” psyche, and the secondary remains constant only in its continued upheaval. Toledo just replaced one of the most experienced defensive backs, senior Eric Whitfield, with a redshirt freshman who has barely even practiced because of injury, Lovell Houston.

This is not a program at the crossroads, by any means. But today does offer the best perspective on the level to which the Bruins’ sights have dropped since the start of the season, and, more specifically, in the last month.

For their emotional well-being, they need to beat Oregon State. A 10th-place team. A team that beat Nevada, Fresno State and Georgia Southern, but has lost all three conference games, two by double digits.

It has come to that.

“We need to get out there and play a great game,” guard Mike Saffer said. “Only God knows where the chips are going to fall, but a win is definitely what we want because that will show us that our hard work is paying off and there is a reason to keep working as hard as we did this week and keep doing it through the rest of the season.

“As far as the bowls and the standings in the Pac-10 goes, I think a lot of people are kind of counting us out now, saying, ‘Well, they don’t really have a chance anymore.’ But we need to prove to ourselves that we’re still a good football team and that we can win football games. Then, after we go out there and play our best game this Saturday, we can say, ‘All right, we’re still in bowl contention. Let’s go out and win the rest of these games.’ ”

That makes today possibly the start of the comeback. That, or the continuation of the comedown.