College Football Daily Report / UCLA : Lack of Running Game a Concern

The biggest downside of Saturday night’s 38-7 season-opening victory over Boise State was the way the Bruin running game lurched along, not only a bad start for the new offensive line but a bad indication of what could happen this week at Ohio State.

“That’s got to be a concern,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “We’re going to be playing some bigger people down the road. We’ve got to be able to run the ball to set up some other things.”

A consistent ground attack was a staple last season. The expectations weren’t that high for the start of the new season since three of the five starters from 1998 were gone and a fourth was serving a two-game suspension, but even the realistic outlook led to disappointment when the Bruins had only 39 yards by halftime against a Big West opponent.

They picked it up after intermission to finish with 153 yards, though DeShaun Foster, in the first start of his college career, managed only 55 yards in 17 carries. Backup Jermaine Lewis had a more-respectable 45 in 10 attempts, but 21 of those came on one play.

Help will come after another game, when fullback Durell Price and guard Oscar Cabrera return from suspension. Until then, improvement will have to come from within.

“They [Boise State] had a good game plan,” said tackle Brian Polak, the only member of the line, including the tight end, who started the final game of last season and the first game of this one. “They did a lot of moving around, and when you do a lot of moving and it’s a young line, it could present problems. But it’ll be OK. We’ll get better.”

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One of the great benefits of Saturday night’s game at the Rose Bowl was that the Bruins finally got to play a game, which had to help the healing process from the court cases and emotional distresses of the previous months.

“It was kind of a release,” said safety Julius Williams, who had a 53-yard interception return for a touchdown. “It has to be like that. You have to use that as motivation to play. You can’t just mope around about it. We needed to get out there and play.”

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Drew Bennett became the first UCLA quarterback to throw a touchdown in his first start since Wayne Cook in 1992. Backup Cory Paus was the first Bruin with a scoring pass in his first game since Bret Johnson in 1989. . . . The interception return by Williams was the longest by a Bruin in almost five years, since Abdul McCullough went 98 yards against Arizona State. . . . The postgame fireworks show scheduled for Saturday were canceled because of technical difficulties. Fans who had purchased single-game tickets for Boise State can redeem them for general admission seats for the next home game, Sept. 18 against Fresno State. For information call (310) UCLA WIN.