Brothers Wouldn’t Skip This Meeting

There is an 11-year age difference, but the brothers will still match up Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.

That it is the coaching of Kelly Skipper, in charge of UCLA’s running backs, versus the playing of Tim Skipper, Fresno State’s middle linebacker, barely seems to take away from it.

“It’s basically as if we were playing basketball one-on-one,” Kelly Skipper said. “It’s going to be competitive. He’s going to try to win and I’m going to try to win.”

And the 50 or so family members coming to the game, including their mother flying in from New Jersey, will be caught in the middle.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do,” he said. “I know the ones I’m getting tickets for will be sitting on our side. I know they’re all going to be torn.”

Tim Skipper, though 5 feet 7 and 200 pounds, is Fresno State’s best linebacker. Kelly Skipper, in his second season at UCLA, spent nine years as a Bulldog assistant and starred at running back there. He played in the 1987 game against the Bruins at the Rose Bowl.

That’s not the only connection for this game. Fresno State Coach Pat Hill played center when his UCLA counterpart, Bob Toledo, was on the staff at UC Riverside. And Bruin defensive line coach Jethro Franklin also played in the ’87 game in Pasadena and was a Bulldog assistant the nine years before coming to Westwood.

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Danny Farmer, who re-injured his left ankle last week at Ohio State, is practicing, but is apparently not in the clear either.

“He’s going to keep tweaking that ankle,” Toledo said. “It’s not going to be healthy all year. Those things don’t just go away, and that’s a concern of ours.”

The Bruins are undecided so far whether Farmer will start against Fresno State.

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Drew Bennett talked to Toledo about playing at receiver after learning he had lost the quarterback battle, but the invitation was declined. . . .Kickoff for the Sept. 25 game at Stanford has been set for 2 p.m. There is no live television, but Fox Sports West 2 will show it on same-day delayed coverage at 3:30.