Mitchell Hopes It’s Not All Talk

Freddie Mitchell is talking about goals.

“Ten to 12 touchdowns.”

Now he’s going to talk about a . . .

“Fifty to sixty catches.”

OK, we’re changing the subject to . . .

“People don’t know what I can do, really do, you know what I’m saying?”

Great, but the topic is . . .

“First, of course, we need to win, to go back two years and get that feeling again.”

Super, but can we . . .

“Other teams are going to look at tapes of last year’s games and say, ‘Man, those players stink.’ ”

Indeed, but . . .

“You know, I love that. I love it when people doubt the team.”

Um . . .

“I especially love it when they doubt me.”

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The only doubt about Freddie Mitchell is whether he will ever pipe down long enough to let someone else talk about him.

Let’s hope not.

UCLA’s college football season begins Saturday with the rebirth of this town’s most chatty college football player.

He flies. He flaps. He jukes. He jaws.

And that’s just practice.

“I do some of my best talking on my own people,” said the junior wide receiver. “I’ll go to our cornerback like, ‘Man, you’re weak, I can’t even believe you’re out here right now.’ I talk so much to them during the week, they don’t hear anything that is said on Saturdays.”

But, oh, Saturdays.

Mitchell heckles opponents, pushes teammates, begs the coach to get him the ball.

“I hear from him every play,” Coach Bob Toledo said with a smile. “Freddie is always open.”

A ticket to Saturday’s Rose Bowl visit from Alabama is worth it just to see Mitchell--and he hasn’t scored a touchdown in two years.

A trip to a UCLA practice is not complete without an audience with Mitchell--yet he has more career touchdown passes (2) than catches (1).

He is, at once, the star of one of this town’s most thrilling individual college football performances in the last two years . . . and the author of one of its most disappointing individual seasons.

Remember the Bruin opener two years ago against Texas?

Grabbing the baton on the first leg of the Bruins’ race to a near national championship, Mitchell had a 79-yard touchdown catch, threw a 34-yard touchdown pass, returned three kickoffs for 78 yards and gained 30 yards on a reverse.

“There was two Heisman candidates in the game [Cade McNown and Ricky Williams], yet afterward everybody was talking about me?” Mitchell said. “It was wild.”

The next game, of course, he broke his leg and didn’t play again until the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin.

During which, of course, he participated in just 11 snaps yet still threw a 61-yard touchdown pass on a fake reverse.

It was supposed to be only the beginning.

Yet last season, beset by inexperienced quarterbacks and a strained calf muscle and a forced adjustment to the surgically repaired leg, Mitchell flickered out.

He led the team in receiving, but caught just 38 balls for 533 yards and--gasp--no touchdowns.

Do you know how hard it is to talk trash from a dumpster?

“I would run downfield, and me and the defensive back would be getting into it, then I would turn around and the quarterback was getting sacked,” Mitchell said. “So now the defensive back starts ranting and what can I say back? I didn’t have nothing in my bank account.”

The three guys who threw the passes couldn’t find him deep like McNown did.

While figuring out how to sprint with a rod in his leg, he sometimes even couldn’t find himself deep.

“You know what I learned to do last year?” Mitchell said. “I learned to block. I mean, now I can really block.”

This season, it appears quarterback Cory Paus is a year wiser, and the offensive line is a year stronger, and Mitchell’s legs are finally sturdy, and maybe, just maybe . . .

“You know what I think could happen this year?” Mitchell said. “I hope I can be used like Alabama uses Freddie Milons. Let me get out there and make stuff up, let me create, let me be the athlete that I can be.”

Toledo would settle for the athlete that Mitchell was two years ago.

“In his first game, he was scripted to have a lot of success, and he had a lot of success, and then a lot of people started talking about him like he was the next . . .” Toledo said, his voice tailing off.

In other words, the talk was cheap. The talk was premature. The talk still needs confirmation.

“Who knows how good Freddie can be?” he said. “We have to see.”

Besides the two 10-win seasons in four years, Toledo has remained so popular in this town because he doesn’t cringe at personalities like Mitchell.

From scrambling McNown to sensitive Skip Hicks, he has let players be themselves.

“As long as Freddie isn’t giving anybody bulletin board material--and he doesn’t--then he’s doing just fine,” Toledo said. “He likes people. He likes to talk. He has fun out there. Nothing wrong with that.”

Mitchell has fun everywhere. He comes off the practice field saying hello to everyone, from alumni to media to old friends.

Incidentally, you meet Mitchell once and you’re an old friend.

After Thursday’s practice, he was greeted by two seriously old friends, high school buddies from Lakeland, Fla., who had flown in for the game.

“Talking to Freddie on the phone this summer, it’s been like, this is it, he finally feels good, this year he sets the standard,” said Matt Vann.

Vann then proceeded to explain how, in high school, Mitchell would trash talk to future opponents in morning public address announcements, but that’s another story.

“I love everybody,” Mitchell said. “You know, in this interview, can you give my love to my receivers coach?”

Ron Caragher becomes part of a pretty distinguished huddle.

Last summer, Mitchell gave his love to Randy Moss and Cris Carter by working out with them in Florida.

This summer, Mitchell has stayed in town to hang out with, among others, actress Elizabeth Hurley.

“We are very close friends,” he said.

And has he met Hugh Grant?

“No way, man,” he said. “And I don’t want to meet Hugh Grant.”

Yeah, like the dude could cover him.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.