A Dangerous Learning Curve

Just as it is bad when college athletes come to campus and leave having not learned the lessons of the classroom, it is sad when they come to play college football and leave having missed out on the lessons the game offers.

The soul has gone missing from UCLA football. The meaning of what it is to be a football player, the sense of team and responsibility, the idea of one man among 85 being no better than the others, all the good lessons that can be learned from being part of a team ... where is all this with the Bruins who play for Bob Toledo?

It was an OK effort by UCLA against Arizona State on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins went from scoring no points against USC to scoring 52 against the Sun Devils, who did have 42 of their own.

But this game was meaningless, and the day was filled with more bad memories than good, and that’s been the case with this program too often.

Cade McNown left UCLA a star and a punk. His former Chicago Bear teammates thought McNown a self-centered, spoiled brat who didn’t get it. He didn’t get what it meant to work hard, be modest, admit what you don’t know, then learn it.

The handicapped parking placard scandal was more sad than embarrassing. A group of privileged athletes didn’t understand either their own blessings or the extraordinary hardships some people endure to live daily life on the UCLA campus.

DeShaun Foster was excused for his brush with the law last year, was allowed to shrug off an arrest in which marijuana was found in his car. What we heard from Foster was that it wasn’t his fault and what we heard from Toledo was that kids in the family make mistakes and kids in the family need to be forgiven.

And that was Toledo’s original line when media people reported that his quarterback, Cory Paus, was going to be facing jail time after the season for drunk driving convictions. Toledo let Paus play against USC, then dropped him to third string for the sadly meaningless Arizona State game Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Toledo, using that family message again, said he needed to understand all the circumstances surrounding Paus’ DUI. What was to understand? At least Paus had to stand on the sideline Saturday inside a half-filled Rose Bowl while his more responsible teammates played hard in a 52-42 win.

No so Foster.

So grateful was Foster for the forgiveness Toledo had shown him last year that he cheerily accepted the free use of a car from a minor league television director. Foster, certain to be a very wealthy young man in a few months, couldn’t wait a couple of weeks to buy his own, flashy SUV. He had to have it now . So the NCAA suspended him now . It was quick punishment, the kind that Foster maybe should have received sooner in life.

Of course, Foster, a Heisman Trophy favorite a month ago, couldn’t accept his punishment with any grace or dignity. He hired a lawyer. The suspension was appealed. UCLA went along with the appeal, having a representative by Foster’s side. What a waste. The appeal was denied.

Foster could have shown some solidarity with his teammates, done some penance for the distractions he had caused, by showing up for Senior Day. Foster could have walked onto the field with men like Kenyon Coleman, Ryan Nece and Robert Thomas. Maybe Foster would have been booed. But he could have accepted it and demonstrated that he understood. Then he could have stood on the sidelines. He could have been a teammate.

But he didn’t. He could have come to acknowledge the fans who have supported him. He didn’t. Toledo said that Foster had been “invited” to the ceremony. “I bet a lot of people would have cheered him,” Toledo said. Toledo said it was “tough” for Foster too. Tough how? Because he was caught?

Thomas said it wasn’t up to him to judge whether Foster should have been at this game or whether Paus and Foster let their teammates down. Senior free safety Marques Anderson said it wasn’t up to him to condemn or blame any teammate. “We’re in this together,” Anderson said. “Win, lose, good, bad, we’re in this together.” At least Anderson understood.

At the end of the Army-Navy game earlier Saturday, players from both teams were in tears. They were crying because they understood the idea of college football. They had learned the lessons--of shared responsibility, of how the consequences of the act of one on the team must be accepted by all, of the rare privilege they have had to represent something good. Some of these men soon may be fighting a war. None will be heading off to the NFL.

UCLA is a longshot for a bowl bid and certainly doesn’t deserve one. If this seems unfair to the seniors who have worked hard and behaved, it is a chance to learn one of those lessons.

Blessed to be playing for an academically respected university on one of the finest campuses in the world, the teams of Toledo seem to be missing a sense of purpose, seem to lack an understanding of how college football is a journey to be taken together. And maybe that, and not the failings of a defensive coordinator or the wrong quarterback or the bad luck of a mistimed injury, is why the Bruins are disappointments. Again.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com