Bruins Learn There Are Good Numbers in Safety

Necessity, UCLA has discovered, is the mother not of invention, but of convention.

Play calling has become less adventurous yet more effective since senior quarterback Cory Paus was injured three games ago. With freshman quarterbacks at the helm, game plans have been appropriately prudent.

Risks are few. Victories result.

The Bruins more closely resemble Oklahoma, Ohio State and Notre Dame these days, winning with defense and special teams while keeping the offense from sabotaging the effort.

“Win with defense, don’t lose it on offense,” Coach Bob Toledo said.

That’s his freshly minted motto.

And he ought to keep it in mind, even when Drew Olson and Matt Moore are veterans.

Give Toledo an experienced quarterback and he can’t help but make like Leonard Tose at a craps table, taking needless chances, then pulling back at the wrong time and suffering unimagined losses.

It’s entertaining in a mad-scientist sort of way, but collateral damage is significant. The Bruin defense tires from spending too much time on the field and Bruin fans become exasperated because consistency is nonexistent.

For Toledo, losing Paus was like dropping his stack of $100 chips on one bad hand, then having to move to the nickel slots. But a funny thing happened while the coach was kicking his gambling jones.

The Bruins beat Stanford two weeks ago with Moore making his first college appearance. Toledo kept the offense simple and Moore made no fatal mistakes.

The Bruins (6-3, 3-2) defeated Washington last week in similar fashion. Olson started for the first time and overcame a hostile crowd by sticking to a sensible game plan that emphasized field position and ball control.

Although neither freshman completed half of his passes, neither threw an interception. And both connected enough to keep defenses honest and enable tailback Tyler Ebell to extend his 100-yard rushing streak to five games.

With Olson at the controls again tonight, the same approach figures to be enough to beat Arizona (3-6, 0-5), the worst team in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Conservative play calling “has worked because, unlike the past, we are playing good defense,” Toledo said. “We don’t have to take a lot of chances.”

In his seventh season as a head coach, it seems he has finally stopped thinking like the offensive coordinator he used to be.

“Coordinators a lot of times are concerned with stats,” he said. “As a head coach I’m interested in winning. I’m recognizing when the defense is playing well and calling plays accordingly.”

So he’ll continue to feed the nickel slots from a seat that has gotten considerably cushier. The heat he felt after questionable play-calling contributed to close losses to Oregon and California has dissipated.

“Last year, the expectation level was so high, then came the pin in the balloon,” Toledo said. “This year, old guys want to win and young guys want to impress and build for the future. It’s a great mix. There is unity and chemistry.

“I’m having fun coaching. We were picked to come in sixth. Nobody expected us to beat anybody.”

Having come this far, though, the Bruins are not expected to lose to Arizona, a team that is running backward.

The Wildcats had minus-23 yards rushing against Oregon State last week and minus-17 yards rushing two weeks ago against Washington State. In the last five weeks, they are averaging 7.2 yards a game on the ground.

The season-ending injury a month ago to Clarence Farmer, who led the Pac-10 in rushing last season, has been devastating.

“We really, truly would have liked to run the ball,” Coach John Mackovic said. “But we’ve reversed it and now we throw to set up the run.”

Senior quarterback Jason Johnson has passed for a respectable 2,433 yards, but Mackovic said freshman Nic Costa will get playing time against UCLA. In other words, the Wildcats have given up on the season and are looking to the future.

For UCLA, the march is toward a bowl game. A victory and the Bruins are assured of playing somewhere. At worst, the Las Vegas Bowl. At best, although it’s a long shot, the Rose Bowl.

Either way, Toledo’s days as a high roller appear over for now. He’s even preaching caution to Olson and Moore.

“I told them both,” he said. “The big thing is, don’t make the mistake that gets us beat.”