Toledo, Players Take It Easy

Assistant coaches made recruiting calls the last two days, but little else about the Bruin routine has been normal since the victory over Arizona on Saturday night.

Cornerback Ricky Manning treated his teammates to paint ball Sunday, using money he earned last summer playing baseball in the Minnesota Twin minor league system.

Meanwhile, Coach Bob Toledo slept in before busting open some popcorn and watching a little USC game film.

Monday was another day off for the players, and coaches studied film of high school players they are recruiting. Oh, and studied more USC film. The Bruins don’t play the Trojans until Nov. 23, but it’s never too early to begin preparing.

Toledo did take time out to participate in a conference call with reporters and expressed admiration for his quarterbacks, USC’s talent and the Bruin schedule:

* Toledo acknowledged what is obvious to anyone who watched UCLA victories the last three weeks -- freshman quarterbacks Drew Olson and Matt Moore are even.

“They are both getting playing time and are both playing well,” he said. “There’s not a big difference between the two, in our opinion.”

Olson will make his third consecutive start at quarterback against USC and Moore is expected to play. Toledo might split their playing time quarter by quarter as he did against Arizona.

* The Trojans will get no bulletin-board material from Toledo, who stopped just short of comparing them to the 1972 Miami Dolphins. And the UCLA coach will not put any references to USC on the bulletin board in the Bruin locker room until next week.

“They are the best USC team I’ve seen since I’ve been here, and might be the best team we’ve played since I’ve been a coach here,” he said. “I can see why they’re ranked as high as they are.”

* UCLA has two byes in the next three weeks, this one before playing No. 8 USC and another Nov. 30 before playing No. 3 Washington State. Both games are at the Rose Bowl.

“That’s what’s fun and exciting about this thing. We get a week off and then we can give it our best shot,” Toledo said. “Then we get another week off and get another big shot. The schedule couldn’t have worked out any better. It was a tough haul playing 10 games in a row, but we’ll play two teams in the top 10 with a week off before each game.”

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UP NEXT

Nov. 23 vs. USC

At Rose Bowl, 12:30 p.m., Ch. 7