Surprising Bruins Supply Pulp Friction

In the final seconds of Saturday’s backyard broil, an ingrate in the USC cheering section threw an orange that landed at the feet of UCLA linebacker Spencer Havner.

He picked it up. The USC section jeered.

He wound up to throw it back. The USC section howled.

Then he paused, as if thinking ...

What did he have to prove? After a raucous Rose Bowl afternoon of wobbly legs and iron wills, what did any of the Bruins have to prove?

That they could take a punch? That they could grab a handful of pulp and punch back?

Havner shrugged, and gently tossed the orange to the ground.

“I was like, ‘Whatever,’ ” he said.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, Havner’s clan never saw this coming, and won’t soon forget it, a 29-24 loss that felt like something else.

Maybe not a win, but something that brought the Bruin band to the locker-room door for a blaring tribute that seeped into headphones and drowned out remorse.

“You know, I’ve never heard them do that before,” said Manuel White, standing in front of his Rose Bowl locker for the last time.

His team was as hearty as the music, climbing up and finding the emotion to reroute two divergent paths in one direction.

For USC, the win was the final lap to the national championship game.

For UCLA, the loss was a corner turned.

While the next month will be spent waxing on that giant Trojan lap, let us pause here to briefly celebrate that little Bruin corner.

“I guess I can smile now,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said after an afternoon of screaming and scowling and inspiring, his biggest as a coach and a leader. “That was fun.”

How can a sixth consecutive loss to USC be the least bit fun? Here’s how.

The Bruins were trailing by 10 points and had been outgained by 141 yards just six minutes into the game, the equivalent of a first-round knockdown against the heavyweight champ.

They outscored the Trojans by five points the rest of the game.

It was the first time anybody had outscored the Trojans in the second half this season.

“We stayed for all four quarters, didn’t go home until they had finished the four quarters,” said linebacker Justin London. “I think that showed people something.”

The Bruins were outgained by nearly 200 yards, began each series an average of 11 yards behind where USC started, missed a field goal and lost two interceptions.

And they still had the ball in the final minute with a chance to beat the unbeaten.

Only one other team, fourth-ranked California, has pushed USC that far this season.

“I think people have no choice but to respect us now,” said White.

Funny word, respect.

In games officiated by human beings, respect can give a team more than bluster, it can perhaps give it the benefit of the doubt.

At one point Saturday, it gave USC more than warm-and-fuzzies, it quite possibly gave the Trojans the football.

Late in the second quarter, deep in Bruin territory, Reggie Bush appeared to fumble the ball while fighting off a London tackle.

Havner picked up the ball and had clear sailing toward the Trojan end zone and a tying touchdown and ...

Nope. Not this season. Not this game. The officials blew the whistle after Havner picked up the fumble and ruled it no fumble because forward progress had been halted.

(As if someone could, without putting him down, halt the forward progress of a guy who had just broken seemingly a dozen tackles during two long touchdown runs.)

“There weren’t good calls today, and that shouldn’t happen in a game like this,” Dorrell said. “Not in a game like this.”

There’s only one way to change that, of course. UCLA has to become the team that gets those calls. The Bruins have to play at the level that earns them the respect that subconsciously makes officials give them extra credit.

They took a step Saturday toward becoming that team, beginning with their coach, who, when he wasn’t screaming at the officials, was collecting his team into massive bouncing huddles during timeouts.

“I was kind of proud of him,” said defensive tackle Kevin Brown. “One time, I almost had to tell him to get back, and I’m just a player.”

Dorrell wore the inspiration not just on his sleeve, but in his playbook, setting the tone for the comeback by calling for a successful -- but potentially suicidal -- fake punt deep in Bruin territory at the end of the first quarter.

Although the Bruin drive later stalled, the message had been sent.

“We needed something,” he said.

They got it from Dorrell, they got it from a staff that adjusted the playbook at halftime to lead to two long drives and scores, they got it from an improving defense that became the first in Matt Leinart’s 25-game career as USC’s starting quarterback to hold him to zero touchdown passes.

Yet for the spark to continue to next season, when the team will return all but a handful of key players, the Bruins must burn through their bowl game, beating Notre Dame or Wyoming or whoever, whenever, however.

“There’s one of two ways this can go,” quarterback Drew Olson said, his weary smile confirming that at least for one day, his team finally went the right one.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.