Confidence Grows With Another Win

UCLA has come a long way since its season-opening loss to Oklahoma State.

The Bruins picked up their third win in a row with a 33-10 victory over San Diego State on Saturday and head into the heart of their Pacific 10 Conference schedule with quiet confidence.

“We’re hungry and ready to make a name for ourselves,” said senior cornerback Matt Clark, who had two impressive solo tackles and an interception against the Aztecs.

“Everyone knows that we’re underdogs. We were ranked eighth in the conference [before the season]. But we’re learning how to come together and play as a whole.”

The Bruins, who play Arizona at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, are far from perfect. They still seem to miss too many tackles and throw too many incompletions. But UCLA has shown the ability to learn from mistakes and that gives the Bruins a chance to be a factor in the conference.

That was evident on Saturday when UCLA coaches got their players to execute mid-game adjustments to secure the victory.

“I did a very poor job in the first half [calling plays],” offensive coordinator Tom Cable said. “I was too stubborn trying to throw the ball down the field. We worked so hard during the week and I wanted to get it going.”

But with senior Craig Bragg, the team’s leading receiver, sidelined because of injury, UCLA’s passing game was off a beat and kept coming up short against a defense set up to stop the run.

In the second half, Cable stopped looking for home runs and the Bruin offense flowed with shorter throws for Drew Olson, who completed seven of 19 passes for 68 yards in the first half.

“They did amazing things defensively in terms of playing a goal-line short yardage type defense on normal downs and getting away with it,” Cable said. “We just started to take advantage of what they were giving us instead of forcing it.”

This type of adjustment did not only happen on offense. It also happened on the other side of the ball where the Bruins played without injured linebacker Justin London and suspended tackle C.J. Niusulu.

After watching San Diego State run nearly five minutes off the clock on its first drive, which ended with a field goal, defensive coordinator Larry Kerr turned his linebackers loose.

Spencer Havner, Wesley Walker and Ben Lorier (who played well in his first career start) got a chance to go wherever the football went against the Aztecs’ wide-open screen-first offense.

San Diego State had eight more drives in the first half and six ended in punts, one ended on downs and another ended with Havner scoring on a 52-yard interception return.

Adjustments such as this didn’t happen against Oklahoma State.

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Expectations were high for Tab Perry when he was reinstated to the team in training camp, but the senior didn’t get too many chances in UCLA’s first three games. But with Bragg out, Perry finally got his chance and he made the most of it by catching his first touchdown pass in nearly two years.

Coach Karl Dorrell was celebrating even before Olson’s 23-yard touchdown pass reached Perry’s hands.

“I watched him the whole way,” Dorrell said. “It seemed like Tab had a great opportunity to make a play. He ran a great post-corner route and Drew threw a great ball.... It was nice to see that type of connection.”