Bruins Are Trying to Get Ahead Sooner This Season

It sounded like another wasted news conference, listening to UCLA football Coach Karl Dullard talk about taking one game at a time, the lights out in the J.D. Morgan Center and members of the media fighting individually not to be the first one to snore out loud.

I caught FSN West’s Bill Macdonald closing his eyes, but for all I know he was dealing with a migraine -- and the UCLA alum reminder he’ll soon be doing Laker games again with Jack Haley.

The Bruins are about to tackle Oklahoma, the biggest credibility check to date in Dullard’s ho-hum, three-year, 14-13 reign as coach, and he was trying to put the kibosh on pregame hype with the old “every game is a big game” line of snooze.

“That’s how we’re set up,” Dullard said. “We need to prove to you that we can be victorious each and every week, and to do that, we need to treat each game the same way.”

The next month of attention is going to belong to USC and dates with Oregon, Arizona State and Notre Dame, and so you would have thought the Bruin program would’ve enjoyed a moment in the spotlight. But now I think I know who was responsible for turning off the electricity.

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FORTUNATELY, I bumped into Jeff Siegel, who saved the day from being a total loss. Siegel is a horse handicapper for several local newspapers, and for the record, I don’t recall him ever saving the day from being a total loss before Monday. He’s also a die-hard Bruin donor and booster, who follows UCLA like I do Salma Hayek. To date, both of us have been pretty disappointed.

Siegel said the unranked Bruins opened as 6 1/2 -point favorites over the 21st-ranked Sooners, which was interesting, if not unbelievable. Then he said the betting line in Las Vegas was moving up to 7 and 7 1/2 points, which was stunning, because that means the smart money is on UCLA and the folks in Vegas are trying to convince folks to wager on Oklahoma by offering more points.

Imagine giving Oklahoma more points so it can feel as if it might have a fair shot at beating Drew Olson & Co.

Siegel said Las Vegas was taking bets on college games earlier this summer, and the Sooners were an eight-point pick over UCLA, which has now become a 15-point swing in momentum.

(Yes, I asked. Siegel said the Trojans were a 23-point pick to beat UCLA earlier this summer. It will be interesting to see if that changes come November.)

But taking one game at a time -- yikes, it’s contagious -- horribly bad as the Sooners have been, Oklahoma remains a hump Dullard must get over if “business as usual” is going to mean something more than another wasted season in Westwood.

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DODGER PITCHER Brad Penny said I had it all wrong, and he did not attend Saturday’s fights in Staples Center with “Charmed” star Alyssa Milano. He said he went to the fights with his friend John from Oklahoma.

I’m not surprised she dumped him.

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JAYSON WERTH and Drew Brees have something in common. Neither can hit a thing.

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PLAYED IN a pro-am leading to the Mark Christopher Charity Classic at Empire Lakes in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, and placed second rather than first because we were stuck with a TV guy, Channel 7’s John Hartung. I never heard of him either.

We were also given a Nationwide Tour pro in Zoran Zorkic, who has missed the cut in the last five tournaments, while placing 146th on the money list, only $338,277 behind money leader Troy Matteson. Had we been playing with a well-known TV guy like Jim Hill, we might’ve gotten Matteson and a chance to win.

Zorkic, who was paid $300 to play in the pro-am, was joined by his caddy, Dave Slaughter, who spent much of the day telling Zorkic he couldn’t putt. With that in mind, if you want to watch Zorkic this week, I’d get there before they cut the field.

Christopher Classic daily tickets are $8, and all money made from the sale of merchandise will go to Hurricane Katrina relief.

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ERIC KARROS, former Dodger and now a baseball broadcaster for Fox, appeared Sunday on the father-daughter gabfest on 570 and had some tough things to say about his former team.

“It’s going to be another year of suffering,” Karros said when asked to look to next season. “It’s not going to get any better.”

In hindsight, he said, “I was surprised with what they did this winter. They expected to win, and I was shocked. That was probably just arrogance.”

He said if anybody was shocked that J.D. Drew got hurt, then “you’re the dummy.” He said Hee-Seop Choi failed to make it in Florida and Chicago, so why should anyone be surprised he failed to make it here as the Dodgers’ everyday first baseman? He said it was pretty obvious that “somebody put the team together that has shortcomings.” I’m guessing his initials are P.D.

Karros also suggested that Manager Jim Tracy might seek a longer-term contract to remain with the Dodgers, or leave.

“[Tracy] is well-respected throughout the baseball community,” Karros said. “He has an option to leave. If I’m him and I’ve got some leverage, I’m saying, ‘Look, I’m going to have to have a bit more of a voice in some things [and] more than just a one-year commitment from you guys or else I might have to explore other options.’ ”

It wouldn’t be the same on Page 2 without the Micro Manager.

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I’M TOLD the Kings are passing out media credentials this season for admittance to the games and locker room with two large words on the badges: “Kings Rule!” I can’t imagine the media agreeing to such editorial comment hanging from around their necks, but then I guess the choice is to just not go to the games.

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TODAY’S LAST word came in The Times on Sunday from the newspaper’s professional football expert, Sam Farmer:

“The ‘5 Locks’ in Week 1 to win are Denver, Minnesota, St. Louis, Carolina and Philadelphia.”

You try and do that, and get every game wrong. It takes an expert.