Bowl bid is good; next season could be better

Although UCLA’s attention is mainly on Florida State and Wednesday’s Emerald Bowl, no one could blame the Bruins if they started looking ahead to next season with a defense that will return almost intact.

UCLA, which gave up 24 touchdowns this season after allowing 48 last year, will lose only two seniors from its two-deep list, end Justin Hickman and outside linebacker Eric McNeal.

That’s a promising prospect for junior defensive tackle Kevin Brown, who has experienced the good and bad since he arrived at UCLA in 2003.

“The last three years, we’ve had small senior classes, but next year, we’re going to be loaded with seniors,” said Brown, who sat out the 2005 season because of an ankle injury.

The Bruins will certainly miss Hickman, who earned All-American honors with 12.5 sacks this season, and they will have a tough time replacing the leadership provided by McNeal, a key reserve who made the game-clinching interception in UCLA’s 13-9 upset of USC.

But overall, UCLA’s defensive future appears to be good shape.

“We had the SC win, which was nice, and if we go on and beat Florida State, that would be a great way to end this year,” Brown said. “But next season, we’ve got to work even harder to reach our potential.”

*

After the win over USC, the Bruins did not get a flood of commitments from blue-chip recruits. But that doesn’t mean the big victory has gone to waste.

“I believe that the win over SC definitely has had a positive impact,” said Dino Babers, UCLA’s running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. “People around the city now identify that we’re for real and they like what is going on here with Coach [Karl] Dorrell and our staff.

“Slowly, we’re going to start to reap the benefits of that. We had a lot of success this year with recruiting, but I think it will really carry over to the 2008 class. The guys who are still making a decision see us soon contending not just for a Pac-10 championship but also a national championship.”

UCLA does not have many scholarships available for 2007 but has received eight oral commitments: defensive linemen Akeem Ayers (L.A. Verbum Dei High) and Brian Price (L.A. Crenshaw), quarterback Chris Forcier (San Diego St. Augustine), offensive lineman Mike Harris (Duarte), tight end Nate Chandler (San Diego Mira Mesa), linebacker Steve Sloan (San Jose Archbishop Mitty), defensive back Courtney Viney (Fresno Edison) and running back Raymond Carter (Crenshaw).

*

UCLA did not practice Friday but will return to work this morning at San Francisco City College.... The Bruins have qualified to play in a bowl game in nine of the last 10 seasons and including this year’s Emerald Bowl, they have played in a bowl in 18 of the last 25 years. UCLA’s 11 bowl wins since 1981 rank first in the Pacific 10 Conference.

lonnie.white@latimes.com