Ready for their close-up

If not now, when?

That question hovers over the UCLA football program this season in bold letters, like opening credits to a movie. Whether it’s an epic thriller or a horror flick comes down to the director’s cut.

The Bruins have 20 starters back, a defense that manhandled USC last season, and a quarterback bent on living up to expectations that have trailed him since high school.

Toss in a favorable schedule, and it does seem to have the potential for the brightest moment UCLA has had since just before Miami’s Edgerrin James turned upfield and Bruins fans squealed “Holy Toledo” in that fateful 1998 game.

However, if a season that should be one to remember becomes another one to forget, critics may alter the question to:

If not him, who?

This is Coach Karl Dorrell’s program, right down to the shoeshine on the cleats. This is his first senior class -- 25 in all -- forming the core of a roster he spent five years assembling.

This is, or should be, his shining moment. But a 7-6 record won’t do this season, even with another victory over USC.

“I always tell my guys on defense, we’ve got to be more than just a picture on the wall at the end of this season,” Bruins defensive end Bruce Davis said. “There needs to be a story behind this team.”

Act One, Scene One comes today at Stanford. But the buzz started soon after the Bruins upset the Trojans in December and continued even after the Emerald Bowl debacle against Florida State.

In the eyes of his bosses, Dorrell could weather almost any outcome on the field this season, short of total collapse. But another mediocre season will certainly send up a hurricane warning among fans -- similar to those after the 49-45 loss to Miami that cost the Bruins a spot in the 1998 national title game.

“This is one of those defining moments in a program,” quarterback Ben Olson said. “We’ve worked hard, tried to build to this point. People are expecting a lot of great things out of us.”

Every preseason top 20 includes UCLA. The Sporting News ranked the Bruins No. 10 and predicted a trip to the Rose Bowl -- not any regular home game, but for a Bowl Championship Series bonanza. (The magazine had USC in the national title game.)

The it’s-now-or-never is an outside thing, entitlements that have yet to be earned, Dorrell stressed. But those expectations have been absorbed into the program.

Asked what a repeat of last season would mean, tailback Chris Markey said, “7-6, that’s mediocre. It’s winning, but it’s not great. With the leadership we have, it’s time for us to step up and take it over and win this conference. . . . Now if we get to a BCS game, that will be great. I don’t think that will fall under mediocre.”

Those thoughts are even in Dorrell’s mind, though he avoided crawling out on the bottom-line limb by saying, “I don’t know what determines a successful season. I know some people like to say wins and losses, but certain numbers make it successful.”

Yet, even he can’t avoid marking the crossroads he and the program have reached.

“The bigger thing in my mind is to put this program back in stature of what it was, where it should be mentioned among the top teams in the country,” Dorrell said.

The consistency of Dorrell’s previous seasons was inconsistency. He has a 29-21 record that includes a 10-2 season in 2005, when the Bruins won their first eight games before doing a belly flop in a 52-14 loss to Arizona. He has hired 10 assistant coaches in the last two seasons.

Dorrell’s bowl stops have been in San Francisco, El Paso, Las Vegas and San Jose, far from Main Street BCS.

Ed Kezirian, UCLA’s assistant director of academic services, has as many bowl victories as Dorrell. Kezirian was interim coach for the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl.

It can be said to this point that Dorrell has been molding a program in his own image, but the final exam for that ceramics class comes this season.

In Terry Donahue’s fifth year, the Bruins went 9-2 and finished 13th nationally -- a foundation that produced three conference titles and three Rose Bowl victories (and four victories over USC) the next five seasons.

“It was a watershed season for me,” said Donahue, who coached Dorrell and remains a supporter. “After that, we started beating USC fairly regularly.”

The B-side was Coach Bob Toledo, who in his fifth season started 3-0 and had the Bruins ranked sixth, then lost six of his last nine games and was out of a job less than two years later.

“Frankly, you’ve got to recruit your players,” Donahue said. “I was able to do that, Toledo wasn’t. That’s the bottom line. We were able to get good players, Bob didn’t have a lot of good players.”

And Dorrell?

“In Karl’s case, you’ve got to play it out and see what happens,” Donahue said.

The dividing line differs on possible acceptable outcomes this season -- 11 victories and the Rose Bowl, nine victories and the Holiday Bowl, eight victories and the take-your-pick bowl?

What’s certain is that it will take a “Gigli”-like flop to get Athletic Director Dan Guerrero to holler “cut.”

Dorrell retains Guerrero’s support, though that relationship took a hit when receivers coach Eric Scott was arrested on residential burglary charges in July. Charges were dropped after the investigation and Scott, a key recruiter, was reinstated. But the arrest brought to light Scott’s criminal history, something Guerrero said he knew nothing about despite the university’s background check.

Guerrero, who said Dorrell “healed” the program in April, said little after Scott’s return other than a prepared statement. He remains supportive of Dorrell, but a poor season in 2007 could start the clock.

And in 2008 the Bruins must replace those 25 seniors they have this season -- including 10 who start on defense.

“This should be a pretty strong foundational year because it’s your guys, every class in here is guys I have recruited,” Dorrell said. “Yes, you should see a difference in this team compared to what you’ve seen the last three or four years.”

And that’s exactly how this season is framed.

Said Davis: “We can change the history of this school in one year.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com

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Through the Years

Karl Dorrell’s UCLA coaching record. He’s 29-21 in four seasons.

*--* Year Record Finish High Low 2006 7-6 5-4, 4th in Pac-10 13-9 over Four-game USC; held midseason losing five Pac-10 streak. opponents to 12 points or fewer. 2005 10-2 6-2, 3rd in Pac-10 Eight Crushed at consecutive Arizona, 52-14; wins to start routed by USC, season 66-19. resulted in No. 7 ranking. 2004 6-6 4-4, T5th in Pac-10 Hung with Closed by losing top-ranked five of seven, USC, losing including to 29-24 a week Wyoming in the Las after winning Vegas Bowl. at Oregon. 2003 6-7 4-4, T5th in Pac-10 Five-game Lost last five winning games -- the streak, finale in Silicon included Valley Classic. 46-16 rout of No. 18 Washington. *--*

Los Angeles Times