BYU will try to pull rank

UCLA’s regular season started with the Cardinal and ends with what it hopes will be a battle-for-No. 1 showdown with the Cardinal and Gold (or red and yellow, as it’s known around Westwood).

But like any long journey, there is a vast amount of ground to cover between.

And therein lies the danger for the Bruins, who today at the Rose Bowl face a Brigham Young team with big plans on its own itinerary.

The Cougars have won 11 consecutive games, yet are unranked. They also have back-to-back wins over Pacific 10 Conference teams, including a 38-8 thumping of Oregon in last year’s Las Vegas Bowl that added a shine to an 11-2 record.

The problem with Brigham Young’s Bowl Championship Series application is that, as a Mountain West Conference team, the Cougars require at least one impressive nonconference victory over a well-regarded opponent. Razing Arizona, 20-7, last week drew a shrug from poll voters, leaving 13th-ranked UCLA as the only eye-opener left on the schedule.

“It’s just a flywheel effect, and we got that momentum and we just steamroll it and throw it into the next game,” BYU linebacker Bryan Kehl told the Salt Lake City Tribune.

The Bruins, hoping to build a season’s worth of momentum, counter with carefully selected words.

“We get a better BYU team that has had a lot success against the Pac-10 of late,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said. “They are pretty confident what they can do coming here.”

Not even the manufactured hype about UCLA quarterback Ben Olson facing BYU was enough to loosen Bruins tongues this week.

Olson, a junior, had a cup of decaf at BYU then transferred to UCLA after a two-year Mormon mission -- that’s a five-year span covering an entire class of recruits.

Still, while Olson may have that Huck Finn look -- red hair and freckles -- those in Provo have cast him as Injun Joe. He’s just not biting at that fishin’ hole. A “golly gee” was about all Olson offered in return this week.

“I had a great time at BYU,” said Olson, who passed for 286 yards and five touchdowns against Stanford. “I have nothing bad to say about the university.”

Basic drab, powder-blue comments aside, the Bruins have reason to show caution.

BYU’s image is that of a team with a street-football mentality -- go deep and I’ll hit you by the station wagon. The Cougars have long been known for quarterbacks and basketball-like scores; they scored 45 points against Hawaii and lost, 72-45, in 2001.

That changed last season in the second year under Coach Bronco Mendenhall, whose background was as a defensive coordinator.

“When you heard BYU you’d think offense, passing the ball, big scores,” Olson said. “Their defense is pretty salty and they are good at what they do. They don’t make a lot mistakes.”

The Cougars ranked 10th nationally in scoring defense in 2006, giving up 14.7 points a game. They held five teams under 10 points after having held five to single digits in the 76 games before last season.

“I studied the history at BYU, where most of our NFL players came from,” said Mendenhall, who spent two seasons as BYU’s defensive coordinator before being elevated to head coach in 2004. “Most of them were at linebacker and defensive line. If that was where we recruited the best players, that was how we should build the defense.”

Mendenhall also ditched his gambling, 3-3-5 defense in favor of a more safe-and-sane approach, a basic 3-4 front.

“They are not complicated, but they play very hard and they make you earn the yards that you get,” UCLA offensive coordinator Jay Norvell said. “They don’t get out of position much. They don’t over-pursue. They play a soft, blanket coverage and try to rally to the ball.”

The Cougars held Arizona to 41 total yards and one first down in the first half and allowed only a late touchdown.

The Wildcats, though, are not the flavor of the month the Bruins have become following an appetite-wetting performance against Stanford. The Bruins had their way with a Cardinal team coming off a 1-11 season and playing its first game under a new coach. UCLA had 624 total yards, 338 rushing, in a 45-17 victory.

Of course, that was then, this is now.

Said Dorrell: “This is a good week to get better.”

Anything less, to him, would be a cardinal sin.

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chris.foster@latimes.com

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Stopping a trend

Brigham Young, long known for offense, turned it around on defense last season under Coach Bronco Mendenhall:

*--* Year Games PA Avg. 2006 13 184 14.2* 2005 12 351 29.3 2004 11 295 26.8 2003 12 310 25.8 2002 12 333 27.8 2001 14 424 30.3 *--*

* -- The Cougars held five teams under 10 points. They held teams under 10 in five of their previous 76 games.

Los Angeles Times