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  Daily Bruin File Photo Senior tailback DeShaun Foster sprints past his Alabama opponents in a game last season.

By Joshua Mason

Daily Bruin Staff

The UCLA football team’s season opener at Alabama will be a challenge in more ways than one.

The greatest hurdle for the Bruins (ranked 17th in the preseason Associated Press poll) comes from the uncertainty of what exactly the No. 25 Crimson Tide will bring to the table Saturday. While Bruin head coach Bob Toledo has announced his opening-week depth chart with few tricks up his sleeve, a shadow of mystery looms over everything to do with Alabama football.

SOURCE: Daily Bruin Staff Original graphic by JOAN ONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Web adaptation by MIKE OUYANG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Since training camp began, new Alabama head coach Dennis Franchione, worried that too much information would leak its way to Bruin headquarters, has implemented a closed-practice policy.

Franchione is holding off on releasing his depth chart until Tuesday, and a decision on who will start at quarterback for the Tide will likely not be made known to the Bruins until gametime.

That poses a big challenge for new defensive coordinator Phil Snow and a UCLA defensive unit that allowed a school-record 368 points last season. To prepare for Alabama, Snow anticipates an option-based offense similar to the one Franchione used at TCU.

“People don’t know anything about the option out West,” Snow said. “We need six guys assigned to defend it, and if one guy messes up his assignment, the other team has a chance to make a big play. We definitely can’t afford to make the kinds of defensive mistakes we’ve made in the past.”

While the quarterback battle in Tuscaloosa is between pocket-passer Andrew Zow and his scrambling counterpart Tyler Watts, the Bruins can almost certainly expect a combination of the two.

How the Bruins play the option and defend against the pass may be the most telling signs of how they’ll fare in Saturday’s opener.

While left cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. and free safety Marques Anderson are two of the most polished defensive backs in the country, right cornerback Matt Ware is a true freshman new to the college level and strong safety Jason Stephens has been inconsistent thus far in his college career. Throw in newly converted linebacker Matt Ball, a 6-foot-6 former defensive end slated to cover Alabama’s tight ends, and the Bruin pass defense is questionable at best.

“One thing we’ve been stressing at practices is consistency,” Snow said. “We can stop a team all day, but if we lose our focus, those three or four plays that we’re not consistent can be the deciding factors of the game.”

Perhaps the two most talented athletes for the Tide on offense are senior flanker Freddie Millions, considered a preseason Heisman favorite last year, and junior split end Antonio Carter, who led Alabama last season with 45 receptions.

“We were effective stopping those two from the line of scrimmage last year,” Manning said. “People just assume that we have bad players on this team because of what happened over the course of last season. I predict we’ll be surprising a lot of people this Saturday.”

The Bruin offensive attack will likely divert very little from the game plan used in last year’s 35-24 victory over the then-third-ranked Tide at the Rose Bowl.

Despite the fact that Alabama possesses one of the most talented front-sevens in the SEC, senior tailback DeShaun Foster will nonetheless be expected to carry the bulk of the load for the Bruins. Last season, Foster and a healthy Bruin line dominated the line of scrimmage against a highly-touted Tide defense, finishing the day with a UCLA-record 42 carries for 187 yards.

The game offers Foster, who was slowed last season by a broken hand, a national stage to begin his case for the Heisman.

“DeShaun has come into the season stronger and faster than he’s ever been,” UCLA offensive coordinator Kelly Skipper said. “This will be his first step to regain the respect on the field that he deserves.”

Bruin quarterback Cory Paus will look to senior split end Brian Poli-Dixon, a 6-5 deep threat, as his primary target this season rather than departed flanker Freddie Mitchell.

A refined UCLA passing game is likely to appear on Saturday, as Toledo and Skipper aim to spread the ball all over the field. The plan is to get as many involved in the offensive package as possible, including more passes to the tight ends, particularly soft-handed senior Bryan Fletcher.

“We haven’t involved our tight ends much in the past,” Toledo said. “We feel that a guy like Fletcher might really open things up on short downs this season.”

Starting flanker Tab Perry, redshirt freshman Craig Bragg and redshirt sophomore Ryan Smith should all factor prominently into the passing game as well.

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