Bruins ready to run for the roses

Published: Monday, December 14, 1998

Monday, December 14, 1998

PREVIEW: Despite loss to Miami, UCLA thankful for Pac-10 crown, chance to play on New Year's Day

By Vytas Mazeika

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

For the UCLA football team it's time to move on.

The 49-45 loss at Miami on Dec. 5 is the reason there will be no trip to Tempe, Ariz., no Fiesta Bowl appearance and no title game against Tennessee.

Instead, an undefeated campaign in the Pac-10 has left the No. 5 Bruins (10-1) with a New Year's Day game against No. 9 Wisconsin (10-1) in the Rose Bowl.

"For that first day or two, you think what could have been, possibly," UCLA senior quarterback Cade McNown said. "As soon as the past starts affecting the future, you need to change your mindset."

Although the national championship is out of reach, the Bruins accomplished many of their goals this season. Winning the Pac-10 was one of them. Now the Bruin players and coaches feel that the way in which their season will be viewed relies on the way the team performs in the Rose Bowl.

UCLA can still finish in the top five in the nation for the second straight year, and a Rose Bowl victory would be the first for the school since 1986 - a 45-28 victory over Iowa.

"We would've liked to go to the Fiesta Bowl, but we're excited to go to the Rose Bowl," UCLA cornerback Ryan Roques said. "Ever since I came here, the Rose Bowl has always been the big game."

Wisconsin was the last team UCLA played in the Rose Bowl.

Then-Bruin wide receiver J.J. Stokes, now in the NFL with the 49ers, set Rose Bowl records in receptions (14) and receiving yards (176).

UCLA, however, would not emerge victorious. With the ball at the Badger 15-yard line, the final precious seconds ticked away and Wisconsin pulled out a 21-16 win.

"Wisconsin is a great football team," UCLA flanker Danny Farmer said. "We know they're a great football team. They always have been. We're just happy to be playing in the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin. I think it'll just be a great opportunity for us in the Rose Bowl."

The Badgers' only loss this season was to No. 15 Michigan - a 27-10 defeat midway through the season. But Wisconsin wasn't the highest ranked team in the Big Ten - that honor goes to Ohio State.

Since both teams finished with identical 7-1 records in the Big Ten and neither team played each other, the Badgers received the nod to go to the Rose Bowl, thanks to a tie-breaker.

Making his second trip to the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin head coach Barry Alvarez said that while the Rose Bowl was among UCLA's many goals, going to Pasadena was the only goal the Badgers aimed for at the start of the season.

"It should be a very interesting game between two totally different football teams," Alvarez said.

The main difference between the two teams exists in the offensive philosophy.

Wisconsin will run all of the time. To say the Badgers rely on 253-pound tailback Ron Dayne for offense is an understatement.

A UCLA defense that could not slow down Miami's Edgerrin James must go back to the drawing board if they wish to beat Wisconsin.

James, who carried the ball 39 times while rushing for 299 yards against the Bruins, passed Dayne to become eighth in the nation with a 128.73 yard per game average.

Dayne, currently ninth in the nation with a 127.9 yards per game average, will be looking to pad that statistic in the Rose Bowl. The UCLA defense, though, will be prepared.

"We're not scared (of Dayne)," UCLA senior safety Larry Atkins said. "That's what you want. You want to go against the best at whatever. He's a really big back and has a lot of abilities. It'll be good for us to go against someone like that. We're not scared to play against him. We're excited. We can't wait to play him."

Currently there is no devised game plan to slow down Dayne and the Badgers.

The UCLA players are running practices for the purpose of conditioning in hopes of recuperating and getting healthy so that they can have better practices in pads later.

The Bruins are just beginning to study game film of the Badgers, but UCLA does know that they will counter Wisconsin's offensive power with McNown's arm and what Alvarez considers to be the nation's top offense.

Two members of the football team who hope rest does them some good are UCLA head coach Bob Toledo and offensive line coach Mark Weber. Toledo, who has been on the sidelines as an assistant at two earlier Rose Bowl games, was in an automobile accident last week. Weber was also in the car.

In a press conference at Pasadena on Wednesday, Toledo still felt pain while recalling the accident suffered two days earlier in Norcross, Ga.

The plan all along was for Toledo and Weber to remain in the East to recruit after the Miami game. On the way to the Atlanta airport, the rental car driven by Weber was broadsided.

Toledo recalls feeling like the everything was going in slow motion while the car spun around several times.

Both cars were totalled, but Toledo and Weber were able to walk away.

"I got smashed around in the car," Toledo said. "My shoulder's really bothering me. I've got headaches, my right ankle hurts, my chest feels like it's been stepped on. I'm beat up."

Toledo then turned to Alvarez and said, "So, Barry, go easy on me."

Wisconsin is as likely to go easy on the Bruins as the Hurricanes did on Dec. 5. Toledo, though, must hope that after this game, nothing gets totalled.

* * *

UCLA announced Tuesday that results of an MRI examination on Bruin senior linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo a day earlier confirmed the prognostication of a medial collateral sprain of the left knee.

Ayanbadejo suffered the injury on his first play at Miami, and played only briefly after that before leaving the game for good.

The school also announced that defensive back Eric Whitfield, suspended from the Miami game for his involvement in an off-campus fight in early October, has been reinstated to the team.

If Whitfield fulfills certain obligations, he will be allowed to play in the Rose Bowl game, the school said.

With contributions from Daily Bruin wire reports.

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