KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff (left to right)
Ryan Nece, Bob Toledo, Marques Anderson, and Brian Poli-Dixon look
to the Oregon State game as a chance to return to their early
season form.
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FOOTBALL vs. Saturday 3:30 pm Rose Bowl Fox
Sports West 2 XTRA 1150 AM
By Adam Karon
Daily Bruin Reporter
Homecoming may be against Stanford this year, but the Bruins are
sure glad to be coming home tomorrow. Pasadena will be a
welcome sight as No. 23 UCLA heads to the Rose Bowl to face No. 19
Oregon State.
The Bruins’ road woes are well documented (no road wins in
the last two years), but many seem to forget just how good UCLA is
at home.
Fans are calling for the real Bruins, the team that beat
then-No. 3 Michigan and Alabama. The team that came back against
Arizona State. The team that must get a win Saturday to stay in the
hunt for the Pac-10 crown.
However, what they may get is the makeshift Bruins.
As a team, UCLA is hurting. The entire defensive starting
line is banged up. Defensive back Jason Bell is sore. Obviously
DeShaun Foster is out, and his replacement, Jermaine Lewis, is
slowed by a twisted ankle.
On the Oregon State side of the ball things are looking pretty
good. The Beavers are coming off an impressive win against
Stanford where they featured a high-powered passing attack.
Running backs Ken Simonton and Patrick McCall, both natives of
California, have been the basis for the Beaver attack all
season. But quarterback Jonathan Smith’s performance in
Corvallis last week proves that the Beavers have a fully
operational offense.
“We can’t focus too much on the run,” safety
Marques Anderson said. “They have a pretty good passing game
too.”
Perhaps the Bruins should give a call across town to the Trojans
to find out how good the Beavers really are. In a game earlier this
year Oregon State racked up 375 yards of total offense, with 234 of
them coming courtesy of Simonton’s legs.
“This is a talented team with a lot of speed and a lot of
athleticism,” coach Bob Toledo said earlier this week.
“They have an excellent quarterback. They have two really
good runners and excellent wide receivers. Like any good
football team they are well balanced.”
The Beavers have an added incentive to beat UCLA. More than half
of the team hails from California.
“It’s a big game for me to play in,” Oregon
State cornerback Keith Heyward-Johnson said. “All of my
friends and family will be there and I want to give everyone down
there a good showing.”
“We’re doing alright so far this season. We’re
feeling alright where we are, but we’re not satisfied. Our
ultimate goal is to make it to the Rose Bowl,”
Heyward-Johnson continued.
The picture should not seem all too bleak for UCLA fans. The
Bruins have done some good things in recent games, and Saturday
could be the culmination of weeks of patchwork practicing.
Cory Paus is coming off one of his better games of the year.
Paus did an outstanding job last week considering the Bruins were
unable to run effectively. Despite a few mental mistakes, the
redshirt sophomore appears to be coming into his own. But the
Bruins must establish the running game if they hope to be
successful against Oregon State.
“We’re going to try and run the ball better,”
Paus said. “That should open up the passing game even
more.”
Oregon State head coach Dennis Erickson seems to be most worried
about the Bruins air attack.
“Cory Paus is back now at quarterback and playing
healthy,” Erickson said in a press conference on
Tuesday. “And they probably have the best pair of wide
receivers in the league. The guy who is the real playmaker is
Freddie Mitchell.”
And Mitchell will be looking for a little revenge against the
other Oregon team. He has bitter memories from the
Bruins’ trip to Eugene earlier this year. In addition to
that, the team is seeking revenge for the 55-7 drubbing received
last year in Eugene.
But Saturday should be a much different game this year. Again,
the Bruins are much better in Pasadena, and Oregon State knows
it.
“Obviously, they play much better in the Rose Bowl than
they do on the road,” Erickson said. “We’ve
got our hands full. We’re looking forward to going down and
looking forward to the challenge. It will be interesting to see
what happens.”
It will take an outstanding defensive effort by a few new
players to keep the Beavers at bay. Oregon State screams
scoring power, and their defense should not give UCLA too many
problems. But the depleted Bruin defense will need to see some
key contributions from some new players.
Sophomore Joe Hunter could see more time in a defense that must
be prepared for Oregon State’s spread attack. Mat and Dave
Ball may be the biggest key to the Bruins’ game. The twin
redshirt freshmen will need to have outstanding games if the Bruins
defense is to be successful.
Warrior of the week goes to Rusty Williams, who will be playing
on a stress-fractured foot.
“If he’s cleared he’ll play,” Toledo
said of his defensive end. “Rusty’s a tough
kid.”
There will have to be a lot of tough Bruins if the team hopes to
turn around their season. A loss to Cal is not the end of the
world, but it could be the beginning of the slide. Coming home
provides UCLA with the chance to beat a quality Pac-10 team and
stay in the hunt for the Pac-10 title.