Bruins Turn to Strength : College football: Donahue again will sometimes use one back, four wide receivers in game against SMU.

Shortly after the rainy spring Saturday when Skip Hicks took off on a slick long-jumping board and shredded his knee, clouds gathered over the offices of the UCLA football coaching staff.

Terry Donahue took inventory of his running backs and shuddered.

There was Hicks, last season’s top ground gainer, out with a ligament injury that medical texts said would take nine months to heal.

There was Sharmon Shah, coming back off his own knee problems, so severe that he had been given a medical redshirt season.

There was Derek Ayers, who had shown flashes of brilliance, but was unproven.

And there was Daron Washington, a senior who had yet to blossom.

Clearly, an insurance policy was needed, and Bob Toledo, the new offensive coordinator, was dispatched to Tallahassee, Fla., to get one. The idea was to find a way to use four receivers in a formation and take the pressure off the running backs. Florida State had done that in winning a national championship. If you’re going to learn, learn from the best.

After watching three days of practice and several hundred hours of film, the Bruins had their insurance.

“I had talked to the offensive coaches and said, ‘Let’s talk about a worst-case scenario,’ ” said Donahue. “If all these backs go down and we only have two backs to play . . . If (wide receiver) was where our players were and we were short of backs, then we would play like that.”

Not all that short of running backs, the 13th-ranked Bruins played like that anyway last week in much of a 25-23 season-opening victory over Tennessee. They will play like that again today against Southern Methodist in the Rose Bowl.

How much is open to question.

“We had not intended to play the whole season (with one back and four wide receivers),” Donahue said. “We still want to be in a two-back offense. I don’t want us to be in an exclusively one-back offense. But I also want to make sure I can put the best athletes on the field, ready to play.”

Either way is fine, said quarterback Wayne Cook, upon whom UCLA depends to run its wide-open offense that has an added fillip: no huddle.

“There’s only one word to describe the offense, and that is fun, “ Cook said.

But according to SMU Coach Tom Rossley, there is another way to describe it.

“I looked at the film of UCLA on offense and said it looked like they’ve been watching us play,” he said. “They’re doing a lot of the things we’re doing.”

Apparently, the Bruins are doing them better. SMU struggled in its season opener, staying with Arkansas for three quarters before being blown out, 34-14.

UCLA’s offense revolves around Cook, who completed 25 of 38 passes for a career-high 295 yards and a touchdown against Tennessee. He found nine receivers, led by Kevin Jordan, who caught six passes for 152 yards, one a 52-yard touchdown strike. J.J. Stokes caught six passes, for 84 yards, but he also caught a helmet in his right thigh, and the bruise makes him questionable today.

“They look like they’ve got plenty of weapons,” said Rossley. “It looked like it was a good offense for them. I was kind of surprised they were running it.”

So was Tennessee, but now everyone knows.

“Well, one of the ideas was to give other teams something they had to practice for,” Donahue said. “It’s just something else they have to spend time on.”

SMU is not without weapons, but the Mustangs are limited largely to quarterback Ramon Flanigan and wide receiver Mick Rossley, son of the coach.

Rossley caught 11 passes for 106 yards and a touchdown against Arkansas.

Flanigan, the Mustangs’ best athlete, completed 19 of 36 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 82 yards, then lost 46 of them on five sacks. He has run a 4.37-second 40-yard dash, which gives opposing coaches fits.

“He is fast,” said Donahue. “That guy will be running all over the field, and we’ve got to contain him. We have to make sure we can wrap him up and box him in. He’ll raise some havoc. They liken him to the kid at Florida State last year, Charlie Ward.”

Ward won the Heisman Trophy.

One of the problems the Bruins will face is focus. Ahead is a game against No. 1 Nebraska in Lincoln. SMU was 2-7-2 last season and is 11-43-2 since coming off a two-year “death penalty.” The potential for embarrassment is there for a team looking ahead.

“You don’t know how much your players will respond,” Donahue said. “No matter how much you prepare them, you don’t know how much creeps in and affects them.”

UCLA BRUINS TODAY’S GAME

* Opponent: Southern Methodist

* Site: Rose Bowl

* Time: 3:30 p.m.

* Records: UCLA 1-0, SMU 0-1

* Radio: XTRA (690/670)

* TV: Prime Ticket