It Could Be Ugly in Lincoln : Nonconference: Donahue says Bruins can’t play Nebraska the same way they played SMU.

Here’s the latest on the UCLA football team for all you Bruin fans out there, including the guy in the UCLA shirt Saturday in the first row of the stands at the Rose Bowl, the guy shouting, “Nebraska is going to murder you!”

--The Bruins beat Southern Methodist for the first time. This is kind of a tricky item because UCLA was playing SMU for the first time since 1947, when Terry Donahue was 3.

--The Bruins looked hugely underwhelming doing it. The whole thing was enough to age Donahue quicker than you can say Tommie Frazier.

Next Saturday, it’s on to Lincoln, Neb., for UCLA, and Donahue knows exactly what will happen if the Bruins play the same way they did against SMU.

“We’ll get slaughtered,” he said.

And the guy in the first row will be right. Oh, well, at least UCLA is 2-0, and nobody is going to put an asterisk next to the Bruins’ 17-10 slogfest over the lightly regarded Mustangs.

It shouldn’t have been that hard to throw a saddle on these Ponies and ride them straight into the corral. SMU is 11-44-2 since restarting its football program in 1989 after receiving the NCAA’s so-called “death penalty.”

UCLA nose tackle George Kase said the Bruins might already have been packing for Lincoln when they should have been spending more time worrying about SMU.

“We’ve got to play better than this,” Kase said. “We were looking forward to Nebraska. But, you know, this is a pretty disappointing game to win by seven points.”

The Bruins were favored by 25 points, but they probably were pretty fortunate that they won at all. Coach Bob Field’s defense saved UCLA from a major embarrassment.

In the last two minutes of the game, SMU had a first down at UCLA’s three, then ran out of downs at the 21 when Bruin safety Abdul McCullough broke up the pass at the goal line.

There was another UCLA defensive stand in the second quarter after shifty SMU quarterback Ramon Flanigan guided the Ponies to a first down at the Bruin four. SMU lost 19 yards in three plays and came away with nothing when Ben Crosland missed a 39-yard field-goal attempt.

It was not a good day for the Bruin offense. The Ponies ran more plays than UCLA as Flanigan passed for 301 yards, and UCLA quarterback Wayne Cook, who committed three turnovers, had big trouble keeping the offense on the field.

“It was scary, but we got the victory,” Cook said.

This is true. Cook was one of the first players in the Bruin locker room after the game. He took up a post at the door and shook the hand of each UCLA defensive player as he came in.

“They saved my butt a few times,” he said.

“We just came out flat,” he said. “I think we got better, but it wasn’t easy. There was something in the back of your head saying we’re going to kill these guys. But we’re not going to let this get us down.”

Flanigan said he didn’t think UCLA respected SMU, at least at first, but predicts a better effort against Nebraska.

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll be a lot more jacked up,” he said.

As for how UCLA stacks up against other teams that SMU plays, Flanigan said the Bruins are fast, but not very pushy, adding: “They’re not nearly as physical as Texas A&M; or Baylor or Texas.”

This may be bad news, because next Saturday UCLA has got to be at least as physical as Nebraska. And it’s going to have to be that way without two starters who probably were lost for the season Saturday.

Right offensive tackle Paul Kennedy injured his right knee, and the Bruins suspect he has torn ligaments. Cornerback Carl Greenwood, UCLA’s top defensive back, broke his right ankle, which means that a team that isn’t very deep just got shallower.

And it all happened against little old SMU.

“I won’t say we played bad, but. . . . “ McCullough said. “We might have taken them lightly, their being SMU and all, but they showed us something.”

As for Nebraska, Cook said: “Well, we’re not going to play like we did today. Know why? They’ll kill us if we do.”

This seems like a good incentive.