Bruins’ Goal Is to Have One for the Road

The few and the brave cast votes for UCLA in the preseason polls. The Bruins were unranked, and why not? They were going to lose to Alabama and Michigan anyway, so why bother voting them into the national rankings when you would have to vote them right back out?

Those losses would not doom the Bruins’ season. A national ranking would be nice, but irrelevant. UCLA Coach Bob Toledo would remind his players that the Pacific 10 Conference season was about to begin, and losses to Alabama and Michigan would not eliminate the Bruins from a conference championship and a spot in the Rose Bowl.

“We can say we want to compete for a national championship,” Toledo would say, “but our goal is to represent the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl.”

That is, in fact, what Toledo said this week, in advance of today’s Pac-10 opener at Oregon. He said that after the Bruins had turned back the Crimson Tide and Wolverines, after the Bruins had risen to No. 6 in the rankings, after they had worked their way into the national championship picture.

So what was Toledo thinking? The good folks of the Southeastern Conference see UCLA beat Alabama and anoint the Bruins as national contenders. The good folks of the Big Ten see UCLA beat Michigan and do likewise.

And the ESPN “Game Day” crew, which broadcasts from the site of a marquee game each week, hops a flight to Eugene to board the UCLA bandwagon.

“If UCLA had not beaten Michigan and Alabama, we would not be going to Oregon,” ESPN analyst Lee Corso said.

“The two best stories in the country are the success of UCLA--that’s why we’re there--and the demise of Penn State.”

Toledo responds to the accolades by talking Rose Bowl, in a season in which the Orange Bowl will host the national championship game.

“That is one of our goals,” Toledo said, “but we don’t have total control over that.”

Translation: Polls, statistics, computers--who knows what variables will hold the greatest sway as the Bowl Championship Series selects two combatants for the Orange Bowl? But the Pac-10 champion automatically qualifies for the Rose Bowl.

Logical, yes, especially to a coach. But his players won’t shudder at the mention of the words “national championship,” not after the long summer that followed the 4-7 disaster last fall.

“Being No. 6 in the polls is pretty odd for us, coming from where we were,” quarterback Ryan McCann said. “It’s exciting to hear us in the same sentence as ‘national championship.’

“If everybody keeps their heads on straight, we’ll be all right.”

Of course, if they lose today, Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl dreams would be dampened in September, replaced at least temporarily by Sun Bowl nightmares. The Alabama and Michigan victories count for nothing in the Pac-10 standings, and a one-loss team could be out of national championship contention.

The Ducks have pounded Nevada and Idaho and lost by four points at No. 7 Wisconsin. This is nothing new, although the casual fan may not have been paying attention.

Oregon--not UCLA, not USC, not Washington--has won the most games of any school in the Pac-10 the past five years.

“A lot of people don’t know that,” Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti said.

And, from the time the parking lot opens at 6:30 a.m. and the school hands out doughnuts and orange juice to the student rowdies eager to serve as a human backdrop for ESPN, Eugene will be rocking. In front of a sellout crowd, including some willing to buy standing-room-only tickets, the Ducks will defend their 16-game home winning streak.

“We don’t talk about it that much, to tell you the truth,” Bellotti said of the streak, “but I certainly think the kids feel it, know it’s there and obviously want it to continue.

“I think I want our opponents to know about it.”

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BATTING .300

A look at how UCLA fared in Pac-10 openers in the ‘90s:

1990

at UCLA 32,

Stanford 31

1991

California 27,

at UCLA 24

1992

at Arizona 23,

UCLA 3

1993

California 27,

at UCLA 25

1994

Washington St. 21,

at UCLA 0

1995

Oregon 38,

at UCLA 31

1996

UCLA 41,

at Oregon 22

1997

at Washington St. 37,

UCLA 34

1998

at UCLA 49,

Washington St. 17

1999

at Stanford 42,

UCLA 32