Bruins Drain Out the Drama

Humble is the word at UCLA.

No, not fumble. At a news conference Monday, the Bruins brushed off the three turnovers in Saturday’s victory over Washington in the all’s well that ends well spirit pervading Westwood at the moment.

Humble, as in a demure DeShaun Foster, a prudent Cory Paus, a cautious Bob Toledo.

The higher the No. 4 Bruins (5-0) ascend in the rankings, the more exposure they get, the more records they set, the less they are willing to acknowledge it.

Almost as if doing so would trigger a jinx.

Foster, flush from his 301-yard rushing performance, uttered the term “national championship” after the 35-13 victory, but his tone was decidedly more subdued Monday.

“We have Cal this week, I’m staying focused on Cal,” he said.

That would be California, a hapless team off to its first 0-5 start in 119 years of football.

And this from a tailback who dashed to the front of the Heisman Trophy race by setting a school record for yardage and scoring four touchdowns against Washington.

Paus spoke next.

Earlier, the quarterback had labeled each of the last two games--against defending Pacific 10 co-champions Oregon State and Washington--as the “most important of his career.” He gave Cal only slightly less deference, reminding everyone the Bears defeated the Bruins the last two years.

He didn’t mention that Cal has been outscored, 218-88, this season. Or that UCLA is favored by four touchdowns.

“This will be an extremely important week,” Paus said. “When you are ranked high and are undefeated, every game is important.”

Maybe Toledo would peer past Cal, even for a moment. Not a chance. The coach even found a novel way to make the game sound as important as Paus professed.

“We need to win one more game to be bowl eligible,” Toledo said.

Bowl eligible? Experts are including UCLA in the same breath as Oklahoma, Miami and Nebraska as a serious contender to play in the BCS championship game Jan. 3 at the Rose Bowl.

Toledo didn’t mean eligible for that bowl game. He meant any game played after Christmas.

“Becoming bowl eligible is one of our team goals,” he said. “This is a rivalry game, two UC schools. People are talking about a national championship, and that’s a goal of every program. We have positioned ourselves so that it is a possibility if we continue to win.

“That’s why the only important thing is the next game.”

Certainly, a cautious approach is the best antidote to a letdown. It is also a reflection of the high hopes dashed in recent seasons.

Ask the Bruins about the possibility of playing Miami for the national title and avenging the 49-45 defeat in 1998 that ruined a 10-0 start, and somehow the conversation is adroitly steered back to Cal.

The same Cal humiliated by Oregon last week, 48-7.

They point out that Bear offensive coordinator Al Borges--Toledo’s close friend and the UCLA coordinator from 1996 to 2000--knows the Bruin offense inside and out.

They don’t mention that Borges’ scheme resembles UCLA’s so much that preparing for it shouldn’t be difficult.

They mention that Cal opponents have a combined record of 27-2 and that every team was unbeaten before facing the Bears.

They don’t mention that every opponent was still unbeaten after facing the Bears.

They mention that Cal quarterback Kyle Boller is 2-0 against UCLA, the school he wanted to attend out of Hart High. He was passed over in favor of J.P. Losman, who transferred to Tulane.

“Boller is very upset because this is where he wanted to go,” Toledo said. “We picked another quarterback, and it was a big mistake on our part.”

They don’t mention that Boller has not lived up to his potential, completing 45.2% of his passes in three years with as many interceptions as touchdowns (32).

Cal is the first of three UCLA opponents--Stanford and Washington State are next--that will have played Oregon the week before facing the Bruins. This is a favorable quirk in an otherwise brutal schedule that the Bruins have handled so far. UCLA is the only team in the nation to have defeated opponents from the Southeastern, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10 conferences.

There is plenty more for the Bruins to boast about.

Foster has a nation-leading average of 162.6 rushing yards a game. The defense has allowed only 60 points. Because a fake punt by Washington was changed from a run to a shovel pass in the official statistics, UCLA held the Huskies to a mind-boggling minus-eight yards rushing.

Instead, the Bruins are humble to the point of humdrum.

“We aren’t getting caught up in numbers or rankings,” Paus said. “We’re taking a modest approach. I know it sounds boring, but it’s the best way to go.

“The games, though, I don’t think they’ve been boring.”

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UP NEXT FOR UCLA

vs. California (0-5)

Rose Bowl Saturday, 7:15 p.m.

Fox Sports Net

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The Way It Was

Since winning the national championship in 1954 with a 9-0 record, UCLA has opened the season 5-0 on seven other occasions. A look:

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Year Start Overall record 1966 7-0 9-1 1967 6-0 7-2-1 1969 6-0 8-1-1 1980 6-0 9-2 1988 7-0 10-2 (Cotton Bowl win) 1998 10-0 10-2 (Rose Bowl loss) 2001 5-0 --

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