‘Real Season’ Is About to Start

It has been eight years since UCLA won a Pacific 10 Conference football championship and the Bruins’ quest to end the drought will begin Saturday at Washington.

“This is the real season for us, the other stuff was just the preseason,” junior offensive guard Shannon Tevaga said about the Bruins, who are 2-0 and did not have a game over the weekend. “This is when it really starts. Everything before this was just preparation.”

After finishing 10-2 overall and third in the Pac-10 with a 5-2 record last season, UCLA believes that it is primed to make a run for its first league title since 1998 behind first-year starting quarterback Ben Olson -- the Pac-10 leader in passing efficiency (172.36) -- and a new-attitude defense, which is the Pac-10 leader in fewest yards allowed (235.5) and against the run (82.5).

“We’ve found out that we may not be the most talented but we’re like the best team with a core,” Tevaga said. “We’re very family-oriented and we look after each other like brothers. I feel real good about us because we know how to play and win together.”

After nonconference victories over Utah and Rice, the Bruins -- who have not lost to Washington in six years -- realize that all of their lofty goals for the season would suffer a major blow if they don’t play well in Seattle this weekend.

“These games are business for us,” junior defensive tackle Kevin Brown said. “You have to win these games. The pressure is on, no matter who you are playing.”

Added Olson: “You never really know because the season is still very young and we’ve played only two games. The thing is, we don’t know how good Utah is or how good Rice is really. There’s still a lot of unknown.

“But we know as a team that we have to get better. Nobody is satisfied with where we are at. We were all frustrated with our game against Rice.”

Washington has not defeated UCLA since Rick Neuheisel coached the Huskies in 2000, and over the last two seasons they are 1-15 in Pac-10 games. But this year, Coach Tyrone Willingham’s team is 2-1 after a 21-20 victory over Fresno State on Saturday in Seattle.

“In order for us to win the conference championship, we can’t take any games off,” Brown said. “Every team in the league is good because basically, everybody is the same.

“Players come from the same recruiting circles and we see each other every year. We know Washington is better.”

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Coach Karl Dorrell said he expects UCLA’s starting offensive line to be back at full strength by the end of the week with tackles Aleksey Lanis (knee) and Noah Sutherland (ankle) recovered from injuries.

Last week, Lanis -- a redshirt freshman who plays strong-side tackle -- and Sutherland -- a junior who plays weak-side tackle -- participated in fundamental drills but sat out much of the team work in practice.

Freshman Micah Kia and junior Brian Abraham worked in their place but are expected to be in backup roles against Washington.

lonnie.white@latimes.com