TUCSON “”mdash; The Bruins had forgotten the Wildcats before they
even left Arizona Stadium Saturday.
“I’m going golfing with my wife and my boys,”
defensive coordinator Phil Snow said in the locker room after UCLA
(7-3, 4-2) defeated Arizona (3-7, 0-6) 37-7.
“I’m taking my girlfriend to the movies and
Ruth’s Cris Steakhouse for a nice dinner,” sophomore
safety Matt Ware said.
“I get to hang out with my family and chill,” said
redshirt freshman Tyler Ebell, who rushed for over 100 yards in his
sixth consecutive game ““ second on the all-time single-season
list at UCLA.
All the Bruins could think about was their day off Monday
““ head coach Bob Toledo gave the team Veteran’s Day off
““ and the upcoming bye week.
And who could blame them? All week they had resisted the
temptation to look past the winless Wildcats. All week they assured
the public that they would not collapse in front of an opponent
without a win in conference play as Bruin teams of the past had
done.
“Arizona is a dangerous team,” Toledo said last
Monday. But the Wildcats looked anything but dangerous on Saturday.
The Arizona offense was de-clawed by a Bruin defense that gave up
11 yards rushing despite playing a number of reserves, and its
defense looked downright domestic allowing 443 yards to
UCLA’s freshmen quarterbacks and tailback.
On the opening drive, with true freshman quarterback Drew Olson
at the helm, the Bruins marched 80 yards downfield to score on the
opening drive on Ebell’s 22-yard touchdown run, where he
broke a goal line tackle to flop backwards into the end zone.
“I was really looking forward to letting them
loose,” Toledo said of his players.
In their second drive the Bruins scored again on Nate
Fikse’s 39-yard field goal. The bye, a 7-3 record and bowl
plans were growing closer by the second.
But Arizona moved the ball well in its second drive to the UCLA
nine-yard line, putting Snow’s golf plans on hold.
“Early in the game I was a little nervous,” he
said.
Redshirt freshman Spencer Havner put Snow’s mind at ease
after blocking the field goal and deflating the Wildcat homecoming
crowd.
“We held it down pretty good. They fought hard though;
they weren’t going to give it to us. We had to take
it,” Ware said diplomatically.
UCLA’s other true freshman quarterback, Matt Moore, went
into the game in the second quarter up 10-0. The offense faltered
momentarily, earning three consecutive penalties, making it
third-and-42 at their own 46. But Moore made it look like a day at
the beach as he threw a deep ball to junior wide receiver Tab
Perry, who made the 39-yard catch on the sideline at the Arizona
19-yard line.
“The media’s gonna say we’ve got a quarterback
controversy. We’ve got a nice situation,” Toledo said.
Olson finished 7-of-12 for 111 yards and one touchdown, and Moore
finished 6-of-8 for 90 yards. Neither turned the ball over.
With Moore’s toss, the Bruins were just 2 yards short of a
first down. They decided to go for the fourth-down conversion and
ended up with a touchdown.
“That play was a good call by the coach. It was wide open.
Matt pitched me the ball, and I just had to make one person
miss,” said Ebell, who ran the ball in from the 19 to put the
Bruins up 17-0 in the second quarter.
The Wildcats had one last gasp before going on permanent
vacation themselves when wide receiver Andre Thurman scored on a
92-yard touchdown pass. Backup quarterback Nic Costa scrambled away
from Marcus Reese in his own end zone and got the ball off to
Thurman who caught it at the 50-yard line and ran 50 yards
untouched for Arizona’s only score to make the game 17-7.
“He was running a streak and then went back then came back
up, that’s where I slipped up. I thought, “˜He’s
about to throw it short, I’m not going to let him catch
it’,” Ricky Manning Jr. said.
The Bruins killed any Arizona momentum by responding on the
ensuing drive with a 51-yard field goal. They then spent the third
and fourth quarters playing a mix of starters and reserves in a
mostly empty Arizona Stadium before calling it a day.
“We’re just happy,” sophomore tailback Manuel
White said in the locker room following the game. He came back from
a pulled hamstring to gain 27 yards and a touchdown against the
Wildcats.
“Quit smiling,” true freshman tight end Marcedes
Lewis called out from his locker.
But White grinned from ear to ear. No one could tell him what to
do.
He was on vacation.