Admit it. You hear it too.
That nagging voice inside your head that says this four-game
winning streak is a mirage. The one that points to UCLA’s
soft schedule, its swiss-cheese run defense, and its recent history
of late-season collapses.
The one that says there’s no way this team is for
real.
Well, I’ve got news for those of you who are determined to
ignore it. Unless the Bruins pull the upset in Berkeley on
Saturday, that persistent little voice is only going to get
louder.
Considering how quickly UCLA has unraveled the past few seasons,
fans have every right to take a wait-and-see approach towards
rooting for this year’s team.
Sure, the Bruins boast a flashy 4-1 record. Yes, they
haven’t lost in over one month.
But don’t forget, they were 7-0 in 2001 and 6-2 last year.
And unless you suffer from selective amnesia, I’m sure you
remember how quickly those seasons went sour.
The late-season collapse is practically a trademark of Bruin
football these days, as synonymous with late-October as Halloween
parties. Or UCLA’s bad tackling.
But after Saturday’s 37-17 victory against Arizona, the
Bruins were adamant that it will not happen again this year.
“I’m not worried about us sliding,” junior
quarterback Drew Olson said. “It’s a different attitude
this year. This team and these coaches have a different
approach.”
Hearing that would be a lot more comforting for UCLA fans if the
Bruins didn’t say the exact same thing 12 months ago.
All we’ve heard from UCLA is how different this team is.
Forget last year, the Bruins have said. And the years of mediocrity
that preceded it.
Well, the only way UCLA fans are ever going to do that is if the
Bruins can string together some wins against bowl teams in the
second half of the season.
So far this year, all UCLA has proven is that it can beat bad
teams. Since its season-opening loss to undefeated Oklahoma State
last month, the Bruins have played a schedule that would make a
high school coach blush.
The four teams that they have defeated, Illinois, Washington,
San Diego State and Arizona, have amassed a 6-14 record so far this
year. And that doesn’t even tell the whole story. Only three
of those wins came against Division I-A opponents.
Next week UCLA won’t have it so easy. California, which
outplayed top-ranked USC on the Trojan home field Saturday, may be
the best team in the conference.
If UCLA is a legitimate Pac-10 contender, it will at least put
up a good fight against the Bears and maybe pull out a win. If not,
well, cue this year’s version of the collapse.
“I don’t even remember anything that happened last
year,” tight end Marcedes Lewis said. “This is a
different team, so we’ll go out there with the mindset that
we need to slay our opponents.”
And that, of course, makes you wonder what the Bruins’
mindset has been the last few years.
The Cal game is a chance for the “new and improved”
Bruins to silence their fans’ nagging little doubts once and
for all.
A victory against the Bears would keep UCLA undefeated in
conference play and likely vault it into the national rankings, a
position where it hasn’t been since Karl Dorrell was hired. A
loss and those doubts would come flooding back stronger than
ever.
Suddenly UCLA would find itself mired in the middle of the
Pac-10 with a trip to No. 15 Arizona State next up on the
schedule.
Beating Cal won’t be easy. The Bears feature the
conference’s most balanced offense, a solid defense and a
running back, J.J. Arrington, who has to be salivating at the
thought of facing UCLA.
But nobody said it would be easy. It never is with UCLA.
“We want to keep rolling,” Olson said.
“We’re definitely not satisfied with 4-1.”
But 5-1 with a win over Cal under their belts? That might be
enough to silence those nagging little voices for a while.
Eisenberg’s column appears every Monday during
football season. E-mail him at [email protected].