There’s a lot riding on this game for UCLA. Will the
aftermath be a utopia or apocalypse?
THE UTOPIA
All smiles, coach Karl Dorrell steps up to the press conference
podium and lets out a sigh of relief.
“Where to begin,” he ponders after the Bruins
survive a high-scoring shootout against Arizona State. “This
really showed the heart and character of this team, to be able to
rebound from such a tough loss last week and come back like this.
We may not have been at our best today, but we’re
growing.”
Dorrell then fields questions about the defense rising up to the
challenge, the offense regaining its form, and the team as a whole
riding this momentum into its showdown against USC for a share of
the conference title.
Back in the locker room, senior quarterback Drew Olson tells
reporters how this victory confirms that this Bruin team really is
different. Allen Bradford and Konrad Reuland, two highly
sought-after recruits, just happen to be there and give Dorrell a
verbal commitment on the spot.
A week after dropping 10 spots in the polls, the Bruins move up
to No. 13, but no one seems to think they’re overrated.
During the three-week layoff before the USC game, senior
linebacker Justin London and redshirt senior center Mike McCloskey
all have plenty of time to recuperate from nagging injuries and
return to practice in the best condition they’ve been in all
year. It isn’t enough for the Bruins to overcome USC, but
they put up such a good fight that NFL scouts who are courting Pete
Carroll move over and start talking to Dorrell too.
“We’re building something special here,”
Dorrell says. “And I want to be here to see it through. Being
here has always been a dream of mine.”
Because Oregon misses out on a BCS berth, the Bruins head to El
Paso, Texas for the Sun Bowl as the third-place Pac-10 team.
Despite some mild disappointment, there’s mostly genuine
enthusiasm about the biggest bowl game UCLA has played this
century.
Facing a storied Michigan program, the Bruins have little
trouble gearing up for the contest. Come game time, the Wolverine
defense looks confused against UCLA’s West Coast offense,
enabling junior running back Maurice Drew to run wild and head the
list of Heisman Trophy front-runners next season. Dorrell earns his
first bowl-game victory, and the Bruins earn their seventh ten-win
season.
THE APOCALYPSE:
Karl Dorrell can hardly look reporters in the eye after they
start asking him what makes November such a difficult month for the
Bruins.
“I don’t know,” Dorrell shrugs following his
team’s lifeless defeat to the Sun Devils. “We just
didn’t come out to play today. We made too many mistakes and
didn’t execute. Credit Arizona State, they’re a good
team.”
For the next couple of minutes, Dorrell offers some short
responses for the long list of problems his team faces. The media
then make their way to the Bruins’ locker room to find a
group of players who look like teenagers getting picked up from
jail by their parents. They keep insisting that the season
isn’t over, and that they’ll just have to bounce back
against USC. Meanwhile, UCLA’s top recruits at the game
bounce right over to the Sun Devil locker room.
Of course, the Bruins never bounce back against the Trojans. For
the fourth time in five years, they are knocked out of the
crosstown rivalry by halftime. The defense is overwhelmed by Reggie
Bush, and the offense can’t muster up a drive against the
Trojans.
To add insult to injury, the Bruins get bumped down to the
Insight.com Bowl after the Sun Bowl elects to take Arizona State as
the Pac-10’s third-place team. Dorrell vows that he will win
his first bowl game so the Bruins can end the season on a positive
note.
He doesn’t and they don’t, losing by a pair of
touchdowns to an inspired Rutgers team that never knew college
football could be played in December. The season ends in disastrous
fashion once again, with newspapers quick to point out
Dorrell’s 1-12 cumulative record in the season’s last
two months.
Impatient boosters start calling for the coach’s immediate
firing and there are rumors of Maurice Drew entering the NFL draft
just so he doesn’t have to go through another tumultuous
season in Westwood. Dorrell fires defensive coordinator Larry Kerr,
but that doesn’t satisfy the alumni. Then again, it’s
been a long while since anyone in the Bruin family has been
satisfied with football after October.
E-mail Finley at afinley@media.ucla.edu.