KNOXVILLE, Tenn. “”mdash; Kevin Prince sacrificed a tooth for a victory. Talk about being a good teammate.
In a celebratory UCLA locker room following the team’s suspenseful 19-15 win over Tennessee, redshirt sophomore center Kai Maiava walked past Prince and yelled, “Kevin, you’re my hero!”
Prince, the Bruins’ redshirt freshman quarterback, suffered an oral injury late in Saturday afternoon’s game to add even more drama to an already hectic scene. In a play designed to prevent an incomplete pass, Prince ran a naked bootleg, held onto the ball, was sacked to give Tennessee a two-point safety and walked off the field spitting blood.
“I made it clear to him that’s what I wanted,” coach Rick Neuheisel said.
Prince followed Neuheisel’s orders to perfection but appeared to be hit hard in the jaw by Tennessee’s Dennis Rogan in the process.
“I got whacked a couple of times,” a battered and bruised Prince said with a noticeable lisp in his postgame interview. “That’s just part of football. I’ll feel it tomorrow.”
Of course, coming away with a victory made the pain subside a bit. Prince said a tooth felt out of place and that his father, a dentist, would be mad.
“Most importantly, he proved to his teammates that he’s a gutsy guy,” Neuheisel said. “The good news is that his dad’s a dentist. He’ll be able to get that fixed at a pretty low cost.”
MOORE GETS TWO MORE: Opposing quarterbacks might want to stop throwing the ball near sophomore safety Rahim Moore, who intercepted Tennessee’s Jonathan Crompton twice on Saturday to bring his season total to five.
Moore intercepted San Diego State’s Ryan Lindley three times Sept. 5 in UCLA’s 33-14 victory to earn the Walter Camp Football Foundation National Defensive Player of the Week.
He was quick to credit the rest of the defense as he stood at midfield following Saturday’s win over the Volunteers.
“Forget about the picks,” Moore said. “It’s a team thing, man. It’s not about me.”
His five interceptions so far this season are the most by a Bruin since 2007 when Trey Brown had five for the entire season.
VINEY CORNERED IN: Crompton wasted little time in testing redshirt sophomore cornerback Courtney Viney, who was starting in place of redshirt freshman Aaron Hester.
Hester suffered a cracked right fibula against San Diego State on Sept. 5 and is expected to be sidelined for another three to five weeks.
Crompton completed his first two pass attempts ““ both to Viney’s side of the field.
But UCLA’s defense had nothing to worry about. Viney recorded a career-high eight tackles and broke up a pass.
“The (defensive back coaches) said, “˜Hey, (Viney’s) holding off. He’s good,'” defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough said. “After that I didn’t worry about it. “¦ We expect it from Courtney. He’s a veteran.”
SLEEPER PICKS: Senior wide receiver Terrence Austin said that he was too excited to fall asleep on the team’s Thursday flight to Knoxville.
There won’t be an issue on the way back to Los Angeles.
“I’m going to sleep real good,” he said with a smile.
Senior cornerback Alterraun Verner, on the other hand, had no such plans.
“Definitely not,” Verner said. “I’m texting as many people as I can before I get to the airplane. I’ll be celebrating with my team the whole five hours back.”
QUICK HITS: Redshirt junior place kicker Kai Forbath set a new career high by nailing four field goals Saturday. He had field goals of 47, 39, 31 and 26 yards “¦ Prince was 11-of-23 for 101 yards passing with a touchdown. He did not throw any interceptions after having been picked off twice by the Aztecs a week prior. Prince fumbled three times but only lost one “¦ No UCLA receiver had more than two catches “¦ Redshirt freshman punter Jeff Locke was stellar both on kickoffs and punts. Locke averaged 47 yards on four punts, with a long of 64. The left-footer kicked off seven times with an average of more than 66 yards per attempt “¦ UCLA was penalized nine times for a total of 70 yards. Meanwhile, Tennessee committed only two penalties for 10 yards.