CORVALLIS, Ore. ””mdash; Richard Brehaut looked tired and his face was flushed red, but he still cracked a smile when he heard how little he had thrown in UCLA’s 29-17 win over Oregon State.
The junior quarterback’s final passing statline: 11 attempts, seven completions, 146 yards and one touchdown.
“That is kind of low,” Brehaut said with a laugh. “I thought it was a little bit more than that.”
The Bruins have put the keys to their offense in the hands of Brehaut – who broke the school record for passing attempts last year (64, in a loss to Arizona State) – but make no mistake: the Bruins assumed a running identity when they turned to the pistol offense, and that’s not about to change.
Even when starting redshirt junior running back Johnathan Franklin went down due to injury in the second quarter, UCLA didn’t abandon the ground game.
Sophomore Malcolm Jones, who had one carry total in the first three games of the year, replaced Franklin in the Bruins’ dual-back attack and had six carries for 38 yards, a shade over four yards per carry.
Jones finally heard his number called, and he knew the gameplan.
“Just keep running the ball until they stop it,” Jones said. “If they finally stopped it, we would have started to throw, but they didn’t really stop the run, so we kept doing what we do best.”
And once again, it was Derrick Coleman powering the run game. The senior had watched Franklin, his partner in crime, go down early, but couldn’t see a change coming.
“We pound, pound, pound it,” said Coleman, who finished with a career-high 20 rushing attempts for 100 yards. “We come in with a gameplan, we go in there and execute. We don’t change things.”
UCLA rushed for 4.3 yards a carry as a team Saturday, thanks in large part to its running backs, but also the F-backs. Redshirt freshman Jordan James had 29 yards on the ground, including a 4-yard sweep for his first career touchdown. Sophomore Anthony Barr added a late touchdown to help the Bruins pull away.
Shel-Locked
Redshirt junior punter Jeff Locke, doubling as kicker for the second straight week, got the worst of the 85-yard punt return for a touchdown just before halftime.
An Oregon State special teamer laid the wood on Locke, the last man back, sending him crumbling to the Reser Stadium turf. He walked off a few minutes later, but missed both his kicks after the half ““ one a 39-yard field goal attempt, the other an extra point that actually kept the Beavers within striking distance at 27-19.
He sported a large ice pack on his right shoulder after the game, but said “I don’t think (the blocked kicks) had anything to do with (the shoulder) at all.”
Redshirt freshman kicker Kip Smith missed his second straight game with a sore hip flexor. Walk-on kicker and UCLA soccer manager Tyler Gonzalez made the trip to Corvallis and was the backup if Locke wasn’t able to kick.
Injuries
Three Bruins came out nicked after Saturday’s win: Franklin (left hip contusion), junior cornerback Sheldon Price (right knee sprain) and junior safety Dalton Hilliard (left shoulder sprain).
Quick-hit notes
Brehaut’s 62-yard completion to redshirt senior wide receiver Josh Smith early in the first quarter was UCLA’s longest play of the year. … Two plays later, Brehaut lofted a pass into double coverage that senior receiver Taylor Embree snatched for a touchdown.
The reception gave Embree sole possession of the No. 9 spot on UCLA’s career receptions list. … The last time the Bruins started 1-0 in conference play was in 2007, when UCLA beat Stanford in Palo Alto, 47-14, in Karl Dorrell’s final year as coach. … The last time UCLA won consecutive conference road games was also 2007. The Bruins followed up the win over Stanford with a 40-14 win in Corvallis. … UCLA next heads to No. 5 Stanford (3-0, 1-0), which was on a bye this week.