At some point during the fall of every other year, a trip up the I-5 to Berkeley brings a football clash of two of the state’s most prestigious public schools – UCLA and Cal.
Yet the Bruins haven’t emerged victorious up north since Bill Clinton headed the Oval Office and cell phones were relatively unheard of.
UCLA hasn’t won in Berkeley since 1998, losing seven straight games, most of which haven’t been close at all. In coach Jim Mora’s first season two years ago, not even he could break the dry spell.
Then-No. 25 UCLA strode in to face 1-4 Cal only to be on the short-end of a 43-17 walloping.
“I remember it was like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ I think that’s the phrase we used when we were up there,” said junior wide receiver Jordan Payton. “I don’t know, it’s some curse we have I guess.”
On Saturday, the role of curse breaker is there for the taking once more as the Bruins travel to California Memorial Stadium to face the Golden Bears (4-2, 2-2 Pac-12).
Of UCLA’s seven opponents so far, Cal is – in a way – the most dynamic, polarizing the NCAA statistic sheets.
The Golden Bears, led by sophomore quarterback Jared Goff, are top-five in the country in passing offense. Yet, in total defense, they’re in the bottom five. In scoring offense, they’re 10th in the country, but conversely, they’re in the bottom 10 of scoring defense.
So the road ahead for UCLA’s offense appears manageable. The defense, however, could be in for another rickety ride, having already been shredded for big yardage the last two weeks.
“After two hard weeks, you got to really come together, find yourself as a unit and see what the problem is and fix it,” said sophomore defensive end Eddie Vanderdoes. “The biggest problem was we weren’t having fun. (Tuesday) was a very fun practice … and I felt like we got a lot better.”
The fun could evaporate quickly come Saturday if UCLA can’t break an even more important streak: a two-game losing skid.
With the Bruins’ season on the verge of sinking lower, Mora said the Bruins (4-2, 1-2) aren’t about to make wholesale changes. That would be panicking, he said.
“If you panic, you perish,” Mora said. “We’re not about to panic.”