Time supposedly heals all wounds, but for the UCLA football team, there may not be enough time in the world for the scabs to form over its most recent gash.
About two weeks after the Bruins’ dream-crushing, season-altering loss to the Stanford Cardinal that kept them from achieving their goal of reaching the Pac-12 title game, the pain of that defeat is still fresh.
“That one needed to hurt. … That one still hurts, that one hasn’t gone away, that one’s not gonna ever go away,” said coach Jim Mora. “It was a game that had a huge impact on what we’re trying to achieve around here and we didn’t get it done. We failed and when you fail, it hurts if you take pride in what you do.”
The loss sent UCLA’s season careening off track after the Bruins had finally seemed to right the ship following its shaky start to the year. Instead of competing against Oregon last Friday for the Pac-12 title, a potential shot at being a top four team and earning a College Football Playoff bid, the Bruins found themselves as the third-best team in their own conference.
The Bruins’ consolation prize, though, is enough to distract them from their disappointment. Friday marked the start of No. 14 UCLA’s official preparation for the Valero Alamo Bowl against No. 11 Kansas State on Jan. 2 in San Antonio.
“I don’t think it will substitute because the Pac-12 championship is a great opportunity for this program to get national recognition, so the bowl win (would) be nice but it can’t make up for the opportunity that we had,” said redshirt sophomore running back Paul Perkins.
While the emotional injuries of the loss to Stanford may never fully heal, the Bruins are hoping a more tangible physical injury heals much quicker.
Redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley injured a finger on his throwing hand against Stanford when it was hit against a helmet. Hundley was forced to leave the game as his finger swelled, but Mora said Hundley was fine to reporters at an Alamo Bowl press conference in San Antonio Thursday.
Hundley admitted Friday that the finger isn’t yet at 100 percent, but that he’s able to throw a ball and participate in practice.
“It’s coming along,” Hundley said. “Obviously it still has some time that it needs to heal but at the same time we have time until the bowl game starts.”
Hundley also reaffirmed that, as he made clear nearly a year ago when he announced his decision to return to UCLA, this will indeed be his final game as a Bruin.
Going out on a winning note won’t be an easy task.
Kansas State (9-3) poses a unique and potent challenge for the UCLA (9-3) defense.
In their deliberate approach, the Wildcats bear some similarity to the Cardinal, a comparison that caused defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich to flinch and exclaim, “Oh, stop saying that.”
But Kansas State’s offense is also reminiscent of Arizona’s in the sense that they both run what Ulbrich called a quadruple option, a “new-age offense.” With options for a dive up the middle, a pitch, a quarterback run or a pass, stopping Kansas State’s offense is a task that few teams have been able to master this season; the Wildcats rank No. 23 in the nation in scoring, averaging 35.8 points per game.
The resemblance to some aspects of Pac-12 offenses UCLA has already faced does help the Bruins slightly in their preparation.
“Yeah, our guys embrace that,” Ulbrich said. “I know that they’re frustrated with the way things ended and it’s a great opportunity to lick their wounds and get back on the horse and show everybody what they’re made of, show each other what they’re made of.”
For a team trying to break into the conversation as one of the nation’s elite programs, getting a 10th win of the season is equally important in establishing that reputation as it is in healing UCLA’s pride.
As a redshirt senior playing in his final collegiate game, defensive end Owamagbe Odighizuwa has been around long enough to rise from the ashes of a 4-8 record his freshman year to where it is now, disappointed to not be competing for a national title.
“I think UCLA is on the verge of coming back to where it used to be when it had dominate players, a dominate program, great coaching,” Odighizuwa said. “We’re trying to get our 10th win and keep the program going.”