You mean there’s still one more football game to be played?
Really?
It didn’t all come to a crashing end in a sea of blue-and-gold
misery at that evil, evil place almost one month ago?
You mean there’s a chance for redemption?
I’ll take your silence as an affirmative answer, and I’m very,
very happy about it.
Bowl games represent the culmination of a season’s worth of
toil, and should be viewed as exactly that. Lots of times people
seem to forget that which has come before. Bowl games are taken as
a single entity, rather than viewed within the context of an entire
season.
That’s because it was Dec. 3 the last time the 9-2 Bruins took
the field. And that time couldn’t have been too much fun. Now that
basketball is going so well, it’s hard to believe that football
isn’t over yet.
But the fact is, and shouldn’t be forgotten, that UCLA is
9-2.
9-2!
Are you serious?
More silence, so you must be.
If someone had told you prior to this season that UCLA would be
9-2, you couldn’t have believed them.
Looking at the preseason schedule, Oklahoma, Cal, and USC seemed
like near-certain losses, especially with last season’s
disconcerting Las Vegas Bowl loss to Wyoming in mind.
I thought UCLA would be a mediocre team, perhaps good but
certainly not great, and 8-3 at absolute best.
Well, the Bruins overachieved, and for that they deserve a lot
of credit. They may not be truly great, but they emerged as winners
time and time again this season when you thought it wasn’t
possible.
It’s been a very good football season, and Friday’s Sun Bowl
match-up with Northwestern presents the opportunity to make this a
truly great season. It’s an important game because it’s a chance to
build on what’s been a very positive third season for coach Karl
Dorrell.
But we can reflect on what happens Friday on Friday.
Right now we should reflect on what’s happened since the
beginning of September, and in a lot of ways, it’s been sort of
magical.
It started with a couple of dominating victories over San Diego
State and Rice. They weren’t too special, but at least they showed
that UCLA could take care of teams that were so obviously inferior
to themselves.
The first indication that this year might be different was the
Bruins’ impressive 41-24 victory over then-ranked, and now-ranked,
Oklahoma at the Rose Bowl. UCLA won a big game against a good team
for the first time in Dorrell’s career.
The Bruins followed that up with a near-loss to an awful
Washington team. But they didn’t lose.
And they didn’t lose to Washington State the following week,
even though they trailed by 21 points in the fourth quarter.
The comeback kids weren’t done there, as an 11-point
fourth-quarter deficit against Cal wasn’t too much to overcome
either. Maurice Drew scored five touchdowns, Drew Olson proved that
he’s a different person from the guy who played quarterback for
UCLA last year, and you could feel that this season was something
special.
The Bruins took care of business against Oregon State at home,
and then proceeded to pull off the improbable of all improbables,
coming back from 21 points down with eight minutes to play to beat
Stanford 27-24.
Remember that one?
The rest of the story isn’t so great, as a victory over Arizona
State was sandwiched in between two shellackings, the first to
unheralded Arizona and the second to much-heraled USC.
And that’s where we are now.
The Bruins are 9-2, and they have a chance to win their 10th.
It’s been a special season, one worth remembering. Now it’s time
for one more.
E-mail Regan at dregan@media.ucla.edu if you think that a
Sun Bowl victory would quiet Karl Dorrell’s critics.