Former UCLA football coach Terry Donahue will be the
Bruins’ honorary captain for this week’s game against
Cal. Donahue, who will take part in the pre-game coin flip, was
head coach at UCLA for twenty years and coached in five Rose Bowls,
winning in 1983, 1984 and 1986.
“It’s always exciting to be there ““ you get
fired up just being around the Rose Bowl,” said Donahue, who
is currently the San Francisco 49ers’ general manager.
“I’m so proud of Karl and the fact that he is a head
coach who is the product of the UCLA system.”
Donahue has good reason to be proud of Dorrell: Donahue was his
coach, and Dorrell played on the three Rose Bowl-winning teams in
the 1980s. Donahue hired Dorrell in 1988 as a graduate assistant
and pushed for him to be hired as head coach this past year.
Donahue, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, has
followed the Bruins this season, taking in several UCLA games. He
admires the job Dorrell has done thus far.
“The team is playing at a very high level of intensity and
one of the things that every coach wants to accomplish is to get
his team to play hard,” Donahue said. “I think UCLA has
given some very good efforts.”
Donahue said he is impressed with the strides the team has
made.
“I think the team is playing hard and improving,”
Donahue said. “When you lose your starting quarterback, there
is an adjustment period. The team is settling in with a different
quarterback and that takes time, and that doesn’t always go
perfectly.”
When it comes time to step onto the field, will Donahue be
flooded with emotion? You bet.
“I am going to be really fired up,” Donahue said.
“I’m excited to see him coach in person. I’ll be
like a proud father watching one of his sons do a great
job.”
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
Cornerback Matt Ware continued to practice, but was still
limited by the high ankle sprain he suffered against Arizona.
“I would say that he is very unlikely to play against
Cal,” Dorrell said. “He just did some preliminary work
today.”
Should Ware not start, it would snap a streak of 30 consecutive
starts.
On the other hand, strong safety Jarrad Page is expected to play
after suffering a bruised shoulder against Washington. For the
second day in a row, Page participated in full contact drills.
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
With UCLA’s lack of depth along the offensive line, true
freshman defensive tackle Kevin Brown has taken some drills at
offensive guard.
“It’s just for (an) emergency,” Brown said.
“It’s quite an adjustment, but my main position will
still be defensive tackle.”
Brown, who is on the second-string, was rated one of the top
offensive linemen in the country coming out of high school, but
said he preferred playing defense.