Despite a giant blow, both to the head of Kevin Prince and to the team, the Bruins finally nabbed their first Pac-10 win Saturday with a 24-23 win over the Washington Huskies.
Washington looked to be on the road to a win, down by just one point and driving in UCLA territory with under a minute to go. But UCLA sophomore safety Rahim Moore picked off a Jake Locker pass, his eighth interception of the year, to seal the win for the Bruins.
With the win over the Huskies (3-6, 2-4), the Bruins (4-5, 1-5 Pac-10) snapped their seven-game conference losing streak.
Addressing more than 72,000 fans coach Rick Neuheisel, ecstatic at his team’s first conference win said, “I know a lot of you jumped off the bandwagon. I’m asking you to jump back on.”
In many ways, the Bruins were lucky to escape Pasadena with a win ““ and a quarterback.
Midway through the second quarter, Prince rolled out of the pocket, and ran for at least 10 yards. Prince slid headfirst, bracing for the impact of a hit by Washington linebacker Donald Butler.
Butler slammed Prince with a jarring helmet-to-helmet collision, getting tagged with a penalty, but the damage was done. Prince was out cold plastered to the grass.
About four minutes later he was slowly walking off to the sideline.
Redshirt senior Kevin Craft played consistently enough in his place, going 10-of-14 with 159 yards to lead the Bruins in the second half. UCLA passed for more than 371 yards on the day to overcome a shaky running game in which four backs saw time.
The defense similarly bent but didn’t break allowing Washington running back Chris Polk to amass more than 132 yards, but they kept Jake Locker to a pedestrian 23-of-40 passing with 235 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
But the Bruins also showed signs of the team that had lost five straight prior to Saturday.
UCLA was able to overcome five turnovers in the victory. UCLA backs fumbled six times and both Prince and Craft were intercepted once. UCLA also had three killer late-hit penalties that came after the play was dead.
But the good news for UCLA is that Prince is expected to start next week against Washington State, now the only team that remains winless in the Pac-10.