Saturday will most certainly be UCLA’s last game at the Rose Bowl this season, because, of course, they are out of the running to play in Pasadena come Jan. 1. Those dreams for the 2009 season went out the window in early October.
Three weeks ago, after losing a fifth straight game, all bowl games seemed out of the question as well.
But thanks to a recent two-game winning-streak and an offensive resurgence, the Bruins find themselves at 5-5, needing just one more win with two games to play to become bowl eligible.
Considering coach Rick Neuheisel made it a goal to play in the postseason, a lot still hangs in the balance for UCLA this weekend.
“I think for both programs this game is meaningful for a bowl,” Neuheisel said. “To have any shot, (beating Arizona State is) what we have to do. They are in the same predicament.”
The Sun Devils enter the game having hit hard times under third-year coach Dennis Erickson. Arizona State sits at 4-6 overall and 2-5 in the conference ““ its only Pac-10 wins are over the Washington schools, just like UCLA.
Both teams sit in the bottom half of an unusually strong Pac-10, and while a number of scenarios could play out, it seems most likely that only the top six teams will be invited to the postseason. UCLA, Arizona State and Washington all currently sit in a tie for 7th place.
“They need a win just like we need a win,” senior cornerback Alterraun Verner said.
The situation was much the same a year ago when the Bruins needed a win against the Sun Devils in their second-to-last game to remain in the hunt for a bowl game.
To put it bluntly, UCLA failed to get it done.
Arizona State set a school record scoring four defensive touchdowns to keep their own bowl hopes alive, in a lopsided 34-9 win over the Bruins in Tempe.
“It’s a hard film to watch,” Neuheisel said.
This time around, the Bruins have the Sun Devils at home and they are coming off a 43-7 drubbing of Washington State. ASU’s quarterback situation also remains up in the air with two struggling reserves fighting for playing time.
But redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Prince gave a terse “no” when asked if this team is overconfident.
“We’re staying grounded,” Prince said. “We have no room to be overconfident. We are .500 as a team. That is not time to get overconfident or cocky.”
Prince said that he and the other underclassmen will play especially hard on Saturday for their seniors who will suit up at the Rose Bowl for the last time on Saturday.
Both Verner and redshirt senior tight end Logan Paulsen said they came to UCLA with the intention of leaving the program in a better place than they found it. With a coaching change in the middle of their tenure here, the task has been difficult.
But with that goal in mind, getting the Bruins back to the postseason and leaving on a high note becomes all the more important to the soon-to-be graduates.
“It means everything,” Verner said. “Once a Bruin, always a Bruin.”
Paulsen was slightly more long-winded, but his message was the same.
“The reason I came here from a football perspective was to take UCLA back to what they were, which was a dominant team every year,” Paulsen said. “What Saturday signifies, is if we win and win against ‘SC and the rest of games, we’ve started an upturn, and I can say that I achieved my goal of making UCLA a better team than when I came in. That’s what Saturday really means for me.”