The UCLA football team trailed 20-16 with just 2:31 remaining when its offense took the field for a final drive against Stanford Saturday at the Rose Bowl. The 64,883 fans in attendance screamed and roared, desperate to see the Bruins win their homecoming game.
But for the Bruins, it all felt like a practice.
UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel ends most practices with a two-minute drill, and it showed. The Bruin offense raced against the clock, with just one timeout remaining but never lost its composure.
UCLA receivers muscled their way out of bounds to save time, and no lineman was penalized for holding or offsides. Quarterback Kevin Craft slid around the Stanford blitz.
With just 16 seconds remaining, Craft scrambled. Stanford linebacker Pat Maynor started to move towards him, when Craft quickly flipped a pass over Maynor’s arms to tight end Cory Harkey, who stood alone in the corner of the end zone. That 7-yard touchdown capped a flawless, 11-play drive and sealed a 23-20 win for UCLA (3-4, 2-2 Pac-10) over Stanford (4-4, 3-2 Pac-10).
“We practice this scenario every single day,” running back Kahlil Bell said. “You’re not thinking, you’re not worrying. You just go out there and play. I think that’s what happened with Kevin.”
Craft completed 7 of 8 passes on the final drive, including a 16-yard post to freshman Nelson Rosario to convert a crucial third down.
“As a quarterback, that’s what you’ve got to do,” Craft said. “That’s where you’re colors come out.”
Craft almost lost his chance to show those true colors.
Neuheisel nearly benched Craft after a costly fumble in the second quarter. Craft had struggled to manage the Stanford pressure ““ the Cardinal recorded seven sacks in the game ““ and that fumble was almost the last straw. Backup quarterback Chris Forcier warmed up on the Bruin sideline as Stanford converted that fumble into a 14-3 lead.
But, after speaking with offensive coordinator Norm Chow, Neuheisel decided to keep Craft in the game to lead the Bruins’ final possession of the first half.
“It was a little irrational on my part,” Neuheisel said afterward. “But Craft responded. His resiliency is one of the reasons we’re standing here with a victory.”
UCLA scored a second field goal on a two-minute drive at the end of the half. That offense is more basic, players said, because it includes only 10 or 12 plays which the Bruins practice almost every day. The team runs it at a quick, methodical pace and sometimes uses the no-huddle strategy. The Bruins executed a similar drive in their season-opening win against Tennessee.
“Everybody’s just like, “˜two minute drive, this is what we practice for all week,'” tackle Jeff Baca said. “We’re pretty comfortable in it; we do it every day in practice, so when it comes to game day, everybody knows their assignments. Kevin Craft does an amazing job.”
Craft’s play was especially important for the Bruins because of the Stanford defensive strategy, which targeted the Bruin running game. Bell finished with just 28 yards on 11 carries.
“People have determined that they’re not going to let us run,” Chow said.
But the Bruins kept fighting, and the game started to swing their way near the start of the third quarter, when Stanford’s Doug Baldwin fumbled a punt after a crushing hit from UCLA’s Glenn Love.
“Right when he caught it, I was there,” Love said. “I was lucky. I just tackled and squeezed, and the ball came out. Everybody was pumped after that, and the offense scored, and it just kept rolling.”
UCLA pulled within one point after that fumble when Craft shoveled the ball to Terrence Austin in the end zone.
And then the Bruin defense started to step up, too.
The Cardinal did not score in the third quarter as UCLA climbed to within one.
Like last week at Oregon, the Bruins struggled to defend the run. Toby Gerhart, the Cardinal’s big, bruising tailback, finished with 138 yards and averaged five yards per carry.
“Gerhart is the strongest back we’ve played all year,” UCLA linebacker Reggie Carter said. “With him you really have to get a body on a body, not just your arms.”
Stanford used two quarterbacks ““ Tavita Pritchard and Alex Loukas. UCLA struggled to contain Loukas, who ran for 51 yards.
But this time, the Bruin defense would bend but not break.
The Bruins were able to hold the Cardinal to a field goal at the tail-end of the fourth quarter, when a touchdown would have sealed the game.
That Stanford drive halted on a third-and-7 play when Gerhart gained only six yards. All 11 Bruin defenders piled on top of the 232-pound Gerhart.
Carter knew UCLA would win after that stop.
“I saw there were two minutes left and I said, “˜they’ll get it done,” Carter said. “I sat on the bench and just enjoyed it.”
Carter was right. Craft marched the Bruins down the field, just like all those days in practice.