After ending last season on a low note with a loss to Wyoming in
the Las Vegas Bowl, the UCLA football team begins its quest for
redemption when the Bruins travel to San Diego State to face the
Aztecs on Saturday.
Having cleared up the muddled quarterback picture by naming
senior Drew Olson as the starter for this Saturday’s game,
the picture is beginning to come into focus for UCLA coach Karl
Dorrell and the Bruins as the San Diego State game approaches.
“Drew had the best camp he’s ever had,”
Dorrell said. “He understood that someone else was on the
field, pushing him every step of the way.
“Now it’s time we focus on another
opponent.”
If history is any indication, the outlook is good for UCLA in
its season opener. The Bruins are 19-0-1 all-time against San Diego
State, including a 33-10 thrashing of the Aztecs at the Rose Bowl
last year.
This year, however, the Bruins will be faced with much different
matchup challenges.
The Aztecs’ 2003 freshman All-American tailback Lynell
Hamilton is back after missing all of last season with a broken
leg. Hamilton carried the ball 234 times for 1,087 yards as a
freshman and is confident that he can repeat, if not improve upon,
the success that he had in his freshman year.
“Everything’s good,” Hamilton told the San
Diego Union-Tribune. “I think I’m better mentally now.
I know the offense better than I did then.”
At quarterback, the Aztecs are starting Kevin O’Connell,
whom the Bruins got a brief look at last season when he came in as
a backup late in the game. O’Connell, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound
sophomore, gives the Aztecs a strong arm and a surprising amount of
mobility for such a tall quarterback.
On the defensive side of the football, the Aztecs have a mix of
new and familiar faces. The defensive line is anchored by junior
tackle Jonathan Bailes, a returning two-year starter. The
linebacking unit is totally revamped as the Aztecs lost Matt McCoy,
Heath Farwell, Stephen Larsen and two-time Mountain West Player of
the Year Kirk Morrison from last season.
As a result, the youthful and relatively inexperienced Aztecs
are predicted to finish eighth in the Mountain West Conference,
though San Diego State coach Tom Craft is expecting more from his
team than where preseason polls have placed them.
“No. 1 among my golden rules is that you have to keep your
focus on the journey, and No. 2 is win the next game,” Craft
told the North County Times. “If you can do those things,
eventually you’d like to be in a bowl game, eventually
you’d like to win the conference and eventually you’d
like to win the bowl game.”
Saturday will mark the first time the Bruins have played the
Aztecs on the road since the 2002 season with the Aztecs making the
trip to the Rose Bowl each of the last two years.