Forgive us seniors if we’ve grown a little cynical during
the past four years.
Just one month into our first year on campus, football had
steamrolled its way to third in the nation, men’s basketball
was ranked in the top five in preseason polls, and the eight-clap
seemed hipper than vintage tee-shirts and trucker hats.
We had been optimistically swept up in the hype, taken for a
ride that seemed destined to end at the top.
“We were so young and had no experience losing,”
fourth-year communications studies Justin Jones said.
“(Deshaun) Foster could do no wrong and Cory Paus was a great
quarterback.”
But that first November rocked us like the worst hangover
imaginable. It woke us up after the most surreal party, leaving the
bitterest aftertaste in its place.
An undefeated season for football had just come crashing down on
a Saturday afternoon at Stanford and everything snowballed from
there. On-the-field losses soon gave way to off-the-field scandals,
and to say our bubble burst would be an understatement.
Less than a month after rushing for 301 yards and four
touchdowns against No. 10 Washington, the Heisman hopeful Foster
was suspended for violating the NCAA “extra-benefits
rule.” When the Los Angeles Times reported that the senior
tailback had been driving a Ford Expedition loaned to him by a UCLA
alum, the season was doomed and the program’s reputation was
damaged.
“It was like the illegal car he got had actually run me
over,” fourth-year communication studies student Sarah Pura
said. “The letdown was awful and I don’t think
I’ve ever recovered.”
The loss of Foster was thought to be the low point in a season
that just kept sinking to new depths. Two days before the big
rivalry game, reports surfaced that Paus had a DUI on his record.
The Bruins were then embarrassingly shut out by USC 27-0, before
closing their season out in front of a half-empty Rose Bowl in a
meaningless contest against Arizona State.
That unprecedented late-season collapse ushered in a new
sentiment among my once-optimistic class. Two years later, when the
Bruins jumped out to a 4-0 start in Pac-10 play, we weren’t
deceived into believing the possibility of a Rose Bowl berth.
Experience had taught us the price of high hopes and we
weren’t willing to pay twice.
“I was prepared for a letdown because I knew it was
coming,” Pura said. “I had no expectations of
maintaining a winning streak.”
In our first year, we developed a cynicism that the Bruins
validated as realism in the following years. Though it was spawned
by that 2001 football season, the pessimism was fueled by the other
marquee sports program on campus.
As nightmarish as November was for football, it proved to be an
equally sobering experience for men’s basketball.
UCLA’s 18-point loss to unheralded Ball State in the second
game of the season proved to be a prelude for what came next.
Rather than restore the optimism lost during football season, the
Bruins’ inconsistent play merely added to the
aggravation.
“It was kind of like our football and basketball teams
were disorganized,” fourth-year mathematics/applied science
student Yoni Sauerbrun said. “Running circles only to
whirlpool down the toilet.”
By the end of freshman year, our class had largely become cold
and calculated cynics. Our second and third years did little to
change that outlook. Upbeat conversations were rare, and usually
dwelled on either the Olympic sports or the past.
This senior class has gone through what is widely considered the
worst period in the athletic department’s history. In the
long run, it will make us appreciate a national championship in
football or basketball even more. But for now, it’s just made
us skeptical of the possibility of either.
E-mail Finley at afinley@media.ucla.edu if you still cringe
whenever you see a student-athlete driving an SUV.