Senior offensive tackle Shannon Tevaga sat defeated and alone on the Bruin bench.
The cheers and jeers of thousands of Trojan fans rained down upon him as the rest of his team headed for the locker room. The 24-7 loss had been decided long ago, but Tevaga didn’t move.
A few minutes later, coach Karl Dorrell stood in a crowded tent, forced to answer the same questions about underachievement that he has heard all season.
Only this may have been the last time he faced such questions.
When the Bruins lost to crosstown rival USC on Saturday, they dropped to 6-6 overall and 5-4 in conference, and ended a disappointing regular season that may have cost Dorrell his job.
After the 17-point pasting in which the Bruins generated only 168 yards of total offense, the stoic coach refused to answer questions about his future.
“My thoughts are really on this team and what happened in this game,” Dorrell said. “I really have no comment about that.”
As for the overall disappointment of a season that began with Rose Bowl aspirations and ended with another December bowl game, Dorrell didn’t want to discuss that either.
“I don’t want to comment about what’s happened over the past 12 weeks,” he said. “It’s football. It happens and you have to overcome circumstances. And that’s what we tried to do.”
Early in the season, UCLA was ranked as high as No. 11 in the polls, but injuries and inexplicable losses to Utah and Notre Dame sent the season in a downward spiral.
And so a season that began with talk of a conference title will end with a trip to the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 22, where the Bruins will face BYU for the second time this season.
“It is what it is,” senior defensive end Bruce Davis said. “You know what I’m saying? If I could change anything, I wouldn’t. This is how it’s supposed to be. Obviously it was meant to be. We’re sitting here, talking about it now. So it is what it is.”
On Saturday, early turnovers and offensive ineptitude doomed the Bruins, forcing the defense to spend almost 38 minutes on the field.
By the end of the day, the defense had faced 85 plays and had given up an average of over five yards per play.
“Defensively we shot ourselves in the foot today,” Davis said. “We missed some tackles and you can’t do that. Especially against this football team, you cannot do that. We had some turnovers that turned out to be pretty costly.
“It’s been an honor to play against them for the last four years but I just think we gave this one away.”
To start the game, the UCLA defense forced a three and out but Terrence Austin fumbled the ensuing punt, giving the ball straight back to the Trojans.
“We didn’t take advantage of the opportunities like we needed to,” Dorrell said. “To play against a good team like USC, you can’t afford mistakes.”
The one highlight for the UCLA offense was the 5-play, 65-yard touchdown drive to end the first half.
Quarterback Pat Cowan, who had not played since the loss to Arizona, hit Dominique Johnson in the corner of the endzone, who made a spectacular one-handed leaping catch to cut the lead to 17-7 at the break.
But that was the only true offensive threat the Bruins could muster. Excluding that drive, the Bruins had 49 offensive plays for 103 total yards and did not convert a single third down.
“The drive at the end of the first half gave us a boost,” Cowan said. “We came out, had a few mental mistakes here and there but USC’s a great football team.”
As for the stretch of six consecutive three-and-outs that went for almost the entire first half, Cowan had no explanation.
“It’s just football. I don’t know,” Cowan said. “It’s just how things work sometimes. We were able to put a good drive together and work our two-minute offense well, but you know, it just happens.”
Cowan, who completed 13 of 24 passes for 156 yards, injured his left knee halfway through the fourth quarter and was replaced by Ben Olson. But the injury couldn’t take too much away from Cowan’s experience of hitting the field with 25 seniors for their final conference game.
“It was fun to be out there with my teammates,” Cowan said. “It’s tough seeing some of the seniors go. That’s what it’s all about ““ being out there with your friends. Working hard with them all offseason, playing these games, and unfortunately we weren’t able to win tonight. But this experience I won’t forget.”
For cornerback Trey Brown, whose father was a star running back for UCLA, the disheartening loss resonates deeply, as his Bruin roots run as deep as anyone’s.
“It’s just frustrating losing to those guys,” Brown said. “How our Bruin fans feel about it, that’s the most frustrating thing. Just to let your fans down and the people that are supporting UCLA football ““ former players, alumni, all that. That’s what’s more frustrating than anything.”
Despite all of the frustration that comes with four turnovers, 86 yards of penalties, and their fourth loss in five games, UCLA players refused to blame their coach. The decision of whether to retain Dorrell will likely be made over the next few days, and Davis at least wants Dorrell to stay.
“(Dorrell) didn’t go out there and miss tackles,” Davis said. “He didn’t go out there and turn the football over. Hopefully it works out for him. He’s done a lot for me personally and as a football player. I don’t want to see him go.”