PASADENA “”mdash; A horde of reporters congregated at the south end of the UCLA locker room and pretended to busy themselves while Richard Brehaut hastily pulled on his clothes.
The moment the sophomore’s shirt snapped to his chest, the reporters engulfed the quarterback.
Brehaut was out of breath.
“I feel ecstatic,” he said, panting.
Asked why he sounded so exhausted, he explained that it was because of how quickly he tried to get ready for the ravenous reporters.
But there was clearly still a little bit of adrenaline running through the sophomore minutes after his biggest win.
“(This is) the most fun game I’ve ever been a part of, without a doubt,” Brehaut said. “It was such a close game all game, and then, to win it at the last second, there’s nothing better in the world.”
In his fourth game as a starter, the quarterback’s legs were most instrumental in UCLA’s 17-14 win over Oregon State.
On Saturday night, Brehaut, who had been pegged as a less talented runner than the quarterback he replaced, ran the ball 18 times for 61 yards and a touchdown.
UCLA didn’t pass much until the fourth quarter, but it seemed that whenever a play broke down, Brehaut was ready to bail out the offense with his feet. On the Bruin’s opening scoring drive, UCLA faced a 3rd-and-three, and when the pocket broke down, the quarterback scrambled for 27 yards. He’d finish the drive with 45 yards rushing and a well-executed fake that allowed him to saunter into the end zone untouched.
The rest of the night continued the same way. When the protection failed, Brehaut found a way to turn losses into 5-yard gains and buy time with his feet to complete passes on broken plays. In one instance, he hit junior Taylor Embree behind the safeties for a 43-yard gain, and on the Bruins’ second touchdown drive, he dodged two would-be tacklers and shoveled the ball to junior Cory Harkey, who picked up 12 yards on 3rd-and-11.
“He made an unbelievable number of plays with his legs,” coach Rick Neuheisel said. “He really was the difference with regard to keeping drives alive with his legs.”
And keeping drives alive was what ultimately gave the Bruins a win on Saturday. The defense credited the offense with keeping them rested, and Oregon State coach Mike Riley bemoaned how well UCLA controlled the football.
UCLA won the time-of-possession battle by just more than 10 minutes, and UCLA’s second-half touchdown drive drained a whopping nine minutes, 28 seconds.
Coaches gave credit to Brehaut’s ability to manage the game. And the only Bruin to outrush the quarterback was redshirt sophomore Johnathan Franklin.
“He’s growing up,” Franklin said with a smile.
Big hits from freshmen
Dietrich Riley is a second-string safety ““ a true freshman.
But he caught the attention of an upper-class running back: Oregon State’s star, Jacquizz Rodgers.
UCLA defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough noticed, too.
“Did you see Riley’s hit?” Bullough asked and then proceeded to chuckle.
Riley plastered Rodgers as the running back was heading for the sidelines midway through the second quarter. The hit ignited the crowd and forced the Beavers to call a time out-on 3rd-and-four.
Bullough used the time-out to dial up a blitz for middle linebacker Jordan Zumwalt, who was making his first start of his career.
After an initial hesitation, Riley’s true freshman teammate bull-rushed the gap and dragged Oregon State quarterback Ryan Katz down by the jersey for a loss of 13.
And this all was only a week after the defense was admonished for poor tackling.
“We just had attitude,” Riley said. “We were hitting them hard out there. You could just tell how Jacquizz wasn’t into it. He was getting up pretty slow.”