It’s Better to Receive for Cal : UCLA: To end slide, Bruins must find a way to stop Bears’ record-setting Dawkins today.

BERKELEY —  Cal wide receiver Sean Dawkins sprinted back to the Golden Bears’ huddle after beating a defender for a reception during a recent game.

“I’m unstoppable,” Dawkins told Bear quarterback Dave Barr.

Not many teams have been able to stop Dawkins, the leading receiver in the Pacific 10 with 42 catches for 710 yards and nine touchdowns. Cal’s most explosive receiver since Wesley Walker, Dawkins, a junior, has already broken Walker’s school record of 22 touchdown receptions. Dawkins has 26.

UCLA will need to stop Dawkins when the Bruins play the Bears today at Memorial Stadium. Although Dawkins suffered a sprained left ankle during last week’s 24-17 loss to No. 17 Arizona, he says he probably will play.

“He is truly one of the most impressive players in the conference,” UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said of Dawkins. “He’s a fabulous, fabulous talent. We’ve had a history of great players in this conference and he ranks up there with the very best. . . . It really doesn’t matter much whether you double-cover him or try to cover him man to man.”

Dawkins, at 6 feet 4 and 205 pounds, idolizes all-pro wide receiver Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers.

And Dawkins has impressed Rice.

“I’ve been watching him for two years now,” Rice said. “I’ve been watching him improve every year and I’m impressed.”

A one-dimensional player in his first two seasons, Dawkins specialized in running streak pass routes designed to take advantage of tight man-to-man coverage.

But Dawkins has become more versatile this season, running routes over the middle, where things get dangerous.

“People just saw me as a streak pattern runner and a lot of people questioned what I could do,” Dawkins said. “But I wanted to get rid of that and be able to score on other patterns. I wanted to be able to get 10 yards on third down to keep a drive alive.”

Working with wide receiver Webster Slaughter, now of the Houston Oilers, last summer, Dawkins perfected shorter pass routes.

“He showed me a couple moves that I’ve used this season,” Dawkins said. “He showed me how to (maneuver around defensive backs) and how to stay low.”

Rated among the best wide receivers in college football by some NFL scouts, Dawkins says he hasn’t decided whether he will renounce his final season of college eligibility for the 1993 NFL draft.

“It’s been on my mind, but everybody’s been telling me that I shouldn’t decide until after the season,” Dawkins said. “Right now, the safer choice is for me to say that I’m going to stay my senior year. I still think I have some things to work on and I’d like to graduate.”

Dawkins’ mother, Sharon Ray, wants him to stay in school.

“The whole point in him going to Cal was to get the degree,” she said. “I’d like to see him get the degree. We’ve talked about (the NFL), and I don’t think you can make a decision like that until after the season, when you have all the information. But I’m leaning toward the degree, because that’s the backup.”

UCLA, 3-4 overall and 0-4 in the Pac-10, and Cal, 3-4 and 1-3, were expected to be among the elite teams in the Pac-10 this season, but the Bruins and Bears have been devastated by injuries and are out of the conference race.

UCLA quarterback John Barnes, a transfer from UC Santa Barbara, will start for the second time in the last three weeks because of injuries to quarterbacks Wayne Cook, Rob Walker and Ryan Fien. Scott Fitterer, a freshman from Kennedy High in Seattle, is the Bruins’ only other available quarterback. He has not played this season.

Since winning their first three games, the Bruins have lost 11 starters and four consecutive Pac-10 games, their worst conference start since 1943. And Arizona State defeated the Bruins last week, 20-0, ending UCLA’s NCAA-record 245-game scoring streak, which dated to the third game of the 1971 season.

Cal, which won three of its first four games, has lost three in a row since tailback Russell White suffered a pulled groin muscle. Slowed by the injury during Cal’s 35-16 loss to Washington three weeks ago, White sat out the Bears’ 27-24 loss to USC two weeks ago and gained only 14 yards in 11 carries last week against Arizona.

Bruin Notes

Injured UCLA quarterbacks Rob Walker and Ryan Fien didn’t make the trip. Tailback Kevin Williams, nose guard Sale Isaia and linebackers Jamir Miller and Brian Tighe also stayed home because of injuries. Linebacker Shane Jasper, who has sat out the last three games because of a sprained knee, might play. . . . After averaging 231.3 yards rushing in their first three games, the Bruins have averaged 37 in losing their last four.