COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : UCLA : J.J. Stokes Tells Team He’s Out

It was Monday, and J.J. Stokes felt it incumbent on him to call a team meeting and excuse UCLA’s coaches.

The purpose: talk about Nebraska, No. 1 in one poll, No. 2 in another and probably the toughest team the Bruins would play all season.

No. 1? “It’s hard to say who is No. 1, No. 2,” Stokes told them. “They’re not No. 1 with me. Don’t go in there with the mindset that they are with you.”

On Thursday, Stokes added a postscript: No. 1 or 2 or 106, it didn’t matter. UCLA would have to play Nebraska without him.

He’ll make the trip to Lincoln today, and Coach Terry Donahue talked about the occasional miracle happening, but Stokes made it clear.

“I’ll be a spectator,” he said.

He was hit on the thigh by a helmet on the season’s second play, got in two more quarters and hasn’t played since the Tennessee game. Each day he has held forth that he would be ready--until Thursday.

“I don’t have any mobility and I haven’t run in two weeks,” he said. “I wish I could be out there, but I can’t. I can’t move my leg, so it’s obvious I can’t play.”

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Another Bruin who will make the trip and not play is Skip Hicks, who had a long touchdown run called back against the Cornhuskers last season. He has been sidelined because of a springtime knee injury, but Donahue said Hicks will dress for Saturday’s game just to get him back into the flow of things.

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Freshman fullback Greg Ford is a walk-on no more. He has been given a scholarship. . . . The Bruins will fly to Omaha today and work out at Nebraska Omaha.