It’s Calm Before the Hurricanes

UCLA senior safety Larry Atkins would love to play a football game this weekend.

As the leader of the Bruin defense, Atkins took it personally when his unit was criticized for giving up too many points early this season. That’s why he’s a little upset about the timing of UCLA’s open date because it comes after the team’s best consecutive defensive games of the season.

“We are on kind of a roll,” said Atkins, who leads UCLA with 74 tackles, 53 unassisted. “We had a pretty solid game up at Washington, and then the USC game we played well too. It would be good to play the next week while we’re rolling instead of having a break and then having to start over again.”

Because UCLA’s Sept. 26 game against Miami was postponed to Dec. 5, thanks to the threat of Hurricane Georges, the Bruins have had an unusual schedule this week.

They had three hard days of practice but will be off until Monday. With a 20-game win streak and the team playing its best football of the season, Coach Bob Toledo is hoping the break does more good than harm.

“The nice thing is that when you play a big game like we did with SC, we’ve never played a game right after; it’s always been a bowl game,” Toledo said. “This gives us a chance to kind of enjoy that victory. . . . I think it would have been real difficult if we had to play this Saturday. . . .

“I guess the only bad thing could be that you don’t stay in the rhythm of playing a game every week, but sometimes there is a trade-off in all that.”

The time off does give some players a chance to recover from minor injuries and illness. Tailback DeShaun Foster, cornerback Jason Bell and wide receiver Danny Farmer benefited from not having a game this week.

Foster missed two practices because of strep throat, Bell did not practice at all because of an ankle injury and Farmer sat out to rest his beat-up body.

“I would have been able to play, but I wouldn’t have had much contact this week,” said Foster, who tied a school record with four touchdowns in the Bruins’ win over USC on Saturday. “Now, I get a chance to recover and be [ready to practice on Monday].”

Instead of preparing his team exclusively for Miami a week early, Toledo emphasized more on getting the Bruins back to basics. UCLA practiced its first-team units against each other more than usual and its scout team players also got more practice time.

In some ways, UCLA already has begun to practice as if it is getting ready for a postseason game.

“Every day, we’ll have a little period where we will emphasize just the young guys,” Toledo said. “When you get into bowl games, you get 15 days of practice--maximum.

“When you get those days, it is almost like getting another spring practice. It gets you a little better. It gets those young guys more opportunities. It is a real advantage.”

When UCLA does finally take the field against Miami, the Bruins may feel like the Hurricanes are a bowl opponent. UCLA will have spent a week getting ready for Miami in September and two weeks after the USC game before facing the Hurricanes.

With Miami playing Syracuse to decide the Big East Conference title this weekend, UCLA will have the Hurricanes well scouted.

For the UCLA coaching staff, the extra time to get ready for Miami may be a blessing.

“The thing that jumps out to me from preparing for them early in the year until now is that I’ve seen great progress; they’ve got a lot better,” Toledo said about the Hurricanes. “I wish we would have played them then.”

UCLA quarterback Cade McNown, who will spend the holiday weekend with family in Northern California, said he’ll watch Miami on television this weekend but he will not start analyzing what the Hurricanes do defensively until next week.

“I’ll get a chance to watch them to see who people are talking about on their team,” McNown said. “I’m not rooting for one thing or another. I just want to see how they react. All I see normally is game film with no sound. It is going to be good to watch them first. But it’s going to be strange on Friday night without something to do.”