Sweet Road Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. —  For perspective on this strange, sticky Southern night, we turn to that noted Alabama graduate, Forrest Gump.

“The UCLA football team is like a box of chocolates,” he said. “Sometimes sweet, but sometimes nutty enough to break your teeth.”

Or maybe we should check in with that noted Alabama coach, Bear Bryant, whose wrinkled scoreboard visage looked down on the Bruins Saturday as UCLA squeaked past Alabama by a hounds-tooth, 20-17.

“Grmblgrmblgrmblgrmbl,” he said.

(Translated: Them UCLA boys is pretty good. Mebbe.)

Two gallons of sweet tea and dropped passes having obviously fried our brains, let us now listen to UCLA Coach Bob Toledo, his hair dripping and shirt soaked even though it had not rained a drop since the start of the game.

“Wow,” Toledo said.

In terms of what happened in the season opener at Bryant-Denny Stadium here Saturday, that makes as much sense as anything.

Wow, as in, for the first time since Toledo arrived here six years ago, the Bruins won a football game in which they scored as few as 20 points.

Wow, as in, a bad Alabama team was still within one decent pass of moving into tying-field goal range when the clock expired.

“Yeah, I jumped a little bit,” said running back DeShaun Foster.

Wow, as in, these Bruins are apparently disciplined and focused enough to survive three deafening hours without a penalty or turnover.

Wow, as in, it almost didn’t matter.

“At the end there I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?” said linebacker Ryan Nece.

There is no joking, however, about the fact that UCLA has started what some think could be a national-championship type season by beating a team that has won 12 of those suckers.

From their locker room underneath the aging concrete stadium late Saturday afternoon, the Bruins surely heard the crowd of 83,818 roar at the pregame music of Lynyrd Skynyrd singing you-know-what. Then they walked out and became the first team to win a season opener at Sweet Home Tuscaloosa in 108 years.

Strange or not, it’s a start.

“It’s huge for us,” said Ed Ieremia-Stansbury, the fullback who was huge for the Bruins. “We had to come in here and establish our season by winning on the road, and now we’ve done that.”

Even if, when the final Tyler Watts pass was knocked to the ground by Marques Anderson deep in UCLA territory, Anderson was too exhausted to celebrate. As the stadium fell into mostly silence, Anderson dropped his hands to his knees and stood panting on the wet field.

It was the perfect symbol for not only a victory earned, but a bullet dodged.

“There’s been a lot of frustration built up in this team over the years,” said Nece, who started his senior season with one of the best games of his career. “We’re trying to solve a lot things right now.”

Some might say that the defense, under new coordinator Phil Snow, took a big step toward being solved. After all, when is the last time you can remember the Bruins stopping anybody on four downs inside their 10-yard line? When is the last time a Bruin lineman--Rodney Leisle--caused and recovered a fumble that led to an eventual game-winning field goal?

“Hey, our defense held,” said Foster, unable to hide a smile that some might interpret as amazement. “They stepped up and got the job done.”

Problem is, every Bruin fan remembers the last time their defensive backs made silly mistakes and the defense was burned for 458 total yards.

Yes, the Tide scored on two broken plays. But both times, the Bruin defenders took the sort of chances that doomed Toledo’s last two defensive coordinators.

So they will work on that. And they will work on the other side of the ball, where Brian Poli-Dixon was having difficulty catching the ball, and Cory Paus was struggling to throw it.

Toledo said that he ordered a conservative game plan. But in years past, that meant they would only score 40 instead of 50. Here’s guessing that the offense will grow only as Paus grows, and as receiver Tab Perry grows with him.

No rush. They have four whole weeks until Oregon State. “I told them [Friday] at the walk-through, this may be the most focused I’ve ever seen a team,” Toledo said.

Such was the main message delivered Saturday. The Bruins tunneled their way through three hours of high humidity and oppressive tradition and emerged intact. As signs go, it is battered, but clear.

Take it from punter Nate Fikse, perhaps the game’s most valuable player, with three belts inside the Alabama 20-yard line, including a final 46-yard blast that pinned the Tide for good.

Early in the fourth quarter, he was trying to punt from the end zone when two beers landed at his feet. It was the first time in his three seasons he has been pelted. He responded by kicking the ball to midfield.

“When the beers first hit, I thought, ‘Oh no,”’ he said. “Then I said, ‘Oh well.”’

Those words were repeated throughout Saturday night by his veteran teammates, who will embrace this win like it was a beauty. Come November, it might just be.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.