Bruins Try Stock Line of One Game at Time

SEATTLE —  UCLA is like the little old lady who drives with her hands gripping the steering wheel and eyes locked on the pavement two feet in front of the hood ornament.

No telling what’s down the road. She can’t see it and doesn’t care.

The Bruins are taking the same approach, at least publicly.

The rivalry game against USC, the one they haven’t won since 1998, is only two games away. But please, do not mention Palmer and Polamalu yet.

The regular-season finale against Washington State, the current Pacific 10 Conference leader, also looms. Sorry, Gesser doesn’t register.

Then there is a bowl game, something new to many of the Bruins. Even the seniors have been to only one, the Sun Bowl two years ago. After defeating Washington, 34-24, Saturday, UCLA (6-3, 3-2) is bowl eligible.

How about a little excitement?

“A bowl game is too far down the schedule to even think about,” cornerback Ricky Manning said. “I only know we play Arizona next week.”

That would be last-place Arizona, a team that has lost five Pac-10 games in a row, including a 38-3 debacle to Oregon State on Saturday. It is a team that would be easy to overlook, except that these Bruins are talking about the Wildcats as if they were Fiesta Bowl opponents.

So it appears UCLA indeed has taken the hard lessons of last year’s late-season fade to heart.

The Bruins know a victory over Arizona would assure them of a winning record and a 5-1 mark on the road, remarkable for a team that plays 22 freshmen and starts six.

And they know a victory would enable them to enter an off week before the USC game with the sunny disposition a three-game winning streak stirs.

Wait. Perish even those fleeting thoughts.

“All the what-ifs and records and streaks are just distractions,” freshman linebacker Spencer Havner said. “The seniors learned from that and they’ve warned us. So I guess we’ll talk about Arizona.”

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UCLA’s record in November was 2-6 the last three years, including 0-3 last season. So the scheduling of open dates Nov. 16 and Nov. 30 this season is fortuitous.

Now the time off is a plus for another reason. A roster that remained nearly injury-free during the nonconference schedule is beat up.

Safety Jibril Raymo (safety) and cornerback Matt Clark (foot) sat out against Washington. Cornerback Matt Ware left the game because of a hamstring injury. And Manning, Jarrad Page, Ben Emanuel and Joe Hunter are playing with injuries.

In addition, defensive tackle Rodney Leisle, who has sat out the five Pac-10 games because of a foot injury, is walking normally and could return against USC.

Running back Manuel White has been out with a hamstring injury since the first quarter of the Pac-10 opener against Oregon State. He won’t take his job back, not after Tyler Ebell has rattled off five consecutive 100-yard rushing performances. But the 240-pound White’s blocking, receiving and short-yardage rushing skills have been missed.

And senior quarterback Cory Paus is recovering from surgery on his fibula and has aspirations of playing in a bowl game.

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UCLA’s nonconference schedule was rated among the most difficult. The opponents have lived up to the billing.

No. 24 Colorado State, which UCLA defeated in its opener, is 8-2 and 4-0 in the Mountain West Conference after defeating Air Force on Thursday.

Oklahoma State, which UCLA defeated on the road, upset Texas A&M; on Saturday to even its record at 4-4.

Colorado’s victory over the Bruins sparked a five-game winning streak that ended with a loss to Oklahoma on Saturday. The No. 18 Buffaloes are 6-3.

Even the San Diego State Aztecs, winless when UCLA beat them, 43-7, had won three Mountain West games in a row before losing to Brigham Young on Saturday and are 3-6.