Last Week? Bruins Think of Last Year

All is not lost for the UCLA football team, even after last week’s 38-point loss to Arizona that dropped the Bruins from No. 7 to No. 14 in the Associated Press poll and tarnished a previously undefeated season.

A victory over Arizona State today would not only keep the Bruins (8-1 and 5-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference) in the hunt for a share of the conference title, it would also move UCLA into position for a higher-profile bowl bid heading into its showdown game with top-ranked USC on Dec. 3.

“We had such a great run before,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said. “We just want to get ourselves back into doing the positive things that we’ve done for most of the season. ... When you lose, you want to get back into winning again.”

For quarterback Drew Olson, who is among 15 seniors playing his final game at the Rose Bowl today, facing the Sun Devils (5-4, 3-3) is personal.

A year ago, Olson passed for what was a career-best 325 yards and two touchdowns against the Sun Devils. But four of Olson’s passes were intercepted in a 48-42 loss.

His errors helped Arizona State score 17 unanswered points over the final 7 minutes 12 seconds.

“Four mistakes in that game, which obviously did not help the team,” Olson said. “We lost when we could have had a comeback win.

Added fullback Michael Pitre: “We got into an offensive battle with them last year. If we could have killed that clock it would have been a little different.”

The Bruins’ defense had a rough time against the Sun Devils’ Andrew Walter, who passed for 415 yards and six touchdowns.

And even though Olson had a productive game and UCLA had 535 yards in offense, including 210 on the ground, the Bruins fell apart after taking an 11-point lead with less than eight minutes remaining.

UCLA gave up two sacks and Olson had a costly interception down the stretch that helped the Sun Devils rally.

“It hurts being up like that and to lose,” said sophomore guard Shannon Tevaga, who made his first career start last year against Arizona State. “Everybody remembers that and we’re looking for redemption.”

No Bruin wants payback more than Olson, whose numbers rank among the best quarterbacks in school history.

He’s second on the Bruins’ all-time list with 618 completions, 7,773 passing yards, 7,521 yards of total offense and 58 touchdown passes.

This season, Olson has 25 touchdown passes with only three interceptions -- one of the best seasons ever for a Bruin quarterback -- but he knows that unless UCLA bounces back, he may be remembered more for what he didn’t accomplish.

“I’m real excited about playing my last home game, especially one of this magnitude,” Olson said. “I want to leave the Rose Bowl in good fashion against a good team.”

Arizona State’s defense is led by junior safety Zach Cantanese, who is fifth in the conference with 78 tackles, and senior tackle DeWayne Hollyfield, the team leader with 5.5 sacks.

But when it comes to overall defense, Arizona State has had problems.

The Sun Devils give up an average of 450.7 yards per game -- second-worst in the Pac-10 -- and, like UCLA, their biggest weakness is stopping the run. In last week’s 27-24 victory over Washington State, the Sun Devils -- 95th in the nation against the rush, giving up 187.2 yards a game -- gave up 240 yards to Cougar running back Jerome Harrison.

So look for UCLA to give Arizona State a heavy dose of running back Maurice Drew.

“We have to go out and do our thing,” said UCLA coordinator Tom Cable, whose offense has failed to rush for more than 100 yards in both of the last two games.

“We could have run the ball a lot more [last week], but when you get behind, it’s hard to do that. We didn’t play well anywhere, especially when it came to execution in keeping our offense on the field.”

The Bruins are determined to fix their problems against the Sun Devils.

“Guys are fired up to play this week; I haven’t seen them this geared up all season,” Olson said.

“I like how we’ve responded and I like our attitude for ASU.”