LOS ANGELES (AP) -Rick Neuheisel’s Bruins have been lousy travelers so far.
Heading into his eighth game as coach, UCLA is still winless outside the Rose Bowl. The Bruins (3-4, 2-2 Pac-10) head for Berkeley and a date with the California Bears (4-2, 2-1) this weekend.
The Bruins did show some road progress in a tough 31-24 loss to Oregon at Eugene two games ago, although it would have been difficult for them not to improve on their first away game, a 59-0 humbling at BYU that was UCLA’s worst defeat in 79 years.
Coming off a 23-20 win over Stanford at the Rose Bowl last weekend, UCLA plays three of its last five games on the road.
“There were some positives from the Oregon game despite the loss,” he said Monday. “I thought the second half, especially, we played the kind of way you want to play when you go on the road.
e best chance possible.”
He smiled and added, “As Bill Walsh said, `When you want to win on the road, you just take the better team.’ The key for us is to be as good as we can be and see if we can find a way to be one point better than Cal.”
The Bruins nipped Stanford when Kevin Craft threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Cory Harkey with 10 seconds remaining to cap an 87-yard drive that began after the Cardinal kicked a field goal to go up 20-16 with 2:31 left.
While the comeback victory was a morale booster, Neuheisel doesn’t believe it will provide any lingering momentum against the Bears, who blew a 24-14 halftime lead in a 42-27 loss at Arizona.
“I’d love to tell you that the come-from-behind thing would just carry over and we’d keep playing at that pitch, and that Cal would just play as they did in the second half against Arizona,” Neuheisel said. “But this is a new week.
“We were coming off a loss the week before at Oregon and Stanford was coming off a come-from-behind win against Arizona. Every week is a new emotional game. Cal can tell their team, `Hey, we’re still right in it.’ They’re 2-1 and the leader in the conference is 3-1, so there are a lot of teams still involved here.”
UCLA’s Alterraun Verner said the Bruins still have a lot to play for down the stretch of the season.
can still compete in this Pac-10 race,” the junior cornerback said.
“Anything can happen. We lost to Arizona, Arizona lost to Stanford and we beat Stanford. That’s a great example of you never know what can happen. We definitely have a lot to play for, even if our record says otherwise.”
Add A Comment