Inside the Pac: What could go wrong?
A look at this season’s UCLA football team
By: Richard Linde, 20 May 2002

In our estimation, the Pac-10 conference title is up for grabs in 2002, with UCLA, USC, WSU, and Washington being the frontrunners and Oregon and OSU being the sleepers. Over the next few weeks, we will take a look at each contender, examining its strengths and weaknesses.

In a league rife with parity, the UCLA Bruins seem to have all the ingredients necessary for a Pac-10 championship this upcoming season:

• A senior quarterback: Cory Paus (132.8 pass efficiency in 2001). In seven of the last eight years, a senior quarterback has led his team either to the Rose Bowl or to a conference championship.
  
  
• A successful head coach: Bob Toledo (6 years at UCLA, 42-27).
  
  
• A relatively easy road schedule in Pac-10: OSU and UW being the toughest.
  
  
• A strong, incoming freshman class, most likely some of them playing this season. Over the past five years, national recruiting services have consistently ranked the Bruins as tops in the Pac-10. This talent has got to come to the fore sometime. 
  
  
• A significant home-field advantage (15-5 at home; 9-11 road; last 5 years in Pac)
  
  
• Thirteen returning starters (6 offense, 5 defense, 2 specialists)
  
  
• They bond for a week (8/17-8/24) at Cal Lutheran University which is in Thousand Oaks, only five minutes or so away from Coach Bob Toledo’s home in West Lake Village.  After last season’s flop and surprises, Toledo needs to establish better rapport with his players. The week away from Westwood could help prevent recurrence of incidents like the DeShaun Foster SUV episode and the DUI charges that haunted quarterback Cory Paus last season. And then there’s the handicapped-parking sticker scandal, which surfaced in January of 1999.
  
  
• The “Blue” take a week off before playing WSU at home and rest a week before playing the Dawgs in Seattle.

So what could go wrong?

I asked former UCLA quarterback Tom Ramsey (PacWestfootbal.com) that question and here’s his reply:

“Lots COULD go wrong; it's Murphy's Law. Do I anticipate them having problems? No, nothing out of the ordinary, but last year for instance, they did NOT experience ordinary. (Cory) Paus' DWI mishap and Foster's suspension popped their balloon, not to mention, as soon as Paus went out of the game, they lost at Stanford.

“I think they are riding a very thin line - between being a competitive (top five) Pac-10 team, versus a mid-grade team. They lose guys on their D-line, their running back, their top safety and LB, (remember Thomas went as a 1st rounder), and they are short at WR. Mix that all together and I don't think Toledo is as relaxed as one might suggest. He has a new AD (Dan Guerrero) to work with, and let me be the first to say, there is NO easy road game in the Pac-10, none, period. Every game is important, and it's whoever can stay healthy, and have a little luck.

“Both men (Guerrero and Toledo) have some adjustment, along with the entire department. UCLA has operated for a long time without much interruption, and/or philosophical change. Guerrero may implement some new reporting measures, and be more strict on issues that affect student athlete participation.”

In this conference, as Ramsey said, staying healthy combined with luck are a critical mix for the top teams in the conference if they are to play in the 2003 Rose Bowl.

And he’s right; there are no easy road games in the Pac-10, especially for the Bruins, of whom their opponents would love to notch on their gun belts for 2002. Facing Pac-10 opponents, they’ve gone 9-11 on the road over the past five years.

For UCLA, staying healthy is essential, especially at quarterback, where there is no real backup behind Cory Paus, who has had a history of being injured. The Bruins will miss Ryan McCann who transferred to the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. After Paus there is only redshirt freshman John Sciarra, who, this spring, had trouble with his decision-making while being harassed and chased out of the pocket. Like his father, who quarterbacked at UCLA, Sciarra is mobile and athletic.  Behind Sciarra there are two true freshman, Drew Olson and Matt Moore. It is asking too much of either of them, though talented, to step in and effectively replace Paus, if he should become injured.

On offense, as Ramsey replied, there is a lack of depth at wide receiver. Things look better at running back, where the Bruins have Akil Harris, the punishing Manual White, Wendell Mathis, Jason Harrrison, and Kenny Pritchett. Tyler Ebell (pictured above) could be used at running back, but, at this time because of his size, he looks more like a slot back or special teams player. Given the luxury of too much real estate to roam about in, Ebell can take it to the house at the blink of an eye.

On offense, the Bruins need to improve on almost of their Pac-10 statistics from last season, where they finished at the bottom half of the league in eight of the eleven offensive categories listed in Table One.

 Table 1. UCLA's offensive statistics for 2001

On defense, things look much brighter for the Bruins, although DE Kenyon Coleman, DT Anthony Fletcher, WLB Ryan Nece and MLB Robert Thomas will be gone. Like last season, at times, the Bruin defense could be their tour de force during battle, especially on the defensive line, where UCLA will field Rod Leisle, Sean Phillips, Asi Faoa, Steve Morgan, Ryan Boschetti, Dave Ball, Matt Ball, David Tautofi, and Rusty Williams. They have good depth here.

However, questions remain at strong safety, cornerback, and linebacker. At linebacker, Marcus Reese will be asked to replace Robert Thomas, who went in the first round of this year's NFL draft. At cornerback, Joe Hunter is young and inexperienced, but Ricky Manning is a sure starter at the other corner, with Matt Ware at free safety. Ben Emanual, who was penciled in at strong safety, missed spring practice and Jibril Raymo and Kevin Brant need more playing time at that position. 

The Bruins posted the defensive marks associated with a conference champion last season (See Table 2). But they finished 7-4 overall and finished 4-4 in the conference, losing four out of their last five games after winning their first six games.  Since going to the Rose Bowl in 1998, UCLA has played in 34 games, winning 17 and losing 17. Seemingly, because of off-field and on-field problems, all their talent has gone to waste.

^{Notes and References:}

Comments from Tom Ramsey were taken from his football message board, which is a part of PacWestfootball.com.

The photo of Tyler Ebell was taken at the CaliFlorida football game in Santa Barbara, 2000.