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Bruin pass rush goes Barnes-storming

By Daily Bruin Staff

Oct. 27, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Monday, October 28, 1996

SKIP HICKS:

UCLA’s tailback recovers from Washington with four touchdowns at
CalBy Rob Kariakin

Daily Bruin Contributor

BERKELEY, Calif. — Despite what the banners and the electronic
billboards dotting Memorial Stadium may have claimed, the fourth
quarter of Saturday’s game was definitely not Cal’s. It was Skip
Hicks’.

For most of the season, California had lived up to their "The
Fourth Quarter Is Ours" advertising slogan, outscoring and shutting
down team after team in the final 15 minutes of games.

That is, until Skip came to town.

Hicks hit the Berkeley campus so hard that many of the 54,000 in
attendance must have thought the earthquake fault running beneath
the stadium had finally slipped.

They should be so lucky.

En route to a record setting day, Hicks ran by, over, and in at
least one case, through everyone and everything in his path.

His 259 total yards accounted for more than half of the offense
for the entire team, which finished with a far-from-slacking 479
yards.

Not surprisingly, Hicks had success on the ground. He bounced
back from last weekend’s disastrous performance against Washington
(seven carries for eight yards, one fumble), racking up 146 yards
on 28 attempts for a 5.2-yard average.

His sudden receiving prowess, however, was a bit of a shock.
With four catches for 113 yards, Hicks had more receiving yards in
this one game than in the other six combined.

Oh yeah, and he also scored four touchdowns.

The scoring deluge ties Hicks with Eric Ball and Freeman McNeil
as the only Bruins with two four-touch down performances in their
careers. Hicks is the only one of the three to do so twice in the
same season, with his other coming in the loss to Northeast
Louisiana.

During the third and fourth quarters, Hicks struck on runs from
the 34-, 8- and 1-yard lines, but it was a 63-yard touchdown catch
at the start of the fourth that truly capped off the game. On
second and 17 from the Bruin 37-yard line, quarterback Cade McNown
was flushed from the pocket by heavy pressure and forced to run
backwards. Throwing from about 15 yards back, he hit Hicks with a
short screen pass about seven yards behind the line of
scrimmage.

It was a walk in the park from there.

"When I turned around, all I saw was two defenders and my two
big linemen; I’ll take that any day," Hicks said. "They just did a
great job downfield, and I just went straight ahead … My goal was
just to outrun them and I did."

Not bad for a guy who wasn’t even guaranteed the starting job
for most of the week.

Following his poor performance against Washington, UCLA head
coach Bob Toledo had opened the door for the starting spot to
freshman tailbacks Durell Price and Keith Brown. The three battled
throughout the week in practice, with Toledo calling sudden
scrimmages to test how the three reacted to pressure
situations.

At week’s end, Hicks emerged the winner, just as Toledo had
planned.

"Skip Hicks is a big play guy; that’s why I haven’t given up on
him," Toledo said after the game. "He can make plays, and he made a
bunch of big plays tonight.

"I’m really happy for Skip. He’s going to continue to get better
each and every week."

If that happens, he may very well lay claim to the other three
quarters as well.

SUSIE CHU/Daily Bruin

Tailback Skip Hicks (42) eludes a defender on his way to 259
yards of total offense in UCLA’s 38-29 victory over Cal.

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