Bruins prepare for Alabama

  Daily Bruin File Photo Senior tailback DeShaun
Foster sprints past his Alabama opponents in a game last
season.

By Joshua Mason
Daily Bruin Staff

The UCLA football team’s season opener at Alabama will be
a challenge in more ways than one.

The greatest hurdle for the Bruins (ranked 17th in the preseason
Associated Press poll) comes from the uncertainty of what exactly
the No. 25 Crimson Tide will bring to the table Saturday. While
Bruin head coach Bob Toledo has announced his opening-week depth
chart with few tricks up his sleeve, a shadow of mystery looms over
everything to do with Alabama football.

SOURCE: Daily Bruin Staff Original graphic by JOAN ONG/Daily
Bruin Senior Staff Web adaptation by MIKE OUYANG/Daily Bruin Senior
Staff

Since training camp began, new Alabama head coach Dennis
Franchione, worried that too much information would leak its way to
Bruin headquarters, has implemented a closed-practice policy.

Franchione is holding off on releasing his depth chart until
Tuesday, and a decision on who will start at quarterback for the
Tide will likely not be made known to the Bruins until
gametime.

That poses a big challenge for new defensive coordinator Phil
Snow and a UCLA defensive unit that allowed a school-record 368
points last season. To prepare for Alabama, Snow anticipates an
option-based offense similar to the one Franchione used at TCU.

“People don’t know anything about the option out
West,” Snow said. “We need six guys assigned to defend
it, and if one guy messes up his assignment, the other team has a
chance to make a big play. We definitely can’t afford to make
the kinds of defensive mistakes we’ve made in the
past.”

While the quarterback battle in Tuscaloosa is between
pocket-passer Andrew Zow and his scrambling counterpart Tyler
Watts, the Bruins can almost certainly expect a combination of the
two.

How the Bruins play the option and defend against the pass may
be the most telling signs of how they’ll fare in
Saturday’s opener.

While left cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. and free safety Marques
Anderson are two of the most polished defensive backs in the
country, right cornerback Matt Ware is a true freshman new to the
college level and strong safety Jason Stephens has been
inconsistent thus far in his college career. Throw in newly
converted linebacker Matt Ball, a 6-foot-6 former defensive end
slated to cover Alabama’s tight ends, and the Bruin pass
defense is questionable at best.

“One thing we’ve been stressing at practices is
consistency,” Snow said. “We can stop a team all day,
but if we lose our focus, those three or four plays that
we’re not consistent can be the deciding factors of the
game.”

Perhaps the two most talented athletes for the Tide on offense
are senior flanker Freddie Millions, considered a preseason Heisman
favorite last year, and junior split end Antonio Carter, who led
Alabama last season with 45 receptions.

“We were effective stopping those two from the line of
scrimmage last year,” Manning said. “People just assume
that we have bad players on this team because of what happened over
the course of last season. I predict we’ll be surprising a
lot of people this Saturday.”

The Bruin offensive attack will likely divert very little from
the game plan used in last year’s 35-24 victory over the
then-third-ranked Tide at the Rose Bowl.

Despite the fact that Alabama possesses one of the most talented
front-sevens in the SEC, senior tailback DeShaun Foster will
nonetheless be expected to carry the bulk of the load for the
Bruins. Last season, Foster and a healthy Bruin line dominated the
line of scrimmage against a highly-touted Tide defense, finishing
the day with a UCLA-record 42 carries for 187 yards.

The game offers Foster, who was slowed last season by a broken
hand, a national stage to begin his case for the Heisman.

“DeShaun has come into the season stronger and faster than
he’s ever been,” UCLA offensive coordinator Kelly
Skipper said. “This will be his first step to regain the
respect on the field that he deserves.”

Bruin quarterback Cory Paus will look to senior split end Brian
Poli-Dixon, a 6-5 deep threat, as his primary target this season
rather than departed flanker Freddie Mitchell.

A refined UCLA passing game is likely to appear on Saturday, as
Toledo and Skipper aim to spread the ball all over the field. The
plan is to get as many involved in the offensive package as
possible, including more passes to the tight ends, particularly
soft-handed senior Bryan Fletcher.

“We haven’t involved our tight ends much in the
past,” Toledo said. “We feel that a guy like Fletcher
might really open things up on short downs this season.”

Starting flanker Tab Perry, redshirt freshman Craig Bragg and
redshirt sophomore Ryan Smith should all factor prominently into
the passing game as well.