2001 seniors fail to parlay talent into national title

Senior free safety Marques Anderson moves to
tackle Cal’s Marcus Fields. Senior free safety Marques Anderson
moves to tackle Cal’s Marcus Fields.

By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]

This was their year.

The 2001 senior class was the first one recruited entirely by
head coach Bob Toledo, a mix of the top-20 1997 class and the No. 1
1998 class. So what happened?

“Rating a whole class is much more difficult than a
player,” football operations director Randy Taylor said.
“It could be that third offensive lineman that makes the
difference.”

Just ask Michigan, whose 1998 class split the 1 and 2 spots with
UCLA but finished this season at No. 20.

Still, frustrated fans want to know why a program that
consistently recruits top-10 classes has not finished in the top 10
since 1998.

“If those ratings actually predicted success, Texas should
have won a couple national championships by now,” Taylor
said. “And that’s not to take anything away from Texas.
Not everyone stays, or turns out like you think.”

Indeed, from the 1998 class, defensive end Lovell Houston
transferred after an injury, and offensive lineman Blake Worley
quit after sustaining several concussions. And of course, half the
class is still at UCLA, with players like Mike Saffer, Rusty
Williams and Cory Paus awaiting their opportunity to prove
themselves as seniors.

From the 1997 class, several were already gone before the 2001
season, as well. Wide receiver Freddie Mitchell departed early for
the NFL while highly touted defensive lineman Jesse Simms, along
with defensive lineman Andy Kassotis, never got to campus in the
first place.

“All this No. 1 stuff is crazy for recruiting,” head
coach Bob Toledo said. “It’s all speculative, you never
know how they’ll pan out.”

Daily Bruin File Photo Senior wide receiver Brian
Poli-Dixon celebrates after a touchdown against Oregon
State.

The 2001 seniors’ careers started with two consecutive
Pac-10 championships and top-10 national finishes in 1997 and
1998. Several of this year’s star seniors played as true
freshmen, redshirting later in their careers, including safety
Marques Anderson, defensive lineman Kenyon Coleman and wide
receiver Brian Poli-Dixon.

The Bruins went on a 20-game win streak over those two years,
starting with the 66-3 blowout of Texas and ended by the 49-45 loss
to Miami.

For Taylor, that game is one of the most memorable over the last
five years because of what could have been. The Bruins were ranked
No. 3 and would have gone to the national championship had they won
that final game against the Hurricanes which was rescheduled,
ironically, due to a hurricane.

The Bruins went into a tailspin in 1999, finishing ninth in the
conference with a 4-7 record. The following season they improved to
6-6, but it was nonetheless a disappointment after a 3-0 start that
included wins over two No. 3 teams, Michigan and Alabama.

But things were different coming into the 2001 season. With
24 seniors on the roster, Toledo’s first full recruiting
class, the Bruins were poised to take back the national
championship they thought was theirs in 1998.

“We could play our last game at home, that is the only way
we can think about it,” current senior defensive lineman
Rusty Williams said in August of the national championship game to
be played at the Rose Bowl.

The Bruins did play their last game at home. But it was in
December, not January. And it was a contest for honor between two
unranked teams on losing streaks, not a game for the glory of a
national title.

UCLA beat Arizona State in that game 52-42 to finish with a
perfectly respectable 7-4 record. But it felt like a huge letdown
after starting the season 6-0.

The first half of the season, almost every win was a blowout:
41-17 against Kansas, 38-7 against Oregon State, 35-13 against
Washington and 56-17 against Cal. With each victory, UCLA rose in
the polls, topping out at No. 3 in the BCS. The Bruins had the best
defense in the nation after being one of the worst in the Pac-10
for the last few years and costing UCLA the national championship
in 1998.

And while tailback DeShaun Foster’s talent was
overshadowed at the end of the season by his NCAA suspension, his
classic runs, like his 92-yard touchdown and 302-yard game against
Washington will be permanently etched in Bruin fans’
memories.

So how does a No. 1 recruiting class that blossomed into a No. 3
BCS ranked team as seniors end up not even going to a bowl game? By
dropping their next four games, starting with a
closer-than-it-sounds 38-28 loss at Stanford.

“We set our goals so high,” Toledo said of the
reaction by his players. “After we lost they wondered
“˜What are we playing for?’ I didn’t do a good
enough job getting them back.”

The losing streak continued with an offensive collapse in a
20-14 loss to Washington State, a heartbreaking 21-20 defeat to
eventual Pac-10 champion Oregon, and ended with a humiliating 27-0
shutout at USC.

“The record is not always indicative of the talent of
players,” said Poli-Dixon, who is now with the San Diego
Chargers, one of 12 members of the 2001 class on NFL rosters.

Ultimately, members of a top recruiting class can finish their
careers without a bowl game not because they lacked talent, but
because talent alone does not win football games. Toledo looks to
the attitude of the team to explain the season.

“We had distractions that hurt the chemistry of the
team,” he said.

At the end of 2001, they were the same beautiful team, but they
played some ugly football. Unfortunately, the disappointment of
this season has stayed on football fans’ minds more than the
three bowl appearances, two Pac-10 championships, and four seasons
of top ten rankings from the departing class.

“We had a lot of pride being the No. 1 class,” said
former defensive lineman Ken Kocher, currently with the Green Bay
Packers. “Obviously this season was disappointing.

“In the beginning (of this season) we showed what we were
made of. That was us.”

2001 Seniors’ Career Their first two years they
were Pac-10 champs, the last three years have been more of a roller
coaster. Year W-L
Bowl Final
Highest 1997 2-Oct Cotton No. 5
No. 5 1998 2-Oct Rose No. 8 No. 3
1999 7-Apr – No. 13 2000 6-Jun
Sun No. 6 2001 4-Jul – No. 4