By Rob Miech
CBS SportsLine Staff Writer
Oct. 31, 1998
PASADENA, Calif. -- As the noose tightened on UCLA Saturday in the Rose Bowl, the Bruins somehow slipped free thanks to the guile of sophomore cornerback Marques Anderson.
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The narrow home victory over the Stanford Cardinal, which entered the game as the Sagarin computer's 83rd-ranked team in the nation, dropped their record to 1-7 overall and 0-5 in the Pacific-10 Conference. So the victory won't likely endear the Bruins (7-0, 5-0) to the writers and coaches who vote in those polls.
And Ohio State (8-0), Tennessee (7-0) and Kansas State (8-0) -- who round out the BCS first four -- each won big Saturday. If all four of the those teams finish undefeated, two will surely feel left out when they don't receive invitations to the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.
"It's kind of a nuisance," UCLA senior flanker Danny Farmer said of the BCS poll. "We're not really interested in what Kansas State or Tennessee does. We're about UCLA. We just have to keep working on getting better and executing."
THE EXECUTIONER HAD THE GUILLOTINE razor sharp, oiled and ready to drop. But then Anderson stripped Stanford flanker Jeff Allen of the ball an instant before he slipped into the end zone with 4:19 remaining. UCLA free safety Larry Atkins pounced on it, nullifying the score and changing possession.
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UCLA's Ryan Nece prevents Brian Allen from recovering a fumble, but will the Bruins hold onto the top spot in the BCS poll?
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"We don't worry about any of the polls," Anderson said. "Our goal is to go out, execute and win football games. A 'W' is a 'W,' and at the end of the season nobody will remember what happened in the Stanford game. This team doesn't know how to lose."
UCLA stretched its national-best and team-record winning streak to 17 games, completing a four-game stretch Saturday in which it handed Arizona and Oregon their first losses of the season, solved the conference's best defense in California and weathered the Pac-10's most prolific passing offense.
Then came the first BCS poll.
"They might have had their sights set on something else," Stanford coach Tyrone Willingham said of the Bruins.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK, Bruins defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti lamented out loud about the ineffectiveness of his unit.
"We're wasting a lot of time here," he said during Wednesday's practice. "A lot of time."
Thursday, he said the defense was operating at about "65 to 75 percent" of where he'd like it to be. And they looked like it early Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinal jumped ahead 24-14 with 6:10 left in the third quarter, but the Bruins remained cool on the sideline.
"Anxious, not nervous," center Shawn Stuart said. "I knew we'd wake up."
By early Saturday evening, Aliotti mostly just flashed a wide smile.
"WE'RE EXTREMELY LUCKY," Aliotti said after Husak pelted UCLA for 419 yards through the air on 25 of 45 passing. "And we'll take it. Stanford played a heck of a game, but we responded. I don't know how we didn't let them score again."
UCLA coach Bob Toledo does. Turner, Anderson and Atkins emerged at critical times, and senior quarterback Cade McNown's most pivotal play of the game was a textbook block. A vocal homecoming crowd of 64,820 also made a difference.
The crowd began bubbling when UCLA junior tailback Keith Brown ran into the end zone from two yards out to get the Bruins to within 24-21 early in the fourth quarter, and then Toledo heard something for the first time in his five years at UCLA.
A home-field advantage.
On Stanford's ensuing drive, Husak burned all three of the Cardinal's second- half timeouts because of his teammates' inability to hear his signals. Stanford was also called for a holding penalty and a false start during that possession, which netted only 15 yards on eight plays.
"Finally, a home-field advantage," Toledo said. "People were actually helping us. They had to use all three of their timeouts, and that's a home-field advantage. People are finally coming out to see us and not to see the opponent."
AT THE END, STANFORD COULD ONLY stop the clock by throwing an incomplete pass or running out of bounds.
"Do I wish we had more timeouts at the end?" Willingham said. "Yes."
Three plays into UCLA's game-deciding drive, McNown threw a key block, which sprung Farmer on a reverse for a 32-yard gain. McNown, at midfield, handed off to Keith Brown, who gave it to Farmer. After handing off, McNown low-bridged Stanford linebacker Sharcus Steen.
DeShaun Foster ended that series by following a host of linemen on the left side for an eight-yard touchdown run.
"He does everything," Farmer said of McNown.
"Just doing what I'm called upon to do," McNown said. "I had to hit him low, because some of those guys on the other side can weigh 280 pounds. But we're still undefeated, even though we didn't have a strong game. It's an advantage, knowing how to win. But I've lost before.
"MAYBE SOME OF THE YOUNGER guys have been taking winning for granted. Maybe this will be a wake-up call. I just know we have some problems to correct, because we're not playing the way we're capable of playing. We have to stop letting other teams dictate the way we play."
Turner, a 6-foot-5, 247-pound devoutly religious junior, had been itching to do something on the field. All day Saturday, defensive line coach Terry Tumey instructed him to drive inside. He wanted the go-ahead to push the outside edge. With 13 seconds left, Tumey put Turner in, telling him to take the Cardinal left tackle on the edge.
"That was the biggest play of my life," Turner said. "I wanted to make the whole stadium rock. This is just a result of having faith and believing. Somehow, some way, the guys on this team just believe we will win. And I was very glad coach Tumey put me in with 13 seconds left.
"I thought I was done for the night."
Come Monday, with the release of the second BCS poll, the Bruins will know if the damage done by Stanford Saturday was real or imagined.