Dayne Dooms Bruins Badgers Ride Star Tailback To 38-31 Win

Turns out, UCLA was right all along. The Bruins really didn’t belong in the Rose Bowl.

Neither do they belong in Monday’s Fiesta Bowl. Nor within a mile’s reach of the national championship debate. Not this team. Not this year.

Not with that silly, sorry, look-what-the-cat-dragged-in, look-what-Ron Dayne-dragged around excuse for a defense.

It was one of the biggest mismatches in Rose Bowl history, and by the time No. 9 Wisconsin (11-1) finished boxing No. 6 UCLA (12-2) around to the tune of 38-31 Friday on a glorious New Year’s afternoon, there were a couple of numbers to prove it.

No, the mismatch wasn’t Wisconsin-UCLA. It was Dayne vs. the 11 men wearing the baby blue of UCLA.

Playing with a left shoulder still sore as a result of muscle that was pulled away from his collarbone late in the regular season, Wisconsin’s all-world junior tailback blitzed the Bruins for 246 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

The 246 yards were one short of the Rose Bowl record of 247 set by USC’s Charles White in 1980, and the four touchdowns equaled a modern Rose Bowl record set by USC’s Sam “Bam” Cunningham in 1973 and by UCLA’s Eric Ball in 1986.

Gee, what might have happened had Dayne not taken himself out of the game for one brief stretch in the first half because the shoulder was bothering him?

“Ron Dayne is a truck,” marveled UCLA offensive lineman Kris Farris. “You can’t stop him. He’s going to be a Heisman Trophy front-runner next year.

“Take away Ron Dayne, and we win the game. He’ll be a great player for years to come.”

Three of the four touchdowns came in the first half, starting with a 54-yard off-tackle left in which Dayne slipped through a hole the size of a small foreign import, cut quickly and then sprinted down the sideline. Then came touchdown runs of 7 yards (early second quarter, putting Wisconsin up 14-7 and leaving several UCLA defenders strewn on the field), 10 yards (late in the first half, putting the Badgers on top 21-14) and 22 yards (on the first possession of the second half, making it 30-21, Badgers).

So much for those cynics quick to point out that the 253-pound Dayne rolled up yardage this season against weak-sister nonconference teams Ohio and Nevada-Las Vegas. UCLA has known what was coming for weeks and, still …

Nothing.

“Ron had a great day today,” Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said. “I thought he would have a good day from the way he practiced this week. He played with pain today and still had a great game. I don’t think I have to sit here and justify the play of a guy who’s broken just about every record.”

For his part, Dayne spotted the potential for his afternoon to turn into a performance of “Swan Lake” early. When did he know that his linemen would be capable of blasting open holes against this UCLA front?

“The first couple of plays,” he said, smiling sweetly.

It was a familiar position for UCLA’s defense. On its back. After ripping through their first 10 games thanks in large part to the arm of quarterback Cade McNown, the Bruins finally tripped over their moldy defense. A Top-3 team harboring national title hopes at the end of November, the Bruins promptly were embarrassed by allowing more than 600 yards in a 49-45 loss to Miami in their regular-season finale.

That not only knocked the Bruins out of national title consideration, it knocked their vision of reality askew, too. While still mumbling about how they should have won the Miami game and been invited to the Fiesta Bowl, they never saw Wisconsin coming. Chalk up 38 more points.

“They’ve always been saying they don’t belong in the Rose Bowl, that they wanted to be in the Fiesta Bowl,” said freshman Wisconsin defensive back Jamar Fletcher, who stunned the Bruins with a 46-yard interception return for a touchdown with 14:08 to play. “We just came to play this game.

“If they felt this way, I guess they should have played better against Miami.”

Fletcher said that the Badgers knew they had the game won as the second half wore on, simply by looking into the UCLA players’ eyes.

“You could see their receivers were giving up,” Fletcher said. “They had some touchdowns in the first half, but they were on busted coverages.

“Then the second half came, and we beat them up. You could just see it in their eyes.”

Perhaps part of it was that Wisconsin answered every challenge. McNown threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Lewis near the end of the first quarter to even the game at 7, but Dayne soon made it 14-7.

The Bruins then tied it on a trick play early in the second quarter when flanker Freddie Mitchell took a McNown pitch and fired a 61-yard touchdown pass to Durell Price. And they went ahead 5 minutes later when Danny Farmer hauled in a 41-yard touchdown pass from McNown. But Dayne scored again, Matt Davenport kicked a field goal and, ta-da, the Badgers had a 24-21 lead at the half.

They kept it.

“We felt coming into the game that (UCLA) would do something different, and they didn’t,” Fletcher said. “That surprised me.”

The only thing the Bruins remained consistent at throughout, according to Fletcher, was in brazenly moving their lips.

“They talked from the first quarter to the fourth,” Fletcher said. “I guess that’s how they are out here. I guess they don’t respect Wisconsin football.”

Wisconsin 38, UCLA 31

Wisconsin 7 17 7 7 - 38

UCLA 7 14 7 3 - 31

Wis-Dayne 54 run (Davenport kick)

UCLA-Lewis 38 pass from McNown (Sailer kick)

Wis-Dayne 7 run (Davenport kick)

UCLA-Price 61 pass from Mitchell (Sailer kick)

UCLA-Farmer 41 pass from McNown (Sailer kick)

Wis-Dayne 10 run (Davenport kick)

Wis-FG Davenport 40

Wis-Dayne 22 run (Davenport kick)

UCLA-Lewis 10 run (Sailer kick)

Wis-Fletcher 46 interception return (Davenport kick)

UCLA-FG Sailer 30

A93,872.

Wis UCLA First downs 22 25 Rushes-yards 48-343 38-120 Passing 154 418 Comp-Att-Int 9-17-0 21-36-1 Return Yards 128 75 Punts-Avg. 5-41.2 3-47 Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-1 Penalties-Yards 7-45 9-94 Time of Possession 29:15 30:45

RUSHING-Wisconsin, Dayne 27-246, Samuel 13-65, Faulkner 8-32. UCLA, Lewis 10-50, Foster 10-38, McNown 12-15, Farmer 1-8, Price 2-6, Brown 3-3.

PASSING-Wisconsin, Samuel 9-17-0-154. UCLA, McNown 19-34-1-340, Mitchell 1-1-0-61, Sailer 1-1-0-17.

RECEIVING-Wisconsin, Davis 3-57, Sigmund 2-38, Martin 2-33, Chambers 2-26. UCLA, Farmer 7-142, Price 3-102, Melsby 3-66, Lewis 2-37, Poli-Dixon 2-15, Grieb 1-20, Abdul-Azziz 1-17, Foster 1-13, Neufeld 1-6.