Let’s go already!
LOS ANGELES — Coach Karl Dorrell and the UCLA Bruins have waited a long time to get a shot at crosstown rival USC.
Maybe too long.
By the time the teams line up for the kickoff Saturday at the Rose Bowl, the Bruins will have gone three weeks without playing. The top-ranked Trojans will be on a normal schedule, having beaten Notre Dame 41-10 last weekend.
“Finally, we’re in game week. With the three-week layoff, there was some benefit for the injured players that we had,” Dorrell said Monday. “Maurice Drew, for example, is about 90-95 percent with his ankle injury. Marcedes Lewis (bruised back) is 100 percent. Jarrad Page had a slight hamstring pull and he’s close to 100 percent as well.
“We feel good about going into this week. We had some time off to really work on our details and fundamentals in our first bye week, and the second week we started our game planning. This week, we’re going to hone in on getting our timing and execution down to where it should be.”
The layoff, obviously common before bowl games but unusual during the regular season, might make that a little more difficult to do.
“The biggest key is to work on our timing this week and be where we were in our last football game,” Dorrell said. “If you ask any coach across the country, no one wants three weeks; that’s too much time off.
“But that’s what we had, and we made the best of it. It’s all about getting our timing, rhythm and making sure we don’t have the rustiness of having that type of layoff. We’ve talked about it, worked hard on trying to make sure those things don’t become an issue for us.”
The Bruins (6-4, 4-3 Pac-10) are coming off a 34-26 victory at Oregon on Nov. 13. They are three-touchdown underdogs against the Trojans (11-0, 7-0). USC has won the last five games, two of those at the Rose Bowl.
Dorrell said the Bruins didn’t necessarily use the time off to change things up for USC.
“It gives you extra time to prepare, but it’s the 11th game of the season, you’re not going to change your offense, not going to change your defense,” he said. “You might throw in a few wrinkles here and there. We’re a very balanced offense, and we’re going to try to run the football and throw the ball with balance.
“Defensively, that’s an area that’s been an issue all season long. We’ll continue to work on getting those young players to play at the level they’re capable of playing.”
Asked if he thought the Trojans deserved to be No. 1, Dorrell smiled and said, “They started the season ranked No. 1 and no one’s beaten them, so I still think they’re No. 1. Think about it from their perspective. They’ve been No. 1 from the very beginning and every team for 10 weeks has been out to get them, and still they’ve won every game. Why would they not be No. 1?”
Page considers the game a great opportunity for UCLA.
“It’s a huge rivalry, and you add on top of it that they’re the No. 1 team in the nation,” the Bruins’ cornerback said. “Most people don’t ever even get a chance to play the No. 1 team in the nation. It would be huge to beat them. It would just mess up everything. They wouldn’t get to go to the national championship.”