Give credit to UCLA football for aiming high

LOS ANGELES -- You have to admire the pluck.

If only UCLA's football program can manage a few touchdowns to back up the bluster. So, just how long can you hold your breath?

The widely publicized newspaper ad that the UCLA marketing department ran this week, announcing that the "football monopoly in Los Angeles is officially over," produced more than a few raised eyebrows around the Southland.

At USC, which was the unnamed target of the ad, no doubt the Trojans are still trying to figure out whether to laugh or make the Bruins cry. They've got until Dec. 6, when the two teams meet, to figure it out.

The ad, of course, has some context. It's simply an extension of the attitude that first-year coach Rick Neuheisel, a former Bruins quarterback, brought to Westwood when he signed on last winter. Neuheisel said he was unaware of the marketing angle before it appeared, but he hasn't exactly criticized its content, either.

For eight months, at every chance, he has talked of embracing the rivalry, challenging the Trojans' supremacy, downplaying the size of the task and moving the Bruins into a bigger spotlight.

The ticket sellers picked it up. Of course, the main idea behind such talk was to sell his players on the concept of swagger.

"It's still a work in progress," said tight end Logan Paulsen Thursday. "Everyone wants that to be the new UCLA, but we also know it doesn't happen overnight."

A year ago, a senior-dominated Bruins team thought it might be on the verge of something special, like maybe even a Bowl Championship Series spot. The season went the other way, with UCLA finishing 6-7 and Coach Karl Dorrell getting the ax even before the Bruins lost their bowl game.

Because of that experience, the returning Bruins might be skeptical of a coach oozing big-time aspirations, but Paulsen said he thinks it's just what this team needs.

"You really can't compare last year's team to this one," he said. "We looked dominant on paper, and it didn't work out.

"With so many younger players this year, maybe it (the lofty vision) works to our advantage. It's not going to just happen. We know we have a lot of work to do."

Senior linebacker John Hale said he thinks Neuheisel's approach strikes the right chord.

"He's got a great personality. He's a natural leader," Hale said. "You can tell he's got an inner fire. It flows through all of us. It is contagious."

But isn't this just a little premature?

"His mentality is that we can be national contenders here, and we should be," Hale said. "He talks all the time about what we have to do to get there."

For the moment, on the verge of a less-than-promising season, the Bruins' marketing brashness surely looks a little silly. Taking on the Trojans when they are enjoying one of the most prosperous eras in their long, storied history smacks of poor timing.

I picture USC with a big smile on its face, its arm extended to UCLA's forehead, while the smaller Bruins swing wildly at the air.

Over the past six years, the Trojans rose like a missile, leaving the Bruins behind, with major facial burns.

That's why football equality in LA seems like such a far-fetched notion to some, especially those whose memories extend only back as far as 2001, when Pete Carroll showed up at Troy.

But equality is not such a crazy notion. Before Carroll, the Bruins more than held their own for a couple of decades. Neuheisel is fond of pointing out that, beginning with his freshman season at UCLA 29 years ago, the Bruins' record against USC is 14-14-1.

Of course, UCLA couldn't sustain the excellence it achieved in the 1990s, failing to slip through the small window of opportunity it had at a national championship.

Now, with the Trojans expected to be right in the thick of BCS intrigue again this season, and the quarterback-depleted Bruins expected to be right in the thick of a rebuilding, losing season, why draw attention to the rivalry?

On the other hand, with the Bruins sporting a 0-0 record, maybe this was the perfect time to have a little fun. If the ad and the enthusiasm and the optimism are over-the-top now, waiting until UCLA makes it through ranked Tennessee and Brigham Young its first two games might not have been prudent, either.

In any case, if UCLA is going to end USC's "monopoly," the Bruins have to believe it first.

We do know the previous coach tried to rebuild the program in a universe parallel to the guys across town, preferring to ignore the Trojans as best he could. That didn't work out so well, either.

E-mail Gregg Patton at gpatton(at)PE.com

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)