Message Sent And Received

Fifty-six seconds into the third quarter Saturday, Terry Donahue took a mulligan on his halftime speech.

Made a hurried “oh-and-another-thing” addendum.

Washington State had run only three second-half plays against his UCLA Bruins when Donahue surprisingly called a timeout and gathered his entire team on the sidelines.

At the epicenter, an animated Donahue passed along a few messages about the kind of effort that the game of college football deserves.

From that point, the Bruins held WSU scoreless and pushed in 15 points of their own to turn an embarrassing outing into a defeat with some salvageable elements.

What did Donahue say to spark the reversal?

“It’s private between myself and the team, as far as I’m concerned,” said Donahue, whose team fell to 2-2 after Saturday’s 24-15 loss to Washington State.

Other Bruins, though, surrendered the gist of the speech and admitted to be moved by it.

“He said we just needed to play hard and stop worrying about the score, to stop worrying about losing and just come out and play hard, play with a lot of aggression and a lot of hustle,” Bruins receiver Kevin Jordan said.

No screaming, no degradation, no scholarship withdrawals, no Gippers - just a message about effort.

“He didn’t get down on us at all; he just wanted us to hustle, regardless what the score is, just give some effort and things will change,” Jordan said. “It did pick us up; we were down 24 points and we came back - the problem was, unfortunately, we had to settle for field goals instead of getting six or seven points on touchdowns.”

UCLA running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar was a little more succinct in his translation.

“He said to stop messing around and, win or lose, you can’t sit around and not give your best effort,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

Begging pays off

Shawn McWashington cannot tell a lie. He’s been begging for the chance to throw a pass for three seasons.

On an important drive in the fourth quarter, while WSU was trying to stifle a UCLA rally, the sophomore receiver took a handoff to the right sideline, stopped, and threw a 20-yard completion back to quarterback Chad Davis for a first down.

The drive did not lead to points, as kicker Tony Truant ultimately missed a 48-yard field goal, but it meant more time off the clock and better field position.

“I’ve been here three years and I’ve been bugging (coach Mike Price) to let me do it,” said McWashington, who played quarterback at Seattle’s Garfield High. “I’m 1 for 1 for 20 yards; you can’t beat that.

McWashington went out earlier in the game with a mild concussion, but apparently had all his faculties when they were needed late in the game.

Quarterback shuffle

In light of awful statistics and offensive inefficiency, Donahue decided to replace starting quarterback Ryan Fien with true freshman Cade McNown in the second period.

Fien completed only one of his first seven passes for a total of minus-3 yards. He finished 4 for 13 for 73 yards and one touchdown, while McNown was 9 for 17 for 114 yards and a score.

Asked if he would re-evaluate Fien’s job as starter, Donahue said, “Everybody’s status is being re-evaluated. We’ve got to find some players who are going to go out and play from start to finish.”

“I just felt we needed to see if Cade McNown could get something going, get us moving. You can’t play if you aren’t hitting any passes.”

Fien was not the lone Bruin shouldering culpability on this one, Donahue stressed, pointing to a half-dozen dropped passes.

Even Jordan, a preseason All-American, dropped a pass or two. Still, his seven catches allowed him to move in front of J.J. Stokes as the Bruins’ all-time reception leader with 157.

“I got (the record), but we lost a game, so there’s no way in the world I could enjoy it,” Jordan said.

FUMMMBBBBBBLLLLEEEE!

UCLA came up empty on what turned out to be an enormous fumble at the WSU goal line by Abdul-Jabbar.

Abdul-Jabbar, the Pacific-10 Conference’s leading rusher, finished with 125 yards on 28 carries. But his fumble out of the end zone in the third period may have been the crucial play in the Bruins’ inability to make up a 24-point deficit.

The junior took a pass from Fien and raced 25 yards to the right corner of the end zone, where he was hit by WSU’s Brian Walker.

Trying to stretch the ball across the plane of the goal line, Abdul-Jabbar fumbled and it went through the end zone and out of bounds.

Rule 7, Section 2, Article 4B comes into play in this instance, meaning the defending team (WSU) gets possession of the ball at the point of the fumble (the 1-yard line).

“I had it across the pylon, I broke the plane (of the goal line),” Abdul-Jabbar said.

The play cost the Bruins seven critical points.

Sanders and Ebert?

WSU defensive end Dwayne Sanders said he was able to tell what sort of plays the Bruins were going to run by what sort of stances the linemen were in.

It was a clue picked up in watching previous game films, he said. When the linemen were leaning back a bit in “light stances,” they ran counters or pulled or were in pass protection,” Sanders said.

Sanders, who turned 21 Saturday, had a bit of a reunion with an old friend - Abdul-Jabbar, with whom he played at Los Angeles’ Dorsey High.

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