Bud Withers / Times college football reporter
Bruins learn how to grind, thanks to their Cable guy

MARK HARRISON / THE SEATTLE TIMES UW defensive tackle Mike Mapuolesega tips a pass attempt of Drew Olson. The tipped pass was intercepted by linebacker Evan Benjamin.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

On days like yesterday, gloomy, gray late afternoons by the lake, UCLA used to come out and play the part of the powder-blue preppies from Westwood. The rain would come down, and Washington's players and fans would revel in the moment.

And the Huskies would run "Iso" all day and play smash-mouth on defense, and send a message: You didn't think of coming in and messing with the bad boys from Montlake.

That was then, this is now. Yesterday, UCLA simply bludgeoned the Huskies with a running attack that was almost criminal in its efficiency. Running three times for every pass, the Bruins pounded out 424 yards on the ground and gassed Washington 37-31.

As it turns out, you can thank Keith Gilbertson for this. Not because the Huskies coach couldn't find a body to plug the yawning chasms created by the Bruins' offensive line, but because Gilby had a lot to do with spawning the fabric of the UCLA offense.

"I think they're really learning how to grind," said UCLA offensive coordinator Tom Cable, referring to the work of the Uclans' line. "I was taught by Keith Gilbertson, that's the way it has to be."

Remember the epic problems experienced last year by the UCLA offense in head coach Karl Dorrell's first year? Forget them. In a messy little transition, Dorrell and coordinator Steve Axman parted ways — Axman eventually ending up back at the UW — and Dorrell hired Cable, who had lost his job as Idaho head coach.

For four years, Cable, the product of Snohomish, had brought Idaho teams to Husky Stadium. The scores were 44-20, 53-3, 41-27 and 45-14, which pretty much ruined a good story line.

Yesterday, he returned with some athletes. And the athletes packed a different attitude than Bruins teams of old.

"It's one thing to go out and talk a good game," said a pleased Cable in the happy UCLA locker room. "You've got to learn how to work hard every day. You've got to learn how to play hurt. You've got to learn how to play fast.

"You've got to learn how to play with the right kind of violence on the line of scrimmage. All those things encompass the word 'grinding.' "
 
OK, so give the UCLA offensive line big points for grinding. What Bruins running back Maurice Drew did was more like slicing, slashing, spindling and ash-canning a Huskies defense that had again looked so proud and capable against Fresno State.

"I thought we could run it," Cable said, "but I thought we'd have to be balanced to win. I thought they'd just take the run away, say, 'You can't do that,' and we'd have to throw sometimes."

Instead, the Bruins ran 54 times and threw 17. They hunkered down, ran mostly zone plays behind guys like 6-foot-9, 345-pound Ed Blanton, 6-7, 299-pound Robert Cleary and 6-6, 318-pound Steve Vieira and handed the ball to the 5-8 Drew.

The Huskies are still looking for him.

It's enough that he ran for 322 yards, a UCLA record and UW opponent mark. Who ever heard of a guy scoring five touchdowns, when the shortest one is 15 yards?

So preposterous were the rushing numbers that UCLA said to hell with conventional plays on long yardage. On Drew's 58-yard touchdown run near the end of the first quarter, they ran on third-and-12. Manual White's 24-yard run to pull the Bruins out of a hole on their own 17 in the second quarter came on third-and-eight. Drew scissored for 14 yards on the Bruins' first drive of the second half on third-and-five.

"Oh God yeah, we had to change the mentality," said Cable, remembering his first days at UCLA. "We're getting there. This is a group of kids that really didn't have any confidence. Nobody really believed in them."

Cable did, while pounding home the virtues of toughness, pushing through pain and staring down tough times. In previous times, a UCLA team down 24-7 in the first quarter at Husky Stadium would have lost, oh, about 48-21.

"One of the first things he stressed to us was, we needed to become a tough team," said Vieira. "When you get tired, play harder. When you get in adverse situations, overcome."

Cable was a guard at Snohomish, and he went to Idaho to play under Dennis Erickson in the '80s largely because Gilbertson had recruited him there. Cable spent two years as a graduate assistant on Gilbertson's hugely successful Vandals teams and was Gilbertson's offensive-line coach during his four-year tenure at Cal in the '90s.

"This means a lot," Cable said. "I've had some tough times in this stadium, obviously, the last four years. I grew up watching the Huskies, seeing them, admiring them. Coach Gilbertson means the world to me."

Center Mike McCloskey was asked if he felt the Bruins had out-toughed the Huskies.

"Anytime somebody rushes for 300 yards ... " he said trailing off. "I'm not going to say that we did, but it sure feels like we did."

Maurice Drew will be the Pac-10 offensive player of the week, and he'll get recognized nationally. In all the accolades, people shouldn't forget to throw a bouquet Tom Cable's way, too.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com