Now They Feel They Can Take Nation by Storm

National champions are about more than numbers, they are about looks.

Swarming, swaggering UCLA suddenly has that look.

National champions are about more than reputations, they are about sounds.

Thundering, trampling UCLA suddenly has that sound.

Long before they hoist a trophy on New Year’s night in some strange city, former national college football champions say there is a distinct point they began to feel it.

Late Saturday afternoon, as Cade McNown vaulted into the giant arms of Andy Meyers in an exhausted midfield celebration, UCLA reached that point.

“Today is the first time all year that I’ve felt like a national championship team,” linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo said.

He stood in a Rose Bowl locker room still warm with intensity, filled with the hard smiles of resiliency.

“Everybody has been saying it, writing it. But today, I felt it.”

Despite being outgained, they looked it.

McNown stopped? They ran. The USC offense threatening to close the gap? They took away the ball.

With all respect to the tradition that is slowly returning to USC, the Bruins’ 34-17 victory was not only about eight in a row.

It was about two in a row.

By defeating the emotional Trojans despite having everything to lose, UCLA proved it is good enough to win its next two games for the school’s first national football championship in 44 years.

First up, Miami, on Dec. 5, in a contest delayed by a tragic storm that ironically handed the Bruins a rainbow.

If Hurricane Georges had not forced postponement of the Sept. 26 game in Miami, the Bruins already would have played it, and now their season would be complete.

And while higher-ranked Tennessee and Kansas State were influencing voters and computers with conference championship games also on Dec. 5, UCLA would have been sitting at home, unbeaten but unimpressive.

This delayed game gives the Bruins one more chance to join their rivals on national TV and continue proving what they showed Saturday--that they belong in the national championship Fiesta Bowl.

“We are looking at a one-game playoff in Miami--call it the Hurricane Bowl,” tackle Kris Farris said.

And after Saturday--when their offense showed it can survive without McNown’s heroics while the defense finally created its own heroes--who can say that the Bruins will not win on Jan. 4?

Can Tennessee’s defense stop them? Will Kansas State’s offense be enough?

On Saturday, the answer to both questions would have been no.

The guess here is, only one team in the country would be favored over UCLA right now, and Ohio State already has blown its chance.

If the Bruins beat Miami and are stunningly still left out of the Fiesta Bowl?

Let’s just say that with mediocre Wisconsin arriving in town for the Rose Bowl, the only people thrilled are the, uh, ticket brokers.

Amid the late Saturday afternoon shadows, the Bruins sincerely hoped they were leaving the Rose Bowl for the last time this season.

Actually, they believe it.

“We had a lot of trouble in the middle of the season, but we learned from that stuff,” Bruin center Shawn Stuart said. “And finally, it gets to a point where we start feeling, ‘Yeah, we can do this.’ ”

Although hundreds of e-mailing and stamp-licking Trojan fans will not agree, this is not a column biased toward UCLA.

This is a column biased toward great football played by local kids, something every fan this NFL-less town can perhaps appreciate.

Yes, the Bruins can do this.

That point was first made in the opening minutes Saturday after a McNown pass popped out of Jermaine Lewis’ hands and into Zeke Moreno’s, and suddenly USC had the ball on the Bruin 27-yard-line.

“Our first run was a good one, we felt like we could run over them all day . . . and all of a sudden they have the ball?” offensive guard Meyers said. “It was a big moment.”

UCLA has shown, definitively, that this a team of big moments.

After some questionably conservative play-calling by USC Coach Paul Hackett, Carson Palmer was chased out of bounds by Santi Hall on third down, and the Trojans were forced to settle for a field goal.

Even though the Bruins trailed by three points, they already felt as if they were ahead by 20.

“Our defense, everybody is looking down on us, but we make plays,” Ayanbadejo said of the nation’s 91st-ranked total defense. “Not just some time. Not just once in a while. But every . . . single . . . time.”

An alley-oop pass from McNown to Danny Farmer led to the first Bruin score.

After R. Jay Soward lost a fumble, a huge block from Brad Melsby on Chris Claiborne led to a 16-yard screen pass to DeShaun Foster, which led to another score.

“We have been forced to learn adversity; USC may be a little young for that, yet,” Meyers said. “They were doing a lot of talking. And when a team is doing that, you know they are scared.”

In the second quarter, when Foster broke free on his 65-yard touchdown run--which was nearly as impressive as the collapsing blocks by Jon Dubravac, Durrell Price and Farris that set him up--the score felt a lot more lopsided than 21-10.

“We looked in USC’s eyes and could tell that they were worn out,” Ayanbadejo said. “By the end of the fourth quarter, they acted like it was over.”

For UCLA, it’s just beginning.

“All we’ve been through . . . “ Farris said. “We are peaking at the right time.”

He then talked about Foster’s splendid run, but could have been talking about their season.

“It was amazing,” he said. “He starts going down the sideline and I look up and I think, ‘Oh, no, they’re going to stop him . . . no, they’re not . . . yes, they are . . . and then, no, they’re not.”’

After an inspired afternoon for an apparently destined team, it indeed seems like, no, they’re not.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at [email protected]