UCLA football team will try to bounce back one more time

Bruins have been wildly inconsistent,Canada goose expedition parka with satisfying wins followed by dispiriting losses, and vice versa. Now they face biggest test yet, playing Oregon in Pac-12 title game after losing 50-0 to USC.
UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin huddled in the back of the small locker room at the Coliseum on Saturday night,Trillium parka with no way to hide his emotions.

Stunned. Shocked. Defeated. All products of USC's 50-0 victory over UCLA.

"We've got to . . . uh . . . swallow it and accept it," Franklin said,Expedition parka then acknowledged, "50-0 is a hard pill to swallow. We did not show up. We did not show up."

Days later, Franklin showed up, smiling and determined.

"You've got to let a game like that go," Franklin said Tuesday. "I still have a chip on my shoulder. I'm still angry. Nothing has changed."

But it had.

This has been an all-too-familiar personality swing for the Bruins this season. Beat down one week,Canada goose jacket making amends the next.

This time, the chore is a little harder. The double haymaker of being pummeled by their rival and losing their coach, Rick Neuheisel, in a matter of days makes rallying for Friday's Pac-12 Conference championship game against Oregon the Bruins' toughest test.

"We don't have much to lose now," quarterback Kevin Prince said. "Coach Neuheisel is definitely gone after this game. No one expects us to win. We come out and play free."

There has been a less-stress feel to practices so far this week.

Monday was full of bluster, with players seemingly determined to support Neuheisel with effort. Tuesday was more businesslike, yet active.

Neuheisel says he has sensed a focus spawned by his firing.

"There is no question it would have been a distraction if we had been asking questions about what I needed to do to keep my job," Neuheisel said. "I'm glad, in that respect, that's behind us. I would have liked the decision to go the other way, but we're all big and can handle the eventualities that happen in this sport."

Neuheisel has seen this pendulum swing too many times this season. An exhilarating victory followed by an embarrassing loss, and vice versa.

"The negative side is we have had too much practice at bouncing back," Neuheisel said. "On the positive side, I think there is a great deal of character."

Stanford methodically disassembled the Bruins, 45-19. They came back to beat Washington State the following week.

Arizona brutally dismantled the Bruins, 48-12, in a game that included an on-field brawl. They came back to beat California the following week, then posted perhaps their most important win of the season, over Arizona State.

Utah wore UCLA down, 31-6, in the snow. The Bruins came back to rout Colorado the following week. Then came the USC debacle.

"That's been the frustrating part; we can't do it on a weekly basis," Prince said.