Injuries Make Things Thinner

UCLA has five starting offensive linemen returning from last season’s team, but only four will start next week at Washington State, Coach Bob Toledo said Friday.

Chad Sauter, who has been nursing a back injury, has dropped behind Sean Gully on the depth chart, and though Sauter will play, Gully will start.

“We’ve got to play the guy best prepared to play,” Toledo said.

Sauter’s injury, and the ankle and knee injuries suffered by Oscar Cabrera that Toledo said may need an arthroscopic examination, leaves the Bruins so thin up front that freshman Chris Polak, a 329-pounder from Bishop Amat High, will travel to Pullman and could play, thereby losing the redshirt season UCLA wanted him to have.

“If I was a betting man, I’d bet he’d play,” Toledo said.

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The offensive line is not the only manpower worry, because the loss of Brad Melsby to illness has thrust freshman Brian Poli-Dixon into the receiver mix.

He is listed behind Danny Farmer and Eric Scott at split end, and receivers coach Ron Carragher says that Poli-Dixon--whom, again, the Bruins prefer to redshirt--may get playing time if another player goes down.

“We don’t want to use him just five plays a game and have him lose a year,” Carragher said. “If we’re going to play him, we’re going to have to play him more than that.”

Poli-Dixon is a 6-foot-4, 195-pounder from Tucson.