Bruins’ Primary Task Is to Simplify Equation

PULLMAN, Wash. — It’s called paralysis by analysis and the cure is addition by subtraction, which is what UCLA football coaches spent much of the week on.

Washington State’s coaches probably did too.

With five months to prepare for one football game, coaches tend to ladle out ideas to players, many of whom absorb them a spoonful at a time. There’s a fair amount of spillage, and that’s what makes a season-opening football game tricky.

How much is enough?

How much is too much?

“They’ve had a lot of time in the spring and fall to study and so have we,” said UCLA’s defensive coordinator, Rocky Long. “Sometimes I think that hurts.

“Sometimes I think you can know too much. We might be over-analyzing them, they might be over-analyzing us. I think it’s a delicate balance.”

That balance can be tipped this afternoon at Martin Stadium when the teams open their seasons in the earliest Pacific 10 Conference game in history.

Coaches have spent five months with video machines, seeking the truth in preparing for the season’s first game and trying to ferret out the lies.

Washington State Coach Mike Price said his staff has watched enough video to stretch from Pullman to Westwood, much of it concerning the defense he expects UCLA to employ today against his Cougars.

“Rocky Long’s defense, I think we’ve got a handle on what he’s doing,” Price said. “This is the fourth year we’ve played against [that defensive scheme], and we know he’s adding from last year [Long’s first at UCLA after five at Oregon State]. So we’ve seen all of the videos of Rocky’s defenses at Oregon State and have seen the progression.”

It can help.

“There are things that we use over again, things that have been successful against certain formations,” Long said. “It’s not like it’s something new to them.”

But Price isn’t the only one with a VCR. Long has watched enough video to stretch from Westwood to Pullman.

“I’ve looked at the last four years of Washington State games too,” Long said. “Well, I looked at our game with them last year. I looked at Oregon State’s game with them last year because they’re running basically the same [defense] at Oregon State. And I looked at the three Washington State games against UCLA before that, so I’ve looked at five different tapes.”

From all of this has come voluminous reports and computer printouts, books with sheaves of plays and defensive alignments covering every possibility imaginable. It has been pushed on the minds of players who want to do something that doesn’t involve practice.

Like play a game.

With that in mind, a lot of the knowledge has been pulled back.

“I hope we haven’t paralyzed them,” Long said. “This week we’ve cut a bunch of defense out, because of the game plan and because we wanted to get in enough repetitions in practice so we don’t make any mental errors.”

It’s a lesson learned a year ago, when a new coaching staff brought in a ton of new ideas and learned the hard way that only a few pounds of them could be absorbed.

“There’s never been a game that’s mistake-free,” Bruin Coach Bob Toledo said. “This year we know what we’ve got and the players know us a lot better as coaches, and they know the offense and defense and special teams.

“I told the players in a meeting that more games are lost than won, particularly early in the year. I think that’s what happened to us last year.”

Blown defensive coverages, special-teams frailties, dropped passes and fumbles cost the Bruins in their 35-20 loss at Tennessee a year ago in Toledo’s first game as the boss.

Other mental problems cropped up as the season wore on until the coaching staff pulled back some of the instruction and spent time on the things they knew the Bruins could do well.

“I think last year we gave up some plays because we were not sure mentally what to do,” Long said. “I don’t want that to be the problem this year.”

So, while the coaches are X-ing and O-ing themselves into a headache, the players tend to think in simpler terms. Coaches spend five months preparing for a game, players spend the time preparing for a season.

This week, the defense is concerned with Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf, running back Michael Black and the Cougars’ young offensive line. The offense worries about a Washington State defensive line of Dorian Boose, Rob Meier, Leon Bender and Shane Doyle that has enough size and speed to be scary.

But next week, it will be somebody else. And then somebody else.

“We’re going up there and beat them, and that’s going to start something for us: getting off to a good start in the Pac-10, getting some momentum going for Tennessee, then trying to beat Tennessee, trying to be 2-0. Just keep the ball rolling,” quarterback Cade McNown said.

“We never had any momentum last year. Our team is fed up with winning here and losing there, winning here and losing there. We want some consistency and want to establish ourselves as one of the top teams in the conference and the country. It’s an attitude we’ve taken.”

To McNown, the idea is to forget UCLA’s 38-14 victory over the Cougars at the Rose Bowl last season and concentrate on what’s ahead. It’s a simple analysis that invites no paralysis.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TODAY’S GAME

UCLA at WASHINGTON STATE

* WHERE: Martin Stadium, Pullman, Wash.

* TIME: 12:30 p.m.

* TV: Channel 7.

* RADIO: XTRA (1150).

1996 RECORDS

* UCLA: 5-6, 4-4 in Pac-10

* Washington State: 5-6, 3-5 in Pac-10