UCLA Paints Freedom Bowl Green, 31-10

What’s round and new and Green all over? The Freedom Bowl.

Since it’s only three years old, the history of the Freedom Bowl is rather brief, but at least it’s a colorful one now.

On a clear, crisp Tuesday night before 51,214 in Anaheim Stadium, the Freedom Bowl was painted in shades of Gaston Green, who rushed for 266 yards in 33 carries and accounted for all four of UCLA’s touchdowns in a 31-10 victory over Brigham Young University.

Green ran for touchdowns of 3, 1 and 79 yards as the Bruins rolled to a 21-point lead.

Was he through for the night? Not quite.

With six minutes left, Green actually threw a pass, the first of his career, and, naturally, it went for a touchdown.

As great as Green’s game was, not everyone was pleased by the way he ended it with his 13-yard scoring pass to Karl Dorrell.

In the interview room afterward, Patti Edwards, who is the wife of BYU Coach LaVell Edwards, asked UCLA Coach Terry Donahue a question.

“Do you really think it was kosher, running that halfback thing, with the score the way it was?” Mrs. Edwards asked.

“Well, Patti,” began Donahue, who explained that assistant coach Homer Smith called the play and then said that both teams were still playing.

“I made my point,” said Mrs. Edwards as she left the interview room.

So did Green. He finished with his seventh consecutive 100-yard game, his eighth this season and the 13th of his career.

Green also broke the major college bowl record for yardage set by Dickie Moegle of Rice, who gained 265 yards in the 1954 Cotton Bowl against Alabama.

“I don’t think I can have any better game than I did tonight,” Green said.

“But I was surprised we were able to run the ball so well against them.”

The Cougars felt the same way. Tackle Jason Buck, the Outland Award winner as the nation’s best defensive lineman, was barely noticeable and was in on only four tackles.

Donahue said he had been concerned about how his team would perform against the BYU defensive line, especially Buck and Shawn Knight.

“I really felt they might be the dominant players in the game, but it really didn’t turn out that way,” Donahue said.

Knight, the other BYU tackle, envied Green.

“That boy can run ,” Miller said. “He’s fast. I don’t think he needs an offensive line. What can you do?”

What indeed? As it turned out, the Cougars did very little. BYU’s sixth-ranked rushing defense, which had allowed only 88.8 yards a game in conference play, gave up 70 to Green in the first quarter alone.

By halftime, UCLA was clinging to a 7-3 lead, even though Green had already rushed for 150 yards in 21 carries.

The Bruins broke the game open with a 17-point third quarter. Green, who scored the game’s first touchdown on a three-yard sweep around left end, got his second on a one-yard run around right end on UCLA’s second possession of the quarter.

That touchdown was made possible when fullback Marcus Greenwood ran 70 yards straight up the middle of the BYU defense before Shane Shumway dragged him down at the Cougar six.

David Franey’s 49-yard field goal increased the UCLA lead to 17-3. After the Bruin defense forced a BYU punt after three plays, Green took off again.

On second down at the Bruin 21, Green took a handoff from Matt Stevens and cut down the left sideline, where he outran cornerback Darren Lambert, who had an angle on him but couldn’t catch up.

Green didn’t stop until 79 yards later when he crossed the goal line for a 24-3 lead.

“I tried to use all my gears,” Green said of the longest touchdown run of his career. “I didn’t think nobody was going to catch me.”

Nobody did. But then no one on the BYU team was catching Green or many other UCLA runners. The Bruins wound up with 423 yards on the ground. BYU gained just 73 yards rushing.

“Hopefully, if we get in a bowl game next year, we won’t have to play UCLA,” Edwards said.

The Cougars, who concluded a long season at 8-5, averaged just 3.42 yards a play. BYU found the UCLA defense, led by linebacker Ken Norton’s 17 tackles, extremely difficult. UCLA had 9 sacks for 70 yards in losses.

Meanwhile, UCLA averaged 7.4 yards each play and wound up with a total offense of 518 yards.

BYU, which led briefly, 3-0, on Leonard Chitty’s 32-yard field goal in the first quarter, scored its only touchdown with 2:21 to play in the game. Bruce Hansen’s three-yard run ended a 12-play, 72-yard drive, but by then, the Bruins had already painted the game Green.

Stevens ended his career at UCLA by passing for 95 yards on an 8-for-21 game with 1 interception, although he could easily have had a 51-yard touchdown pass to Flipper Anderson. But Anderson dropped the ball at the BYU three.

Dorrell also finished his UCLA career with 6 catches for 83 yards, but he also set up Green’s first touchdown with a 49-yard reverse.

In keeping with the Green theme, however, it was left to Gaston to be the highlight of the passing game. He took a handoff from Stevens and rolled to his left before throwing a left-handed pass to Dorrell in the corner of the end zone.

That play revealed two things: Green is left-handed and he throws as good a spiral as Stevens.

Green said he was only following instructions on the play and agreed with Donahue that the pass was appropriate at that stage of the game.

“It was just a play that we called,” Green said. “I’ve been waiting all year for Coach Smith to call it. We were just down there close, and we don’t stop playing. Like Coach Donahue said, they didn’t stop playing either.”

Edwards had less to say about the pass than his wife.

“I don’t think it made any difference one way or the other,” he said.

And so the Bruins ended their up-and-down season 8-3-1. With a victory in the Freedom Bowl ringing in his ears, Donahue said he was satisfied.

“The season ended on a high note, although it obviously started on a very low one,” he said. “When we look at our season, with a victory over our cross-town rivals at USC and now this, we can reflect on a very successful one.”

Green Is Golden Gaston Green’s 266 yards rushing against BYU gives him a head start on next year’s Heisman Trophy race. Mike Penner’s story, Page 5.