Practice makes a difference

After a four-game losing streak, UCLA’s defense bounced back with a strong effort in last week’s 25-7 victory over Oregon State, which had averaged 365.2 yards and 36.1 points a game before playing the Bruins.

UCLA held the Beavers more than 100 yards and four touchdowns under their average, and the Bruins credit their turnaround to the return of full contact in practice.

“We hadn’t been tackling like we should and like we can, so in practice we just put more emphasis on that,” said outside linebacker John Hale, who started in place of injured Aaron Whittington against Oregon State. “We just went out there and played in the game like we did in practice.”

Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker also went back to a more basic but aggressive approach, which is how the Bruins played early in the season, when they won four of their first five games.

“Sometimes you just have to be who you are,” Walker said. “I think there have been times when I’ve over-analyzed schematically in looking out too much for a good receiver or good running back. We just went out and played and I think the players appreciated that.”

Early this week, the Bruins were in full pads and tackled again as they prepared for Saturday’s game against surging Arizona State.

Behind quarterback Rudy Carpenter, the Sun Devils have won three of their last four games and are playing their best football of the season. In last week’s 47-14 victory over Washington State, Carpenter led Arizona State to scores the first six times it had the ball and 562 yards in total offense.

“I think they caught Washington State at the right time,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said. “Offensively, Rudy Carpenter really lit it up right from the start. He had some big throws early and he kind of got his rhythm going ...

“They are going to be very confident building off of that win. We’re confident with our win, so it will be a great challenge this weekend.”

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Arizona State Coach Dirk Koetter said the Sun Devils like playing against blitzing teams like the Bruins.

“We have a saying here, ‘If you blitz we score,’ ” Koetter said. “We think that we should be able to beat one-on-one coverage. We just have to do a good job of getting the ball out and getting it off on time and having our receivers make plays.

“We might not be able to attack down the field as much, but we will be able to do a lot of short passes and run a long way.”

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UCLA, 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference, and Arizona State (6-4 and 3-4) are tied with Arizona for sixth place in the conference. A win this week for the Bruins would make them bowl eligible and also give them victories over the Sun Devils and Wildcats this season, which would help in tiebreakers.... Dorrell said Hale would start at outside linebacker again in place of Whittington, who is still bothered by an ankle injury.

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