The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 56

C8 LATIMES.COM/SPORTS SEPT. 3 L(0-1) 38-34 SEPT. 10 San Jose St. W(1-1) 27-17 SEPT. 24 St.

W(2-2) 27-19 OCT. 1 L(2-3) 45-19 OCT. 8 Wash. State W(3-3) 28-25 NOV. 26 7p.m.

Prime NOV. 19 Colorado W(6-5) 45-6 NOV. 12 L(5-5) 31-6 NOV. 5 Arizona St. W(5-4) 29-28 OCT.

29 California W(4-4) 31-14 OCT. 20 L(3-4) 48-12 SEPT. 17 Texas L(1-2) 49-20 UP NEXT Sometimes statistics do paint an accurate picture. UCLA has become subservient in this rivalry, losing 11of the last 12 games to USC. Still, the Bruins can win the Pac-12 Conference South Division title with a victory.

The Bruins have not had so much on the line since 2007, when they entered the game with a slim chance to get to the Rose Bowl. UCLA GAME REPORT UCLA 45, Colorado 6 First Quarter 54 pass from Prince (Gonzalez kick), 12:22. 14 run (Gonzalez kick), 11:26. 5 pass from Prince (Gonzalez kick), 4:03. Second Quarter 20 pass from Hansen (kick failed), 14:54.

Third Quarter Gonzalez 22, 10:58. Fourth Quarter 15 pass from Prince (Gonzalez kick), 13:42. 11pass from Prince (Gonzalez kick), 8:07. 1run (Gonzalez kick), 3:52. STATISTICS TEAMColUCLA First Return Time of Individual Leaders RUSHING: Colorado, Stewart 21-77, T.Jones 2-11, Hansen 5-(minus 1).

UCLA, Franklin 15-162, Prince 10-84, Coleman 11-54, James 2-15, M.Jones 5-13, Barr 1-0. PASSING: Colorado, Hansen 16-31-3-127, Hirschman 1-1-0-15. UCLA, Prince 15-19-0-225. RECEIVING: Colorado, Stewart 7-36, Clemons 350, Deehan 3-11, E.Harrington 2-29, Richardson 216. UCLA, Rosario 6-102, Fauria 5-49, Embree 2-13, Evans 1-54, James 1-7.

Actual tangible excitement returned to UCLA football again Saturday at the Rose Bowl. Mark it approximately at 7 p.m. Up until then, it has been a season of discontent. Win one. Lose one.

Talk about injuries. Try to keep hope springing eternal. A big winNov. 5 against Arizona State was followed by a big lossthe nextweek against Utah. The Bruins were gutsy only about of the time, and that even get you past the in BCS.

More attention was paid to the fate of fourth-year Coach Rick Neuheisel than to the fate of the team, although the two were joined at the hip. Crowds at the Rose Bowl were dreadful. Sat- was only 57,334 in a cavern that is configured for Bruins game at more like 85,000. The old buzz from the Terry Donahue era, and the days of Troy Aikman even the days of Bob Toledo and Cade McNown was long gone. At game time Saturday, empty seats were the dominant motif and the excitement level seemed higher on the nearby Brookside golf course putting green.

You could have stayed home and watched the game on something called Versus, if you could find it. To the credit of that cable network, the game finished in less than three hours. Had it been on ESPN, with 20 commercials every half hour, still be playing. But then it happened. A UCLA downer season turned the other way, at least for the moment.

With 14 minutes14 seconds left in the fourth quarter against Colorado, Neu- heisel stopped playing it close to the vest, went for the final dagger and got it. On fourth and four from 21, the Bruins rushed up the middle for six yardsand followed that immediately with a 15-yard touchdown pass, Kevin Prince to Joseph Fauria. Now, there was no question. The Bruins were going to win. touchdown and the extra point made it 31-6.

The floodgates had opened. It ended 45-6, and there was sudden new joy in Bruinville. Let the permutations begin. Now, UCLA can win a spot in thePac-12 firsttitle game simply with a win next Saturday. OK, not so simple.

The Bruins play USC at the Coliseum, and the Trojans, despite being tackled hard and suffering serious injuries from the NCAA the last two seasons, are turning out to be very good. They messed up both vaunted Oregon and the BCS rankings when they hung on to beat the No. 4 Ducks at Eugene, 38-35. see that coming, did you? Nor did you expect to see the words and in the same sentence. USC against UCLA needs no extra kindling wood, but it sure got plenty with the successes at the Rose Bowl and at Oregon.

The other contenders for the Pac-12 South title, Utah and Arizona State, stayed alive. But for Bruinsfans, it is easy. Win and in. Surely, that is a long shot, and a lead-in week of discussion will make that more clear. USCis 6-2 in the Pac-12 and 9-2 overall.

But itis ineligible to win the title, and so its main focus will be to make sure its hated rival either. To be sure, UCLA will be adecided underdog against USC. The Colorado team it beat was embarrassingly bad much of the time Saturday, although give UCLA credit for contributing to that. 1-7 conference record and 2-10 overall markare well earned. The last time the Buffaloes won a football game outsideof Colorado was at Texas Tech on Oct.

27, 2007. That was 24 away-from- home games ago. That calls for something more than coaching. Psychologists, maybe. Still, UCLA and Neuhei- sel deserved this moment, if for no other reason than for getting through a season of perseverance.

Neuheisel, who done it recently after making it apostgame ritual, took the public-address microphone and told the crowd, the naysay- ers, playing for the championship next In hisnews conference, the former Bruins quarterback said, for the championship is the way I want it to be, the way it should be. When I got back here, what I longed UCLA, not long ago a team that sputtered on offense like an old Model picked up 553 yards. Its quarterback, Prince, not long ago a player who was injured so much he even have a chance to sputter, completed 15 of 19 passes for 225 yards and four touchdowns. Yes, it was against Colorado. Yes, when you take USC out of the picture, the Pac-12 South would be mostlyJV teams in a conference like theSoutheast- ern.

But you play where you are and survive as best you can. Neuheisel has preached in his four years about living for another day. hollow sounding after many of the lousy losses the Bruins have had. But it sure works now. And the day UCLA has been living for will include USC.

That should be a rout. But then, no should-behas knocked out UCLAyet. bill.dwyre@latimes.com Bruins persevere to vie for title BILL DWYRE UCLA wide receiver Nelson Rosario played his last home gameSaturday, leaving Bruins fans with fond memories with six catches for 102 yards and a touchdown in a 45-6 victory over Colorado at the Rose Bowl. Few UCLA receivers have been dissected so thoroughly, with even coaches pondering what more Rosario could have done on the field. Numbers-wise, he seems to have done plenty.

Rosario moved into sixth place with receiving yards and seventh place with 130 receptions on the career list. He is two behind teammate Taylor Embree in receptions. is a bona fide Coach Rick Neuheisel said of Rosario. done all that without the benefit of a redshirt take on his career totals was, not No. 1, so it really matter.

But I can show my kids one day, maybe come back and talk to Rosario has had spotlight moments he had 151 yards receiving against Washington State this season he also has been a disappearing act. He has a career-high 48 receptions this season to lead the team, yet he has only two touchdown catchesthis season and only five in his four-year career. think as a teacher, as a motivator, never going to be Neuhei- sel said. think Nelson is getting alittle numb to it. But he understands that I am trying to get out his best.

Ithink there isthis amazing player inside of Rosario agreed he might have had more to give. feel like I left some out he said. feel like there was more I could have Running it up Johnathan Franklin gained 162 yards rushing, giving him 2,550 in his career and moving him past Kermit Johnson into 11th place on all-time list. Johnson, who played from 1971-73, had 2,495 yards. Franklin averaged 10.8 yards per carry in his third 100-yard game this season.

Catching up UCLA tight end Joseph Fauria caught two touchdown passes, covering five and 15 yards. Fauria has six touchdown receptions this sea- son, the most by a UCLA receiver since Marcedes Lewis had 10 in 2005. Crowds down UCLA football games are being played far from the madding crowd. The 57,334 at the Rose Bowl on Saturday on the Senior Day could not stop a slide in attendance for the fifth consecutive season. UCLA averaged a school-record 76,379 fans a game in 2007, but has watched that number shrink every season since 72,795 in 2008, 64,547 in 2009, 60,376 in 2010.

The average attendance in six home games this season was 56,660. That included a sparse turnout of 54,583 for a game against Texas. UCLA officials expected to bring in $1million more than they did from that marquee matchup. Dye returns Senior safety Tony Dye started for UCLA in what was his first game action in seven weeks. Dye had been out with a neck injury since the Bruins played Texas at the Rose Bowl on Sept.

17. By coming back to play, Dye cannot apply for a medical redshirt year. A player can seek a medical redshirt and another season of eligibility if he has not played after the first three games. chris.foster@latimes.com twitter.com/cfosterlatimes UCLA FYI Rosario finishes strong at home Chris Foster Conference title game. The Bruins win the South Division title with a victory and can go to the Rose Bowl game with a win over either Stanford or Oregon in the conference title game.

This is almost exactly where the Bruins (6-5 overall, 5-3 in conference) stood in 2007 bowl-eligible, a slim shot at the Rose Bowl heading into a game with USC and a coach who was unsure about his future. UCLA lost to USC, 24-7, and the Bruins went to the Las Vegas Bowl without Coach Karl Dorrell, who was fired. The Bruins will try to alter the finish this time. are always things you wished had gone said Love, a redshirt freshman on that 2007 team. we can win, go to the Rose Bowl.

This can end in a good The Bruins set that up by doing what so many other teams have done this season the Buffaloes (210, 1-7), who have lost 24 consecutive games outside of Colorado. Quarterback Kevin Prince completed 15 of 19 passes for 225 yards and a career-high four touchdowns. Johnathan Franklin had 162 yards rushing. The Bruins rolled up 328 yards on the ground. Sure, the Bruins meandered a bit before scoring three fourth-quarter touchdowns.

But that amounted to a small mood swing in a season of much bigger ones. may have done it a little unorthodox, but if we get the Pac-12 championship, we have accomplished the goal we linebacker Sean Westgate said. say how we wanted to do it. We just said we wanted to do There was little reason for the Bruins to sweat style points Saturday. By the time they had run three plays they had a 14-0 lead.

Prince was the catalyst, hooking up with Shaquelle Evans on a 54-yard touchdown pass on the second play. He threw three more, as well as rushing for 84 yards. go crazy when KP is running like that and throw- ing touchdown Franklin said. just makes me so Even Coach Rick Neuhei- sel was impressed with Prince, saying, know what, a complete Prince much for analyzing after the game, saying, going to do is worry about USC right USC has won 11of the last 12 games against UCLA. funny, even the way this season has gone, we still have a chance to achieve our wide receiver Taylor Embree said.

Whether getting to the Pac-12 title game would be enough to save job is unknown. But for the first time since he became coach, the Bruins are playing for something when they play USC. how it should be, how it used to Neuheisel said. The Bruins certainly benefited from being in the south, away from Oregon and Stanford. And that USC, which beat Oregon on Saturday, was ineligible was another perk.

But Neuheisel said, all you want about the lack of great teams in our division or blah, blah, blah. The bottom line is playing for a chris.foster@latimes.com Robert Gauthier Los Angeles Times WITH THE GREATEST OF EASE: Nelson Rosario, who caught six passes for 102 yards, protects the ball against Greg Henderson and scores on an 11-yard reception in the fourth quarter. Prince leads romp over Colorado UCLA, from Robert Gauthier Los Angeles Times LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU: Derrick Coleman is wrapped up by Conrad Obi late in the second quarter. Coleman rushed for 54 yards. CMYK.