In his UCLA debut against Tennessee, Craft threw four first-half interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, though, Craft directed a pair of touchdown drives. He completed 18 of 25 passes for 193 yards in the second half.

Then there's defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, who was the Bruins' interim head coach for the Las Vegas Bowl after the firing of Karl Dorrell. Walker served as a BYU assistant coach for one season, in 1995. And Kai Forbath, who had his potential game-winning field goal blocked by the Cougars in Las Vegas, drilled a 42-yarder in overtime against Tennessee that turned out to be the game-winner.

Plenty of story lines.

"Craft played against us a few years ago (for San Diego State) and I was impressed," said coach Bronco Mendenhall. "Obviously, coach Chow on offense is an excellent coach. We already know about coach Walker on defense. He's an excellent coach. They have a new head coach as well. They have a bye week in preparation for us. But we have them in LaVell Edwards Stadium. I'm sure our team will be anxious to play."

"Anytime we play at home, we feel like we have a huge advantage," said linebacker David Nixon. "We expect our crowd to be rocking like it was (Saturday at Husky Stadium). It's going to be a big sellout game with both of us in the top 25. There will be a lot of hype. But it's just another football game. We hope to come out with a victory."

The Cougars snapped a streak of nine straight non-conference road losses with the win over Washington. But Mendenhall does not see it as breakthrough victory. "Was this a huge step for us? No," he said. "Was it the next step? Yes."

Said Jorgensen of facing the Bruins: "It's going to be fun.

We've got to get focused on UCLA. They're a good team. We watched them play last week. They have a great defense. Craft showed some really good things in the second half. We're going to have to play a team that has some momentum. We're going to have to get after them."

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com