BYU football: Familiar foes face off in rubber match

PROVO — It's rare for two college football teams to play each other three times during a calendar year or so. When No. 18 BYU entertains UCLA at LaVell Edwards Stadium — which is sold out for today's showdown — it marks their third meeting in 370 days.

Certainly, there's familiarity between the two programs. They've squared off at the Rose Bowl and in the Las Vegas Bowl, with the Bruins winning the first contest by 10 points and the Cougars claiming the second by one point. As for today's "rubber match" bowl, who knows what the outcome might be?

"I think it is going to be two good football teams," said first-year UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel. "We've had two good football games against them in the last (year), and this one will be no exception."

"We're expecting a great game against them. They always put up a good fight against us," said BYU linebacker David Nixon. "In the Las Vegas Bowl, we were favored to win. They showed that we have some weaknesses in our team. I think they're going to come in here with a lot of confidence from their first win (this season). It should be a great battle up here in Provo."

While there's familiarity between the two teams, there is a sense of uncertainty as well. Much has happened since Sept. 8, 2007, when No. 13 UCLA defeated unranked BYU, 27-17, in Pasadena. The Bruins went 4-7 the rest of the way, including a 44-6 loss at Utah the week after defeating BYU and a 17-16 setback to the No. 19 Cougars in Las Vegas to cap the season.

BYU, meanwhile, lost the week after falling to UCLA — at Tulsa — and it hasn't lost since en route to a 12-game winning streak.

UCLA fired head coach Karl Dorrell in December, and defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker was promoted to interim head coach for the bowl game. In late December, the charismatic Neuheisel was handed the reins of the program.

The Bruins upset then-No. 18 Tennessee, 27-24, in overtime, in Neuheisel's debut on Labor Day.

"To me, they're a completely different team this year," Nixon said of UCLA.

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said one intriguing aspect of this series is that the Bruins have been led by three different head coaches in the three meetings.

"When you consider the momentum they had in the Rose Bowl when we played them the first time, that was, I think, the best that they played," he said. "In the Las Vegas Bowl, there was some transition (for UCLA). Though it was a hard-fought game, they had more momentum the first time.