Bruins defensive back: Losing to New Mexico a scary thought

Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2002 | 10:34 a.m.

LAS VEGAS AP) - UCLA defensive back Ricky Manning Jr. can't imagine the Bruins losing to New Mexico, a team playing in a bowl game for only the second time in 41 years.

"A team of our caliber, a Pac-10 school, isn't supposed to lose to a team that's not on the national scene like us," Manning said Tuesday.

UCLA (7 (5)- meets the Lobos 7 (6)- of the Mountain West Conference in the Las Vegas Bowl on Christmas Day. In a way it's a matchup of the Bruins' tradition and New Mexico's long history of obscurity, a fact not lost on Manning.

"It's kind of like we've got everything to lose and for me personally, the thought of losing is terrifying," said the Bruins cornerback. "It would be a bigger disappointment if we lose than if they lose."

UCLA is a 10-point favorite in the first meeting ever between the two schools and Manning said the Bruins don't want to duplicate Southern Cal's lackluster performance against Utah, another MWC school, in last year's Las Vegas Bowl.

Utah beat the Trojans 10-6, holding USC to 1-yard rushing and 151 total yards.

"You bet they caught some (criticism) for that," Manning said.

New Mexico's brief bowl history - six games dating back to 1939 - includes a win over Western Michigan in 1961 in the Aviation Bowl, which folded after that year. The Lobos didn't play in the postseason again until 1997, when they lost to Arizona in the Insight.com Bowl.

"Two bowl games in 41 years, we're not used to press conferences," Long said at Tuesday's final gathering of the two coaches and players with the media.

But the Lobos also relish the role of underdogs.

"We're the underdogs no matter who we play," Long said. "But as far as being intimidated, there isn't a team in the this country that could intimidate us."

Long took over the New Mexico program from Dennis Franchione, who left for TCU after leading the Lobos to the bowl game in Tucson in 1997. The Lobos were 12-23 in Long's first three seasons before going 6-5 last year. They season they started out 2-4, then won five of the last seven games.

About 6,000 New Mexico fans are in Las Vegas for the game and Long said a win over UCLA would be a coup for the entire state.

"There's probably more people that live in a 30-mile radius of UCLA than live in the whole state of New Mexico," he said. "For us to have as many people here as we do says a lot about the kind of loyalty those fans have, because they've been through a lot of really bad years."

UCLA's 7-5 season and the bid to the Las Vegas Bowl wasn't enough to save coach Bob Toledo's job. The school replaced Toledo with Karl Dorrell, the wide receivers coach for the Denver Broncos and former UCLA wide receiver. But Dorrell won't take over until after the bowl game.

Ed Kezirian, the assistant director of academic services and Toledo's assistants are in charge of the team for the bowl game.

"A win builds momentum and creates enthusiasm," Kezirian said. "It will get Coach Dorrell off to a good start and would keep the program spirited and on course."

The Las Vegas Bowl is sponsored by SEGA Sports. Kickoff is at 1:30 PST.