This is not going to have a happy ending

The end will be filled with fight, but an alley kind of fight, wild swings and pointed fingers and sucker punches.

The end will be filled with effort, but a futile sort of effort, kids trying to save a job that can probably not be saved, trying rescue a season that has already been lost.

The end will be about devastated players making desperate plays in hopes of piercing the chill that has settled upon this UCLA football program like a shroud.

They will not. They cannot.

The end of the journey that has been Karl Dorrell's five-year UCLA coaching career seems as certain as the pain in some of the final steps taken in Saturday's 24-20 loss to Arizona State at the Rose Bowl.

Another blown lead, another bad halftime, more bad penalties, more questionable calls, three consecutive losses, boos that are now firmly wedged between the cheers.

"Our team played hard," said Dorrell, because, anymore, that is all he can say.

Earlier, in ways they probably never imagined, his senior leaders spoke for him.

Listen to Bruce Davis after he crushed Sun Devils quarterback Rudy Carpenter late on a failed Hail Mary pass to end the first half, a penalty which gave the Sun Devils' one more play, which became a game-changing field goal.

"I was doing what I was supposed to do," Davis said.

Listen to receiver Brandon Breazell after his perfect deep pass in the third quarter was dropped by wide-open, walk-on wide receiver Chris Meadows, killing Bruin momentum.

"That was Meadows' play," said Breazell, blaming the kid without the scholarship. "All week he said, 'I got your back, I got your back' " . . . and then when game time comes, well . . . "

Listen to linebacker Christian Taylor talk about Dorrell's future.

"Football is a business, it's not the YMCA," he said, shrugging. "If we don't play well, we sit on the bench. You've got to win."

They have not, and so Dorrell will probably pay, and they know it, their fall nearly complete now, two games left against the two best teams in the conference, a season that has mirrored an era.

From the Pac-10 lead toward a possible bowl ban. From the excitement of 20 returning seniors to a silence of another losing locker room. From Hollywood to Toledo.

A couple of weeks ago, when asked about Dorrell, Bruins Athletic Director Dan Guerrero said, "I will be very interested to see how we finish the season. And you can use that."