Bruins seek elite status

The voice carried through a closed door from the bowels of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium.

"We are going to get ourselves back to the pinnacle," UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel hollered after a 19-15 victory over the Volunteers two weeks ago.

The Back to the Future talk goes on, in the locker room and in cyber space, where UCLA fans see a 3-0 start as a prelude to the Bruins' return to the national spotlight. The trick, if they make it, will be staying there.

The university's academic standards, assistant coach turnover and a dug-in in-house Bruins family, as well as the presence across town of USC, are ingredients that have left UCLA with only one national championship -- handed out by an organization, United Press International, that no longer gives out titles.

This is the ninth time the Bruins are 3-0 entering Pacific 10 Conference play since 1971. Neuheisel remains cautious with a young team, but insists, "We do not want to be a middle-of-the-road program. We may have to go through that patch to get to where we want to go. We need to strive to excellence. It has happened here before. It can happen here again."

Some teams climb mountains. UCLA, too often, has been stuck in the foothills. The Bruins have finished in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll 10 times in the last 53 seasons.

The Bruins' lone national title was in 1954, when UPI voted the Bruins No. 1. They were second in the AP poll that year behind Ohio State. UCLA has spent a total of five weeks atop the AP poll since opening the 1955 season at No. 1.

"We had spurts in the 1960s and then [Coach] Tommy Prothro left when I really think we had the thing rolling," former UCLA athletic director Peter Dalis said. "Dick Vermeil comes in and sparked things and we get to a Rose Bowl. Terry Donahue really grew the program in the 1980s, with all the bowl victories. Those are highlights from my perspective."

Yet none had Bruins fans chanting, "We're No. 1" in the end.

In 1967, UCLA was the top-ranked team heading into the USC game and lost, 21-20, on O.J. Simpson's spectacular touchdown run. In 1988, Troy Aikman's Bruins were No. 1 for two weeks, only to be upset by Washington State. The second-ranked Bruins, on a 20-game winning streak, were so close to playing for the 1998 national title they could smell it in the balmy South Beach breeze. Then they neglected to tackle Miami running back Edgerrin James and lost in the regular-season finale, 49-45.