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		6-8? UCLA attempts to avoid that record in the Fight Hunger Bowl By Morris Phillips December 27, 2011

	College football teams don’t finish 6-8. UCLA’s Johnathan Franklin realizes as much and plans on using the two numbers as major motivational factor on Saturday when his Bruins face Illinois in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at Pac Bell Park. “First ever?” Franklin mused. “I don’t want to be known for that.” UCLA may not be in danger of becoming the first NCAA team to finish 6-8 as Franklin believes, but the 6-7 Bruins are the once-in-a-lifetime sub-.500 bowl entry granted a special exemption to receive a bowl bid to cover for the Pac-12 conference, which is lacking in qualifying teams for their seven bowl slots. If receiving the exemption is to rate as a positive, the Bruins have to win on Saturday or their off-season will be littered with questions about a pair of lopsided losses to USC and Oregon that led to the firing of head coach Rick Neuheisel, followed by a loss to an Illini squad that hasn’t won since October 8. According to Franklin, the Bruins are worry-free, focused on football and not on newspaper storylines. “At the end of the day, we’re here to play football,” Franklin said. “We love the game of football. If (Neuheisel is) here or not, it’s not going to affect our work ethic at all. We’re still working, we’re still hungry. We want to win real bad. We need this one.” And the UCLA motivational bucket isn’t one-dimensional. The Bruins are a young team looking to build on their modest success this season as a springboard for 2012. Cornerback Andre Abbott’s one of those returning next season and he’s looking to change the prevailing perception of the tough-luck Bruins. “We really want to redeem ourselves,” Abbott said. “And just go out and show ourselves and show our team that we are a family and exactly what we are about.” The Bruins parlayed a 6-6 regular season into a spot opposite Oregon in the inaugural Pac-12 championship game when probation-saddled USC couldn’t represent the conference’s south division. UCLA best wins came against also-rans Cal and Arizona State (by one point at home) while six of their seven losses were by lopsided margins. Their season ended with a 50-0 loss at USC and 49-31 setback at Oregon in the conference championship game. So the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl stands as the team’s last chance to make a positive—and lasting—impression. Interim head coach Mike Johnson will lead UCLA on Saturday with newly hired Jim Mora Jr. working the recruiting trail and waiting in the wings until the bowl game concludes. Johnson served as the offensive coordinator under Neuheisel and figures to lean heavily on Franklin and junior quarterback Kevin Prince, who threw for 1,627 yards and 10 touchdowns despite playing only sparingly in the team’s first five games. The Bruins will need to hide their defensive issues which saw them allow 32 points a game and register just 13 sacks, 10th worst in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Luckily for them, Illinois has its biggest issues on offense where they’ve scored just 66 points in their six-game losing streak. The Illini also figures to be limited without starting tailback Jason Ford who was suspended due to non-performance academically. If UCLA needs to a positive point of reference, it would have to be their 31-14 win over Cal in which they rushed for 294 yards—without Franklin. The Bruins entered that game on October 29 with six players suspended for their participation in an on-field brawl the previous week against Arizona. Instead of sulking, the Bruins forced five turnovers and took that game over in the second quarter with 17 unanswered points. Prince was passer turned runner in that one with 163 yards on 19 rushing attempts as UCLA’s pistol offense proved lethal. Illinois figures to counter UCLA’s offensive attack with the FBS’ seventh-ranked defense led by All-American defensive end Whitney Mercilus who has 14 ½ sacks and 19 ½ tackles for losses. The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl kicks at 12:30pm on New Year’s Eve and will be televised by ESPN.