'The Granddaddy Of Them All'

Wisconsin hopes to control the game by having tailback Ron Dayne rip through one of the country's weakest defenses. UCLA will try to pile up points with Cade McNown's passing.

"It should be a very interesting game," Badgers coach Barry Alvarez predicted. "We're two totally different football teams."

While Wisconsin and UCLA have used drastically contrasting styles to get there, they each will go into Friday's Rose Bowl with 10-1 records.

Dayne, a junior who has averaged 5.7 yards a carry in three years and is on pace to rewrite Ricky Williams' still-fresh NCAA career rushing record, could have a field day against the Bruins' defense, which ranked 99th in the country by giving up an average of 432.5 yards as well as 27 points per game.

In UCLA's last game, a 49-45 loss at Miami on Dec. 5, the Hurricanes' Edgerrin James rushed for 299 yards.

Bruins coach Bob Toledo said he was preparing the defense for collisions with the 253-pound Dayne "by having them practice tackling pickup trucks."

"If we can't tackle him, it's going to be a ery long afternoon," Toledo said.

Meanwhile the Badgers' defense, which led the nation by allowing just 10.2 points a game, will be faced with the task of containing McNown, who threw for 3,130 yards and 23 touchdowns this year.

The Bruins averaged 40.5 points a game this year and Alvarez worries that McNown, an All-American, will pick the Badgers' young secondary apart. Two freshmen and a sophomore are in the starting lineup.

"I would be worried against this guy with an NFL secondary because he is pretty good," the Wisconsin coach said. "I always worry about people throwing the ball."

"I don't think they (the Badgers' secondary) has been tested by a thrower and a group of receivers and running backs and an offense like this. They are not going to flinch, but we just don't know if they are good enough, or our defense is good enough."

Wisconsin, which threw the ball five fewer times, 183, than McNown had completions this season, averaged 31 points a game by grinding it out. Dayne carried 268 times and averaged 127 yards a game.

The ninth-ranked Badgers may be more motivated than No. 6 UCLA. The Rose Bowl is a sort of consolation prize for the Bruins, who several weeks ago believed they would be in playing in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship.

Instead, they saw their title hopes blown away by hurricanes - the loss to Miami in a game that was postponed more than two months by Hurricane Georges. The Miami Hurricanes had struggled early in the season, but were much improved by the time they finally played UCLA.

Despite losing a shot at the national championship, Toledo and his players have insisted that the Rose Bowl is an important game for them.

"We don't look at this as a second-best game," the Bruins coach said. "We were awful in our last game and now we have a chance to atone for that."

McNown, who rewrote just about every UCLA passing record in his four years as a starter, said, "I can't believe there is disappointment in going to the Rose Bowl. That's one of the big reasons I came to UCLA."

Unlike the Bruins, the Badgers were never taken seriously as national title contenders. Even when they were 9-0, they were ranked eighth in the poll behind four teams that had lost a game.

So Alvarez, who guided the Badgers to a 21-16 upset of UCLA in the 1994 Rose Bowl, and his players have reason to be pleased they're in Pasadena.

"The Rose Bowl is the greatest venue in college sports and the game itself is a remarkable experience. We are thrilled to get another chance to play in the granddaddy of them all," Alvarez said after the Badgers won a share of the Big Ten title along with Ohio State and Michigan.

Wisconsin fullback Cecil Martin said, "We worked hard to get here and this was our goal all season long, to get into the Rose Bowl game."

Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. EST in what is the 53rd Big Ten vs. Pac-10 Rose Bowl. The series is ied at 26 wins each.

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