BETTER HOLD OFF ON THE HEISMANIA.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

``Average'' never looked so bad.

``Average'' - that's what an Arizona player called UCLA quarterback Cade McNown a few days before the two top-10 teams collided here.

If the Bruins read the quotes in the paper, they must have enjoyed a good laugh.

``Average''? Their favorite Heisman Trophy candidate?

Then came Saturday night, and for the longest time, the Bruins must have wished McNown was even as good as average.

For the first 20 minutes, he was outpassed not only by Ortege Jenkins and Keith Smith, the Arizona quarterbacks, but by Ryan Springston, the Arizona punter.

Springston completed a 35-yard pass to put Arizona at the 1 and set up the game's first touchdown.

McNown, meanwhile, finished the first quarter with two complete passes in 10 tries, for 29 yards.

He overthrew, threw behind and short-hopped receivers, forced a couple of passes he was lucky not to have intercepted.

Well, he rallied, and so did the Bruins, but their comeback and eventual 52-28 victory in front of 58,738 fans had more to do with freshman tailback DeShaun Foster than McNown.

So it's time to ask:

Whatever happened to that Heisman Trophy campaign, anyway?

Is McNown's gold hat still in the ring?

Is McNown lucky this game ended after the bedtime of most East Coast voters and started after the bedtime of the rest?

Or is McNown falling out of the race?

There was more than the usual pressure on McNown in the game that matched third-ranked UCLA against 10th-ranked Arizona with national-title and Rose Bowl hopes on the line and the local fans turned into a ``Red Siege'' by an everyone-wear-red promotion.

The Bruins played without Jermaine Lewis, the tailback who'd rushed for 113 yards in one game, 94 yards in another, and eight touchdowns in their 3-0 start. Lewis was suspended Tuesday pending investigation of an off-campus fight.

Add that to the weight on McNown's freckled shoulders.

At the same time, McNown faced his first game of the season against another high-rated quarterback. In this case two high-rated quarterbacks - Jenkins, whose touchdown flip beat 20th-ranked Washington in the last seconds a week ago, and Smith.

Add that to the weight on McNown's freckled shoulders.

At the same time, McNown was being challenged verbally, his Heisman credentials questioned.

There was the bulletin-board material from Arizona cornerback/receiver/tailback Chris McAlister.

``He looks like an average quarterback to me, personally,'' McAlister said to Tucson writers earlier in the week. ``I haven't seen anything special about him.''

And there were pointed remarks from UCLA head coach Bob Toledo, who assessed McNown's 31-for-59 passing in the past two games.

``He's been very average,'' Toledo said, describing him as ``out of sync.''

The point was, the senior quarterback had to pick up his game for the Bruins to beat Arizona and, next week, 15th-ranked Oregon.

First things first, Arizona figured to be tough on him. The Wildcats had held quarterbacks under 45 percent three times in their 5-0 start.

It's easy to see why. The Wildcats put the rush on McNown early and often, hurrying his throws. At his best, McNown might have overcome it, but this time he looked tentative.

The Bruins had to find a way to take the heat off. They found it in the form of Foster, a ballcarrier with wide shoulders and piano legs, torso by Schwarzenegger and legs by Steinway.

Late in the first quarter, on his first rush of the game, Foster broke tackles and went 37 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-7. Late in the half, he went 2 yards to make it 21-21.

Foster went over the 100-yard mark shortly after the halftime band's last note died. No longer could Arizona chase the quarterback and lay off the tailback.

Even so, McNown began the fourth quarter with nine completions in 23 attempts for 107 yards, 14 of those on a touchdown pass and run to Brian Poli-Dixon.

So maybe Chris McAlister was right.

He saw something before the rest of us. He saw ``average'' where the rest of us saw ``Heisman.''

If his cornerback/receiver/tailback career doesn't work out, the Rams could use him as a scouting director.