HE CAME, HE LEFT AND THEY WONDER BRUINS STILL DEALING WITH LOSS OF LOSMAN.

Byline: Matthew Kredell Staff Writer

Somewhere deep in an alternate universe, UCLA is getting ready to begin the football season Saturday with national-title hopes and Heisman Trophy possibilities.

It's easy to identify when time branched off into the current reality - one of a new coach, two green quarterbacks and middle-of-the-Pac expectations.

In July 1999, quarterback J.P. Losman did the unthinkable and transferred from UCLA to Tulane before ever playing a game with the Bruins.

For Losman, a Venice High graduate, leaving the hometown team he grew up watching to go across the country has worked out. He was rated the top senior quarterback in the next NFL draft class by National Football Scouting, Inc., to which all NFL teams subscribe.

For UCLA, the surprising decision may have hindered the program more than any injury or scandal in the past decade. The Bruins continue to suffer the effects.

``I've thought about (how things could be different if Losman stayed),'' said former UCLA coach Bob Toledo, who recruited Losman. ``I might still be there. You just never know. J.P. really set the program back when he decided to transfer. It hurt us tremendously.''

Losman grew up 10 minutes from UCLA in a family full of diehard Bruins fans who have a tradition of going to every UCLA-USC game whether it is at the Rose Bowl or Coliseum.

``At 11 years old, we visited the campus and he said, `Mom, this is where I want to go to school,' '' said Losman's mother, Tricia. ``I thought he'd be close to home, he'd be a Bruin, it'll be wonderful.''

UCLA planned on giving a scholarship to one quarterback. Losman and Hart of Newhall standout Kyle Boller wanted it.

The Bruins offered it to Losman after his junior year because he was the safer pick at the time. Boller was at a disadvantage because he didn't get the starting job at Hart until his senior year, whereas Losman already had been evaluated through his junior year.

The disappointed Boller settled for his second choice and went to California. Now Boller is a first-round pick who is scheduled to start for the Baltimore Ravens as a rookie.

Losman graduated from Venice High early and enrolled at UCLA in the spring, a well-intentioned move that may have led to his transfer.

Instead of having the comfort of 20 or so freshmen going through the same introduction that he was, Losman entered UCLA alone. He felt out of place, not to mention tremendous pressure to succeed as the hometown guy. Everywhere he went, people would ask him how much he would play the coming year. The truth was that the Bruins wanted him to redshirt.

``UCLA could have been better prepared to welcome an incoming senior,'' said Venice coach Angelo Gasca, also a long-time Losman family friend to whom J.P. first confided his desire to transfer. ``I can guarantee you that things would have been different if he didn't come in the spring. They needed to give him someone to mentor him and make sure he was OK.''

Losman took a lot of heat for the transfer. He was labeled as impatient, thinking he should start right away. Even his family and friends thought he was crazy. Quarterbacks transfer to UCLA to become first-round picks as with Troy Aikman, not the other way around.

Losman takes offense to those critics.

``The reason I left was simply because I needed to get away from home,'' Losman said. ``There were too many people involved in my life. College is about getting away and finding yourself. You can't do that five miles away. I think I made a gutsy move to man up to my family and say, `I don't care if you want me to stay. I need to find the farthest place away from California.' ''

If Losman was impatient originally, he certainly has grown since. He redshirted his first season at Tulane, then sat behind now-Washington Redskins quarterback Patrick Ramsey for most of two years.

Last season, Losman broke through to pass for 2,468 yards and 19 touchdowns. Though few people saw it.

Tulane games rarely are on national television. J.P. Losman isn't a name known by many outside of Los Angeles and Louisiana.

At the same time, UCLA starter Corey Paus was injured. UCLA was a talented team that just needed a quarterback. Losman probably could have started as a redshirt freshman and ever since.

He could be a four-year starter, a household name, a Heisman candidate. He could be on national television, playing at the Rose Bowl in front of his family and friends, adding a new element to his family's annual trek to the UCLA-USC game.

Losman never will know what would have happened had he stayed at UCLA. And he doesn't care.

``I've never wondered what it would be like if I stayed at UCLA because I knew what would happen,'' Losman said. ``I was going to be the hometown kid who made it. I would start at quarterback in front of my family. But it wasn't meant to be. It wasn't something that I wanted to be part of.''

Well, Losman might have wondered once. He went through a scare this offseason when Tulane considered cutting its football program. Though it never came to fruition, he talked with his old high school coach about the possibility he would need to transfer again.

``When it looked like Tulane might drop the program and we thought about places to transfer, we talked about UCLA,'' Gasca said. ``Wouldn't that have been ironic? Coming home would have been interesting, the prodigal son returning.''

However, just as before, playing for the Bruins wasn't meant to be. Losman will spend another season mostly in anonymity.

None of Tulane's games are televised nationally on network television. Two, including Monday's season opener, are televised by ESPN. In Monday's game, Losman passed for 303 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He showed Steve Young-type agility despite being 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds. He showed why scouts love him.

But Tulane lost 38-35 to Texas Christian. And that's why UCLA fans won't have to hear much about Losman, at least not until after the season when the draft comes along. Losman is projected to be a first-round pick.

``I've heard that he's one of the top guys coming out this year,'' Toledo said. ``The only thing that makes you feel good is we were on the right guy. We saw the potential. He just left us high and dry.''

Matthew Kredell, [phone]

matthew.kredell(at)dailynews.com

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J.P. Losman was expected to be the Bruins' quarterback of the future four years ago but decided to leave before playing a game with them.

Bill Haber/Associated Press