JUST WHAT THEY NEED UCLA GETS SOLID VICTORY AS THEY HEAD INTO PAC-10 PLAY UCLA 43, SDSU 7.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO - This place is billed as America's Finest City and the local chamber of commerce will get no argument from the UCLA football team.

The Bruins arrived with a defense that carried its tail between its legs, an offense missing its marquee player - offensive tackle Mike Saffer - and special teams shakier than a fault line.

They left with a made-to-order 43-7 pasting Saturday of San Diego State in front of 33,610 at Qualcomm Stadium.

The victory washes away the bad taste of last week's thumping by Colorado and sends the Bruins into next week's Pacific-10 Conference opener at Oregon State thinking about good possibilities instead of bad ones.

``We need to carry this over,'' receiver Craig Bragg said. ``We don't have many (blowouts) like this. It was good for team morale going into Pac-10 - everybody was into it on the sidelines.''

Indeed, the Bruins couldn't have planned this one better if they'd rolled out the red carpet themselves.

The hospitality began late in the first quarter when Aztecs tight end Tyson Thompson had a pass bounce off his hands. It landed in the mitts of diving UCLA linebacker Marcus Reese at the SDSU 6-yard line - the first of five turnovers - and led to UCLA's first touchdown.

On the first play of the second quarter, Matt Clark blocked a punt that Jibril Raymo recovered for another score, and the Bruins added a safety when Aztecs long snapper Casey Naylor launched the ball out of the end zone.

Sandwiched between the special teams' plays was Bragg's 37-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Cory Paus. It came on third-and-29 when Aztecs cornerback Ricky Sharpe waited on Bragg as if he were running a 29-yard out pattern. Instead, Bragg ran past him and caught the perfectly thrown ball in stride in the back of the end zone.

So the Bruins were up 23-0 less than 21 minutes into the game despite having covered just 58 yards on those possessions.

Any clue why San Diego State (0-5) is winless this season and has never beaten the Bruins (0-17-1)?

Despite the Aztecs' miscues, the Bruins (3-1) had several reasons to feel good about themselves, particularly on defense.

In the past two games, the Bruins surrendered 350 yards passing to Oklahoma State and 325 yards rushing to Colorado - both numbers the most in defensive coordinator Phil Snow's two seasons.

And as bad as the Aztecs might be, they have moved the ball. Heading into the game, quarterback Adam Hall was No. 2 in the nation in offense (388 per game) and receivers J.R. Tolver and Kassim Osgood were ranked No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in catches and yards per game.

The Bruins sacked Hall four times, intercepted him twice and held him to 183 yards. The secondary - mostly cornerback Ricky Manning - limited Tolver, who was averaging 11 catches and 179 yards per game, to three catches for 30 yards, the second-lowest total he's had in 25 games.

``We wanted to be sound,'' said cornerback Matt Ware, who joined free safety Ben Emanuel and strong safety Jarrad Page in making their first start of the year at those positions. ``Stop the short stuff and be physical with them. That slows them down.''

The Bruins also showed two new defensive wrinkles: the linemen no longer

slanted, taking linemen on more directly, and weakside linebacker Spencer Havner blitzed frequently, often in concert with Ware.

As a result, UCLA allowed just 63 yards rushing, Havner had two sacks and a team-high 9 1/2 tackles and most importantly, the Bruins - who had been next to last in the Pac-10 in third-down conversions (39 percent) - stopped the Aztecs 12 of 15 times.

``We wanted to get them out of the three-step (passing) game,'' Havner said. ``A couple of times I got through when (in the middle) they were protecting from the outside.''

Offensively, the news of the day - the century? - was tight end Mike Seidman becoming the focal point of the offense. Seidman, a 6-foot-5, 254-pound senior, had career highs of six catches and 134 yards, including a 64-yard touchdown.

``We're finally getting that figured out,'' UCLA coach Bob Toledo said. ``Maybe we have to go to him a little more.''

There were a few concerns, specifically the absence of Saffer, who is expected to be out 3-4 weeks and was replaced by redshirt freshman Ed Blanton, and the absence of a running game.

Manuel White, getting most of the work at tailback, managed 76 yards on 14 carries, but 30 of those came on one run. In all, the Bruins rushed 51 times for just 3.0 yards a carry - a number that included five sacks.

Those worries, though, can wait until Monday.

``They played with a lot of pride, showed a lot of character and were all over the field,'' Toledo said of the Aztecs before boarding the bus home. ``They accomplished their mission.''

The same could be said of the visitors.

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UCLA's Craig Bragg pulls in a touchdown pass during the second quarter at San Diego State.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press