UCLA INSIDE LOOK: I-S'S TD MAKES IT ALL OK FOR UCLA WINNING SCORE OUTWEIGHS FUMBLE.

Byline: Steve Dilbeck Staff Writer

PASADENA - When you saw him frozen there, face-first in the Rose Bowl end zone and almost unable to move, it would have hard to imagine such sweet redemption.

Ed Ieremia-Stansbury took a long and very winding road into the end zone for UCLA on Saturday.

He came to UCLA from Texas as a heralded high school quarterback. He spent his freshman season as the third-string quarterback. Then he was switched to linebacker. This season, the redshirt junior was moved again: And say hello to fullback.

Ieremia-Stansbury is plainly a player with athlete's game, if equipped with name to send headline writers rushing into a new line of work.

Then, after all he had been through, he bounced off an offensive lineman in the fourth quarter on Saturday, popped free at the Michigan 31 and saw glory before him.

An end zone that promised to finally put the Bruins ahead of Michigan.

``All I had was my eyes on the end zone,'' Ieremia-Stansbury said. ``And then the next thing I know, I got hit and I saw the ball on the ground. That was the ultimate low for me.''

Michigan recovered, still leading 20-17. Ieremia-Stansbury retreated to the sideline, head down.

But then teammates started coming over. Started encouraging him. Started telling him to forget about it, that he would get another chance.

And did he ever.

The UCLA defense held, and the Bruins came marching right back. Suddenly, they were at the Michigan 2-yard line. And Ieremia-Stansbury thought to the past week of practice, to one play in particular - a pass to the fullback - and to redemption.

``That's the only thing that was on my mind,'' he said.

Ieremia-Stansbury, playing most of the way after starting fullback Matt Stanley dislocated his shoulder late in the first quarter, got his play called, and his grand redemption for the fumble.

``It just worked out that way,'' said UCLA offensive coordinator Alan Borges. ``We had that play as one of our goal-line plays if we got inside the 2-yard line. They're charging hard on both ends, and we just wanted to slip the fullback by into the flat.''

Ieremia-Stansbury broke free to the left side, took in Ryan McCann's short pass with his back to the end zone, and awkwardly pushed his way across for the winning touchdown.

And then he laid there, unmoving, as if shot, exhausted from dehydration in the 110-degree heat, or simply overcome by emotion.

``I was overwhelmed, I was exhausted, I was happy,'' he said. ``I was just feeling everything. My body just wouldn't move. Then my teammates came over and told me to get up and celebrate.''

With Stanley expected to be out at least a month, Ieremia-Stansbury - who is also playing with a loose shoulder that will require surgery in the offseason - may have come to the end of his traveling position days.

``I think he may have found a home,'' Borges said.

Ieremia-Stansbury, 6-foot-2 and 258 pounds, is feeling comfortable at his latest stop.

``I feel like a fullback,'' he said. ``I think I'm an athlete, but I have to understand fullback is a blocking position and anything else is extra.''

Saturday, he found his extra.

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UCLA's Ed Ieremia-Stansbury makes his way into the end zone despite the efforts of Michigan's Larry Foote for the winning touchdown in Saturday's game at the Rose Bowl.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer