UCLA INSIDE LOOK: SNOW LIKES WHAT HE SEES OF SUN DEVILS BRUINS DEFENSIVE COACH WORKS ON STOPPING FORMER PLAYERS.

There's one thing UCLA defensive coordinator Phil Snow wants to make clear as he discusses Arizona State, the school that fired him last year: It's players, not coaches, who win games.

That said, if Arizona State coach Bruce Snyder had told his quarterback to take a knee last season against Oregon, Snow would be coaching against the UCLA Bruins on Saturday night, not for them.

``Yeah, I probably would be,'' said Snow.

Instead, he was fired along with the rest of Snyder's staff before the end of last season, one that turned when tailback Michael Williams, who was given the ball with 33 seconds left and Oregon out of timeouts, was stripped of the ball. Oregon recovered, scored on the next play to cap a 14-point fourth quarter rally, and won in overtime.

Instead of a 6-2 record and a victory over seventh-ranked Ducks, the Sun Devils crashed. They lost in double overtime to USC the following week and again to Stanford, neither of whom qualified for a bowl. Snyder and his staff were fired before the regular-season finale against Arizona.

Of course, things haven't turned out too badly for Snow. Especially if the Bruins continue to play defense like they have in the first two games.

``It's all spilled milk,'' Snow said of his firing, the first in a now 20-year college career. ``I'm excited about where I'm at and I think things have worked out for (the ASU players). They look like they're invigorated.''

The Bruins will try to take advantage of Snow's knowledge of Arizona State's defensive players, eight of whom are returning starters.

On Sunday, Snow briefed UCLA coach Bob Toledo on the strengths and weaknesses of all the players on Arizona State's depth chart. While Snow downplayed the importance of this, Toledo didn't.

``When you set up game plans, you attack schemes, but you also attack people,'' Toledo said. ``You try to put your best people on their lesser people. There's things you see on film that you kind of guess at. He gives credibility to those guesses.''

Meanwhile, new Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter was pumping cornerbacks coach Ron English, the lone holdover from Snyder's staff, for information on Snow's tendencies. English played for Snow at Cal, coached with him at Arizona State and lived with Snow's family for six months while he was a graduate assistant.

``Obviously, we've grilled Ron,'' Koetter said. ``We've asked him 500 questions a day. What does (Snow) think about this, what does he think about that.''

Snow, who was at Arizona State for nine seasons, said the toughest thing about this game is knowing the players so well. Each Thursday, Snow sits down and looks at the opposing defense's film, just to see if there's any ideas worth incorporating.

``I'll probably enjoy it more this week,'' Snow said. ``I pull for those guys every week except this one. They know I'll coach hard and I expect them to play hard. It will feel awkward when we're out on the field before the game, but once the ball's snapped, that's not going to enter anyone's mind.''