Alexander: What does this winning streak mean for UCLA?

PASADENA — The whole scene was a contradiction in terms, wasn’t it?

This was UCLA’s homecoming weekend, yet 39,811 was the announced attendance Saturday at the Rose Bowl for Arizona State’s visit. In other words, a lot of alumni – and students, for that matter – chose to exercise their school spirit by staying away from Pasadena. That is what the Chip Kelly Experiment seems to have wrought.

And yet, while it’s obvious many outside the program still don’t believe, those inside the locker room are in full buy-in mode.

Bowl eligibility, amazingly enough, is not out of the question after UCLA’s 42-32 pasting of ASU Saturday evening. Heck, a Pac-12 South championship isn’t out of the question, though we may be jumping way ahead of ourselves here.

But the Bruins are 3-5 overall, 3-2 in the Pac-12, and their remaining schedule looks like this: Winnable game at home next week against Colorado, a tough assignment (and likely a hiccup) at Utah, the USC game at the Coliseum in three weeks that could turn on whether Clay Helton still has his players’ attention, and a potentially winnable game at home against Cal.

The UCLA team that everyone left for dead after it started the season with losses to Cincinnati and San Diego State, in other words, could wind up 6-6. Or even 7-5 and in the conference championship game. Again, we’re probably well ahead of ourselves here, which is guaranteed to drive Kelly crazy.

The man who hates to talk about that fuzzy concept of “momentum” parried it this way when a questioner noted that the Bruins do control their own destiny, as nutty as that sounds.

“Grammatically, destiny is a predetermined set of events,” he said. “And if it’s a predetermined set of events, you can’t control it. Think about that one.”

OK, let’s back up. Say what you will about Group of Five schools, but Cincinnati is 6-1 and San Diego State improved to 7-1 by beating UNLV Saturday night. Those are good teams, capable of playing well above their weight.

Then again … when UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson was helped from the field with a little over 12 minutes left Saturday, and ultimately emerged from the medical tent with his left knee wrapped in ice, it was a reminder that things change direction fast in this sport. Redshirt sophomore Austin Burton finished up this game, and the quarterback discussion could be a weeklong topic of discussion among those who care.

That is sort of the point, as reinforced by a Rose Bowl that has been less than half full for two games and a little more than half full for the others because of extenuating circumstances (Oklahoma fans in the loss to the Sooners, high school band day for the loss to Oregon State).

But is there something at work here that can get the disaffected back to the Rose Bowl? If so, it will have to start in the locker room among a squad with heavy doses of freshmen and sophomores.

Momentum, in this case, is probably best explained this way: You win, you learn things, you apply them on the practice field. You win again, and you realize that it works. You gain confidence, and belief, and who knows where it can go from there?

“It’s hard to win football games,” said Joshua Kelley, who rushed for 164 yards on 34 carries and a career-high four touchdowns. “The Pac-12 probably has the most parity in all of the conferences in college football, and you never know who’s going to win every Saturday.

“But us getting back-to-back wins, that’s big for us, especially for the young guys. I think we’re working hard and things are coming together, so we’ve just got to stick to it.”

What did the Bruins learn Saturday, among other things?

Not committing penalties is good, very good. UCLA didn’t commit one until the end of the third quarter, just before scoring to go up 42-10.

Turnovers can kill you. The Bruins took advantage of one, Eno Benjamin’s fumble at his own 42, to set up Kelley’s first touchdown. They coughed one up when Robinson-Thompson was sacked and lost the ball at his 16, and that led to Jayden Daniels’ touchdown run and a 7-7 tie, which was also ASU’s only real look at the game.

The coach probably hates talking about “momentum” because it carries with it the air of assumption.

“I wish momentum was that you could just put it in the bank: we won last week, we’re going to win this week,” Kelly said. “But for some reason it doesn’t work that way. What we need to do is look at what we did well and continue to build on that, and understand that we did that well because of how we practiced during the week.

“There is a correlation from a momentum standpoint, that I think these guys are starting to stack good days upon good days when we’re out on the field in training, and then understanding that’s how we play when we get to Saturday night.”

The public, whose purchase of tickets and merchandise and whatnot helps feed UCLA’s athletic budget, doesn’t see those practice reps. Those folks only see the results.

And they’ve noticed that the last time UCLA won more than two in a row was the start of the 2015 season, when Jim Mora Jr.’s team started 4-0 and finished 8-5.

Now, it may take a string of successes now to get those fans  back to the Rose Bowl.

jalexander@scng.com

@Jim_Alexander on Twitter