Williams Unleashes on Bruins

By Robyn Norwood

Nov. 23, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Somebody needed to interrupt Mike Williams on Saturday and tell him there is one thing there is absolutely not a shred of doubt about.

He has UCLA’s respect now.

“That dude is Terrell Owens,” Bruin defensive end Mat Ball said.

Williams destroyed UCLA in half-a-day’s work, hauling in 11 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns without even playing in the second half because of a sore ankle.

“Williams just diced us up,” Ball said.

He kept it up after the game in spite of himself, trying to corral his mouth only to see it break free again, still upset at slights -- real or imagined -- by the Bruins.

There was talk of T-shirts that disrespected USC, Bruins stomping on the Trojan 50-yard line and UCLA cornerback Matt Ware saying this week that he hated USC.

“I have great class. I try to be soft-spoken about the opponent, but the disrespect went to extremes,” Williams said.

And then he went on a diatribe worthy of the fan on the sideline wearing a replica of Williams’ No. 1 jersey -- former Trojan Keyshawn Johnson.

“I really don’t like ‘em. I don’t like ‘em at all,” Williams said.

“I honestly feel everybody at UCLA wishes they were here -- aside from their medical school, because their medical school has a prestigious reputation.

“Everybody who came here in baby blue [paraphernalia], they wish they were in our student section.... Most of them probably didn’t come because they knew they were probably going to lose.”

Every time he tried to shut up, he started again.

“Every chance we get, long after us guys are gone, we’ll still be smacking them around,” Williams said. “That’s just my personal opinion.”

He smacked them around early and often.

Williams beat the Bruins for a touchdown less than three minutes into the game on third and eight from the 21-yard line, plucking the pass from above the head of 5-foot-9 cornerback Matt Clark, then drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for saluting over Clark.

“That was me and [receiver Keary Colbert’s] little thing,” Williams said. “We talked about what Kellen Winslow said about soldiers. We were just trying to celebrate, but it turned bad. We got a flag.”

Miami’s Winslow had to apologize publicly for saying he was an “[expletive] soldier,” and comparing a game to war, but Williams only took a penalty.

No problem. Before the first quarter was over, he had caught eight passes for 139 yards and by the time he took a seat at halftime, UCLA trailed by 31 points in a 47-22 USC victory.

Williams caught passes over Clark, the short cornerback the Bruins left matched against him more often. He beat Ware, one of the Bruin stars. Who was going to stop him?

“I mean, Mike is a phenomenal player. My job is to get the ball to him when he’s open,” USC quarterback Matt Leinart said.

He seemingly always was, and at 6-5, 230, it didn’t matter whether he wasn’t.

Why didn’t UCLA adjust and at least put the 6-3 Ware on Williams? There were few answers except that’s how they play, sticking largely to their cover-two defense and not flip-flopping their corners to get matchups.

“It’s like plain ridiculous, because they know Mike Williams is going to go get the ball,” USC safety Darnell Bing said. “Why not put your best man on him?”

Maybe they could slow him down, maybe not.

If they did, fine, Williams said.

“If we beat ‘em, I’d take five yards, I really don’t care,” he said.

“Not only is it a rivalry, but they add more fuel to the fire. You just want to bury them.”