1976 UCLA Bruins football team

The 1976 UCLA Bruins football team represented the University of California, Los Angeles during the 1976 NCAA Division I football season. Ranked at 17th in the pre-season AP Poll, former UCLA player Terry Donahue took over as the head coach. The Bruins were 9–2–1 for the season and second in the Pacific-8 Conference. UCLA lost 36–6 in the Liberty Bowl to Alabama.^[1]

1976 UCLA Bruins football
Liberty Bowl, L 6–36 vs. Alabama
Conference	Pacific-8 Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 15
AP	No. 15
Record	9–2–1 (6–1 Pac-8)
Head coach	Terry Donahue (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Dick Tomey (1st season)
Home stadium	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Seasons ← 1975 1977 →

1976 Pacific-8 Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 2 USC $	7	–	0	–	0			11	–	1	–	0
No. 15 UCLA	6	–	1	–	0			9	–	2	–	1
Stanford	5	–	2	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
California	3	–	4	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Washington	3	–	4	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Washington State	2	–	5	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Oregon	1	–	6	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Oregon State	1	–	6	–	0			2	–	10	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 9	at No. 3 Arizona State*	No. 17	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, AZ	W 28–10	50,876	[2]
September 18	Arizona*	No. 5	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 37–9	41,651	[3]
September 25	Air Force*	No. 5	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 40–7	37,302
October 2	at No. 8 Ohio State*	No. 4	Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH	T 10–10	87,969
October 9	Stanford	No. 5	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 38–20	50,894
October 16	Washington State	No. 4	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 62–3	35,508
October 23	at California	No. 4	California Memorial Stadium Berkeley, CA (rivalry)	W 35–19	62,228
October 30	at Washington	No. 3	Husky Stadium Seattle, WA	W 30–21	47,187
November 6	Oregon	No. 3	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 46–0	32,470
November 13	at Oregon State	No. 2	Parker Stadium Corvallis, OR	W 45–14	22,151
November 20	No. 3 USC	No. 2	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (Victory Bell)	L 14–24	90,519
December 20	vs. No. 16 Alabama*	No. 7	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Memphis, TN (Liberty Bowl)	L 6–36	52,736	[4][5]
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

^[6]

Personnel

1976 UCLA Bruins football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class QB Jeff Dankworth WR Wally Henry RB Wendell Tyler	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 40 Manu Tuiasosopo So	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Terry Donahue Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Game summaries

California

1 2 3 4 Total • UCLA 14 0 7 14 35 California 0 13 0 6 19 Date: October 23 Location: California Memorial Stadium Game attendance: 65,228

Scoring summary Q1 UCLA Dankworth 18 yard run (kick good) UCLA 7–0 Q1 UCLA Henry 27 yard pass from Dankworth (kick good) UCLA 14–0 Q2 CAL Bresna 1 yard run (Breech kick) UCLA 14–7 Q2 CAL Breech 41 yard field goal UCLA 14–10 Q2 CAL Breech 41 yard field goal UCLA 14–13 Q3 UCLA Touchdown UCLA 21–13 Q4 UCLA Tyler 33 yard run (kick good) UCLA 28–13 Q4 UCLA Tyler 13 yard run (kick good) UCLA 35–13

• QB Jeff Dankworth sat out the second quarter with a bruised hip; returned in the third

^[7]

Alabama (Liberty Bowl)

	1	2	3	4	Total
Alabama	17	7	3	9	36
UCLA	0	0	0	6	6

See also: 1976 Liberty Bowl and 1976 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

1st quarter scoring: Alabama – Bucky Berrey 37-yard field goal; Alabama – Barry Krauss 44-yard interception return (Bucky Berrey kick); Alabama – Johnny Davis 2-yard run (Bucky Berrey kick)

2nd quarter scoring: Alabama – Jack O'Rear 20-yard pass from Tony Nathan (Bucky Berrey kick)

3rd quarter scoring: Alabama – Bucky Berrey 25-yard field goal

4th quarter scoring: Alabama – Bucky Berrey 28-yard field goal; UCLA – Jim Brown 61-yard run (Kick failed); Alabama – Rick Watson 1-yard run (2-point pass failed)

Awards and honors

• All-American: Jeff Dankworth (QB), Oscar Edwards (DB), Jerry Robinson (LB, consensus)