For Azziz, It Was a Crash Course in Reality

Of course he realized it.

The moment he was on the ground after the collision in the Sept. 7 practice, his right side numb and his arm tingling, linebacker Ali Abdul Azziz, one of nine current Bruins charged in the handicapped-parking scheme, thought he might be paralyzed. That he might actually need the placard and the restricted spots.

“What went through my mind was, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is happening. I really can’t believe this is happening,’ ” he said. “I was really scared for a minute.

“I was thinking about the irony of it. I was like, ‘I thought I had paid my debt, but I guess there’s someone else I’ve got to pay a debt to.’ That’s what kept going through my head. The irony.”

The scare didn’t leave Azziz even after he got up and walked to trainer Geofff Schaadt--”I’m thinking that I’m really paying for this, that this is like the final thing right”--and the tingling and numbness was still there. The senior from Santa Maria, hurt when his face mask went into the chest of Randy Hakes and his neck was jolted, eventually left the field in a protective collar.

That Azziz was able to walk to the locker room offered immediate encouragement to the medical staff, but he was sent to the hospital as a precaution. Part of that extra care included immobilizing him on a back board for the short ambulance ride.

The numbness and tingling soon passed, and examinations confirmed the problem as nothing more than a sprained neck. He missed three days of contact drills, sandwiched around the Ohio State game he missed because of the suspension, and finally returned to full workouts Thursday.

Saturday night at the Rose Bowl, Azziz was available but did not play as the Bruins rested him for one more week.

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The strangest play of the loss at Ohio State was also the costliest and one of the most telling: Mike Saffer, starting right guard, suffered a badly sprained right ankle on the first drive while pass blocking on the throw that became Matt Stanley’s fluke 67-yard touchdown reception, but stayed in.

The injury was so serious that it sidelined Saffer two to four weeks and put him in a walking boot and on crutches--but he still took the expected number of snaps.

“Which showed me something,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “He played with a lot of toughness.”

Because the play resulted in a touchdown, Saffer was able to immediately leave the field and get the ankle re-taped. The Bruin trainers did the same at halftime.

“I thought I felt something pop,” he said. “I thank God I didn’t break anything. But I felt it as soon as it happened. It was pretty painful throughout the game.

“I couldn’t push off of it. When I was blocking people, it was like I was pushing off one leg. There are some plays where you could see on the films where I was using the one leg and practically dragging the other.

“If people want to look at it as a courageous thing, I appreciate that. But I just kind of look at it as doing the job I’m supposed to do.”

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Fresno State players had a green “V” on the back of their helmets to signify the Central Valley. . . . Bruin defensive end Travor Turner, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the season opener, is scheduled for surgery Sept. 30. . . . The Bruins’ Ryan Nece, only a sophomore, was on the preseason watch list for the Butkus Award, given annually to the nation’s top linebacker.