LOS ANGELES — UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel figures he'll get quite a reception in Eugene when the Bruins play the Oregon Ducks this weekend — boos, catcalls and maybe even a "Slick Rick" sign or two.

"I anticipate it just because we've been typecast in our roles, and I've got the black hat," Neuheisel said Monday. "It wouldn't shock me, maybe even disappoint me if it weren't that way."

Neuheisel has a history with Oregon dating back to his days as coach at Colorado.

"It goes back to 1995 when I faked a punt, probably ill-advised, late in a bowl game," he said. "I was a first-year coach — making no excuses — but it was probably a bad decision and drew their ire."

The Buffaloes were on their way to a 38-6 victory in that Cotton Bowl meeting with the Ducks.

After Colorado's 51-43 victory over the Ducks in the 1998 Aloha Bowl, Neuheisel snapped off a remark that sparked more resentment.

"I guess Mike (Oregon coach Mike Bellotti) had been in the press conference saying they thought they had the better team, and I said, as Al Davis says, Scoreboard, baby.'

"I probably wasn't mature enough to handle it the way I should have."

Then after four years at Colorado, he became the coach of the Washington Huskies, one of Oregon's chief rivals. He's 4-1 against the Ducks overall.

Neuheisel, off to a start in his first season at head coach of his alma mater, insisted that he has great respect for the job Bellotti and Oregon have done in building a fine football tradition.

"I admire their program, I admire their coach," he said. "I think that what's happened at the University of Oregon ... has been astounding since I came to the Pac-10 as a player and watched it all develop.

"I think it's really a big-time place."

And, he added, a noisy one.

"Autzen Stadium may be one of the best home-field advantages not just in our conference, but in our country," Neuheisel said. "They have a very, very passionate crowd, which may be even more excited in an evening contest, so it will be a tall, tall order for us.

"But an exciting challenge for us also. We have to be able to play on the road, and there's no better place to prove it than in one of the hotbeds."

Bruins defensive tackle Brigham Harwell is quite familiar with the bedlam at Autzen, having already played there twice.

"The fans are great and the stadium is really crazy," he said. "It reminds me of a video game. It's a great place to play."

The Bruins evened their Pacific-10 mark at 1-1 with a 28-3 victory over Washington State in the Rose Bowl over the weekend. The Ducks (4-2, 2-1) were beaten 44-10 by USC in the Coliseum.

"Oregon's coming off a loss, they're home, and they're going to be looking for a win," Harwell said.

The Bruins, meanwhile, will be looking to improve on their only other road game so far, a 59-0 loss to BYU that was the school's worst defeat in 79 years.

"Hopefully we can do a heck of a lot better than that," Neuheisel said.