The Bruins and first-year coach Rick Neuheisel came within a minute of getting out of the first half tied at 7-7, despite being outplayed and outmanned.

But then Kevin Craft threw his fourth interception, and Tennessee returned it 61 yards for a touchdown, and now it looks grim.

Tennessee is clearly the superior team. The Vols are much bigger and scarier. It looks almost like a varsity vs. JVs kind of thing. The Bruins are tiny.

UCLA can’t run the ball, and they really shouldn’t be passing it, with Craft at quarterback.

All four of his pickoffs have been ugly, bad-idea throws. None of those tipped ball things. First three, he didn’t seem to see a safety coming over the top. The fourth, I’m not sure he could see where he was throwing. At all. He just chucked it, on first-and-10 at the 50, in the general direction of one UCLA guy and two Tennessee guys … and one of theirs came down it — and didn’t stop till he was in the end zone.

UCLA’s TD was cheap — and the kind you can chalk up to good coaching.

Tennessee tends to run one of those loose formations when punting, and the Bruins were ready for it. They poured through the holes, the three “up” men picked up the first two guys through, but another, Akeem Ayers, was untouched, and blocked it about two inches off the punter’s foot, and Sean Westgate picked it up on a nice hop and went for a touchdown.

That made it 7-0 UCLA.

For the rest of the half, they were just hanging on, helped a little by erratic play by Tennessee QB Jonathan Crompton … and by some good guessing on blitzes.

Then Tennessee went 80 yards on nine plays, and it was tied … and the Bruins weren’t moving at all.

So when they got to the 50, Neuheisel probably is thinking a go-ahead field goal, and maybe they can steal this thing.

Then the Vols are going the other way with interception No. 4.

I fear this could be a blowout, here on out. Tennessee’s size and strength seems to be taking a toll. Perhaps it’s no accident that three of UCLA’s most important skill position players — tight end Logan Paulsen, receiver Marcus Everett and tailback Kahlil Bell are all injured.

The other thing? I’m not even sure UCLA has an edge on team speed.

So, let’s see … smaller, slower, can’t run the ball and your QB tosses interceptions with the greatest of ease.

Not going to be easy.