He has appeared on "Baywatch" and "Pacific Blue" and counts Elizabeth Hurley as a "great friend." Yeah, it's safe to say UCLA's Freddie Mitchell is not your standard college football wide receiver -- off the field or on it.

"I like it when people are saying, 'What's Freddie doing now?' " he says and grins.

What Freddie is doing now, or has done the last three weeks, is help lead UCLA from the dregs of a scandal-plagued 4-7 season to the Promised Land. Well, not quite, but at least a No. 8 ranking after upsetting third-ranked Michigan last week 23-20 at the Rose Bowl. Mitchell had 10 catches for 137 yards and was given the team's "Gladiator Award," after his teammates saw the evidence on tape.

"The Gladiator Award goes to a guy who goes out there and gives his all, that's Freddie Mitchell," says UCLA coach Bob Toledo. "Freddie Mitchell loves to play football. I challenged our players last Friday night, 'Who's gonna want the ball in their hands when the game needs to be decided?' He's one of those guys."

	“	I was walking around like I was God, nobody could stop me and it humbled me. It's a team thing and I realized that. ”
		— UCLA's Freddie Mitchell

Mitchell was a highly touted recruit from Lakeland, Fla., and chose UCLA because of its proximity to Hollywood -- he had his own TV show in high school -- and set out to conquer the world. At first it appeared as if he'd do it quickly, at least on the football field. In his first game against Texas, he threw a 34-yard touchdown pass, caught a 79-yard touchdown pass and made a 30-yard gain on a reverse.

But reality came crashing in when a Houston player came crashing into him on a kickoff return in the next game, breaking the upper bone in his left leg and sending Mitchell to two hours of surgery and months of rehab. The hit on Mitchell was so gruesome and Theismann-esque that Mitchell has yet to watch it on tape. It had a profound effect on the young, cocky wide receiver who had come West talking trash and thinking he was the next great star to take over the coast.

"After the broken leg, I was like, man, I wasn't humble after that first game," Mitchell says. "I was walking around like I was God, nobody could stop me and it humbled me. It's a team thing and I realized that."

Mitchell was back for last season, but wasn't close to the receiver he had been. His speed was gone, and so was his confidence -- albeit briefly. Once he realized he wasn't the same, he made adjustments.

"I had to learn how to run precise routes," he said.

And he learned how to block.

"I was like, 'Man what can I do to help the team' I know the O-line is not doing very good, let me see what I can do. I know I'm not going to get the ball, let me just block for DeShaun (Foster). It worked. I became a better blocker and I was coachable. At first I wasn't that coachable and now I am."

With his speed back this season, Mitchell is not only coachable, but eminently dangerous. He's caught just three touchdown passes in his career, but he's also thrown three touchdown passes. And when other receivers were dropping balls last Saturday against Michigan, Mitchell kept the Bruins in the game, time after time, making key plays to keep drives alive.

One of those plays was a block on a defensive back, who knocked Mitchell's helmet off in the process. Helmet-less, Mitchell kept blocking, sending the defensive back out of bounds.

"It was a great block," Toledo says, "a great effort. He's an intense competitior. It's not just in games, in practice he's diving for balls. He practices like he plays. That's probably why he's such a good football player."

Mitchell also brings the intangibles to his team -- attitude and energy -- especially in practice, where wars between receivers and DBs have become legendary.

"He'll catch a ball and points, first down," says safety Marques Anderson. "Even in practice. Freddie's a high spirited guy who always comes to play. It keeps practice fun and competitive. We go after each other and it's made us better."

"I love it," Mitchell says. "Me, Marques, Jay Bell -- we went at it this summer, too. We made each other better, and I guess when Marcus and Jay went against receivers from Michigan and Alabama, it was like, 'Hey, we got Brian Poli-Dixon and Freddie Mitchell every single day.' They say it came easy to them."

Mitchell was part of the group of Bruins who stayed in Los Angeles this summer to work out together, hoping to erase the demons from a year ago.

"It was important," he says. "A lot of people were talking about us being sorry. There was a lot of outside stress. We needed to come together and gel like a team to make it happen this year."

Each morning the guys would meet on campus at 6 a.m. to go through conditioning drills with strength coach Mike Linn. For many, that was enough. But not for Mitchell. After conditioning, he worked with a speed coach and then hit the dunes for a grueling late afternoon session with the sand.

"Then at night, man, I'd be saying, I got to get me at least one more workout," he says. "I'm thinking Alabama and Michigan is sleeping right now, so I go to the stadium, get some stadium steps in, jump rope, just a lot of stuff."

He also got to spend some time with Hurley, who he met through mutual friends.

"She's a great friend," he says. "It's fun to meet people like that, successful people, it's exciting I still thank my friend for introducing me to her."

Mitchell says he realized during the fourth quarter of the Michigan game how much the extra workouts had paid off -- it was 110 degrees on the field and players, on both sides, were spent.

"Not me," he says. "I was fresh. I was like, let's play four more."