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In Christopher Nolan’s 2006 film “The Prestige,” Michael Caine’s character, Cutter, describes the three stages of a magician’s trick: The Pledge, the Turn and the Prestige. On Monday night, UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft mystified the University of Tennessee with a magic act of his own, leading one of the most stirring second half transformations you may ever witness.

The Pledge: “The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course…it probably isn’t.”

After sustaining an eight-play, 47-yard opening drive, Craft threw his first interception. The pass, which was nabbed by corner DeAngelo Willingham, was intended for Marcus Everett. After seeing the replay, it appeared that Everett may have run the incorrect route. But no matter.  Three Tennessee defenders, including Willingham, were closer to the ball than any Bruin. And just like that, Craft’s awful debut was underway.

For the remainder of the half, Craft proceeded to show Tennessee that he was ordinary, or even something much worse. He misjudged timing routes, over and under threw receivers, took too many gambles, threw off his back foot, and could have singlehandedly cost UCLA the game when he threw his fourth INT (a pick-six to Nevin McKenzie) with less than a minute remaining in the half and the game tied at seven.

The Turn: “The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret…but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled.”

Thanks to a blocked punt and a defense that forced two turnovers and held Tennessee to 5 out of 17 on third down attempts, UCLA never let the Volunteers run away. Still, it took the ordinary, or even worse, Craft to lead the comeback.

With fewer than 10 minutes remaining in the game and trailing by four, the junior quarterback suddenly made Tennessee’s defense disappear. First, he orchestrated a scoring drive capped by a 5-yard run by Raymond Carter. Then, after the Vols answered with a touchdown of their own, Craft pulled out the extraordinary.  On UCLA’s final possession of regulation, Craft was six of eight passing for 66 yards. When he threw a ball just off of tight end Ryan Moya’s fingertips, he again, looked ordinary. At this point, down 21-17 in the waning minute, we didn’t want the magic to run out. We wanted the trick to fool us. And it did.

The next play, Craft connected with Moya for a three-yard touchdown and the entire Rose Bowl became bedlam. Secret be damned.

The Prestige: “But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t good enough, you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call ‘The Prestige’.”

While Craft’s performance may have received a mighty applause, the true prestige was yet to come. With 27 seconds remaining, Tennessee marched to a game-tying field goal, and brought themselves back. At that point, most observers would have handed overtime to the Vols.

But Craft was not to be deflated, and he didn’t need smoke and mirrors to pull it off in the extra period. UCLA protected the ball, Kai Forbath nailed his second field goal and the Bruins put the game in their defense’s hands.

After Tennessee sputtered to fourth down, kicker Daniel Lincoln lined up on the left hash mark with a 34-yard chance to send the game to a second overtime. Abracadabra, Lincoln’s kick strayed wide left and the flashbulbs burst as UCLA rushed the field, making the Volunteers vanish one last time.

EP

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