Bruin Defense Gets Wake-Up Call

Over and over in a video-room nightmare, Rocky Long sees teams lined up against UCLA’s defense with five elephantine linemen, two massive tight ends, a single running back resembling a locomotive and enough patience to ram the ball down the Bruins’ throats.

That’s when he isn’t seeing Chad Hutchinson calmly standing tall and untouched in the Stanford backfield last season, completing seven consecutive passes in covering 80 yards in 4 1/2 minutes for enough points to keep UCLA out of a bowl game.

Or when he’s seeing Peyton Manning throwing to Joey Kent for 53 yards and a Tennessee touchdown, or Scott Dreisbach throwing to Clarence Williams for 53 yards and a Michigan touchdown, or USC’s R. Jay Soward catching a 60-yard touchdown pass from Brad Otton and a 78-yard touchdown pass from Matt Koffler.

Coach Bob Toledo has set a goal for 1997: “A winning season and a bowl game. Our goal is always going to be to win the Pac-10 and represent UCLA in the Rose Bowl and someday play for a national championship, but realistically right now, our goal should be to have a winning season and play in bowl game. That’s progress.”

It is, over the 5-6 record of last season, in which the Bruins did not win consecutive games. The supposition is that the offense will hold up its end of the bargain. UCLA averaged 30 points a game in 1996 but lost four games in which it scored 20 or more.

The Bruins have nine offensive starters back, and the two other positions are manned by experienced players. They have Cade McNown as the most experienced quarterback in the Pacific 10, with 21 starts; Skip Hicks returning as a running back with a 1,034-yard season under his belt, and five returning starting linemen and a potential game-breaker in Jim McElroy at receiver.

But what of the defense, much maligned because it--along with special teams that weren’t so special--gave up 28.9 points a game and was sixth among the league’s 10 teams in pass defense and total defense?

To accomplish Toledo’s goals, Long, the defensive coordinator, has set a goal of his own:

“Increase the number of big plays that we make and reduce the number of big plays that we give up. I thought we gave up way too many big plays last year. I thought we made some big plays, but I didn’t think it was even.”

UCLA gave up 15 touchdown-scoring plays of 17 yards or more. Those are the big plays Long seeks to stop. And to do it, UCLA will rely on a blend of experience, youth and a year’s knowledge of a complex system gained the hard way.

“Last year, at times we played very, very well, and at times I wondered if it was the same group out there,” Long said. “I’m hoping that’s because they were so new to the defense. . . .

“Last year, at times we were lost. But I don’t see that this year. I think that the group as a whole understands the scheme of the defense much better than they did last year, so I think, at least mentally, we’re way ahead of where we were a year ago.”

It’s a defense predicated on stopping the run, pressuring the quarterback and everybody else holding the fort.

UCLA was third in the Pac-10 in stopping the run last season, but Michigan’s 300 yards rushing revealed the Bruin weak spots--size and strength up front.

UCLA was tied for fourth in sacks with 34, but quarterbacks had enough time to throw for an average of 253.8 yards.

The Bruins have grown slightly larger up front, with Damon Smith and Darren Cline bringing their 265 pounds along, and Jeff Ruckman adding 260 when he isn’t injured, but they are lining up differently to try to turn Weldon Forde into a pass-rushing demon.

He’s called a defensive end, light at 242 pounds, but he’s actually more of a linebacker. And instead of lining him up at one place, UCLA will flip-flop Forde, putting him away from the tight end, which should give him a clearer path to the quarterback.

They hope.

“At times, people will throw the ball on you unbelievably,” Long said. “If you can’t pressure the quarterback and the quarterback gets hot, it’s like those guys you see in basketball that score 50 and 60 points. We’ve got to pressure the quarterback.”

A lot of that also will fall to veteran linebackers Danjuan Magee and Brian Willmer, and to newcomer Brendon Ayanbadejo, because UCLA lives by the blitz.

And occasionally dies by it.

To forestall their demise, the Bruins have added another wrinkle, though its name is generally whispered in Westwood.

The dreaded zone.

UCLA played man-to-man pass defense almost exclusively last season and found itself in big-play predicaments when teams sent receivers up the middle of the field, close enough together to put defenders in each others’ way.

The answer: zone.

“We’re still stunting and blitzing every play, but we’ve taken a page out of the NFL notebooks and are playing a zone behind it,” Long says. “The idea is, you don’t give up as many long pass plays and the quarterback has to find the zone you’re giving up.”

And maybe takes too long in finding it.

By and large, the zone work falls to free safety Shaun Williams, strong safety Larry Atkins and roverback Eric Whitfield. Williams is the team’s best athlete, Atkins experienced at his position. Whitfield is a sophomore who made his bones on special teams.

Their job is helping cornerbacks Javelin Guidry, a fourth-year starter, and Aaron Roques, both seniors, and Damian Allen and Jason Bell, both newcomers and the heirs apparent.

If the nightmares are long touchdown passes against the UCLA defense, the dreams are interceptions being taken back the other way.

It will take a few to achieve Toledo’s goal against a schedule that includes the usual Pac-10 suspects, plus nonconference games against Tennessee and Texas, both ranked in the preseason top 10, and Houston, which played in the Liberty Bowl last season.

It’s an ambitious schedule.

“We don’t play San Jose and Reno, like Cal did” in finishing tied for fifth, one spot below UCLA last season in the Pac-10, Toledo said.

California was 3-5 in the Pac-10, but beat nonconference San Jose State, Nevada and San Diego State to get the six victories it needed to qualify for the Aloha Bowl.

UCLA was 4-4 in the league, but lost nonconference games to Tennessee and Michigan.

“You need to come in fourth or better, but you’ve also got to win six games,” Toledo said. “We came in the right place, we just didn’t have enough wins.”

The mission is getting those six wins--at least--and the key to getting them is the defense turning off the nightmare.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

UCLA AT A GLANCE

1997 SCHEDULE

*--*

Aug. 30 at Wash. St. 12:30 p.m. Sept. 6 Tennessee 3:30 p.m. Sept. 13 at Texas 3:30 p.m. Sept. 27 Arizona 3:30 p.m. Oct. 4 Houston 6:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at Oregon 6:30 p.m. Oct. 18 Oregon St. TBA Oct. 25 California 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at Stanford 3:30 p.m. Nov. 15 Washington 3:30 p.m. Nov. 22 USC* TBA

*--*

* at Coliseum

1996 RESULTS

(5-6)

OPPONENT: RESULT

at Tennessee: L 35-20

Northeast Louisiana: W 44-0

at Michigan: L 38-9

at Oregon: W 41-22

Arizona St.: L 42-34

at Washington: L 41-21

at California: W 38-29

Stanford: L 21-20

Wash. St.: W 38-14

at Arizona: L 35-17

USC: W 48-41 (2 OT)

KEY PLAYERS LOST

DE Travis Kirschke

LB Phillip Ward

K Bjorn Merten

TE Jamal Clark

DB Paul Guidry

DB Kusanti Abdul-Salaam

KEY NEW PLAYERS

DL 99 Kenyon Coleman: Fr.

OL 60 Chris Polak: Fr.

DB 7 Marques Anderson: Fr.

LB 44 Tony White: Fr.

PROJECTED STARTERS

OFFENSE

Pos. No. Player Year

SE--87 Dan Farmer, Soph.

LT 71 Kris Farris*: So.

LG 61 Sean Gully: Sr.

C 52 Shawn Stuart*: Jr.

RG 78 Andy Meyers*: Jr.

RT 69 Chad Overhauser*: Sr.

TE 88 Mike Grieb: Jr.

QB 18 Cade McNown*: Jr.

FB 49 Cheyane Caldwell*: Jr.

TB 42 Skip Hicks*: Sr.

FL 85 Jim McElroy*: Sr.

DEFENSE

Pos. No. Player: Year

DE 94 Darren Cline: Sr.

NG 58 Damon Smith: Sr.

DE 9 Weldon Forde*: Sr.

OLB 57 Danjuan Magee*: Sr.

MLB 53 Brian Willmer*: Sr.

OLB 50 Brendon Ayanbadejo: Jr.

Rov 6 Eric Whitfield: So.

LC 3 Javelin Guidry*: Sr.

SS 35 Larry Atkins*: Jr.

FS 32 Shaun Williams*: Sr.

RC 29 Aaron Roques: Sr.

SPECIALISTS

Pos. No. Player: Year

P 2 Chris Sailer*: Jr.

K 2 Chris Sailer: Jr.

KO 2 Chris Sailer: Jr.

Ho 37 Joey Strycula: So.

Sn 64 Chris Rubio*: Sr.

*Returning starters