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Inside College Football
Northwestern's Incentive | Extra Points UCLA spent a lot of spring practice addressing its No. 1 shortcoming By Ivan Maisel
No one had to tell UCLA coach Bob Toledo last season that his defense was "horrible" and "frightening." Those were the words he was using to describe it. Since attaining a No. 3 ranking with a 10-0 record in December 1998, the Bruins have gone 10-15 with defensive numbers that have plummeted so low UCLA could have been a listing on the NASDAQ. The '99 unit set a Bruins record for yards allowed per game (444.6), and the 2000 defense set the standard for points given up in a season (368).
He also believes that the Bruins can play harder. In his first meeting with the defense, on April 2, he evoked the term "six seconds" to inspire his players. "From the snap of the ball to the whistle, the average time is six seconds," Snow says. "It's amazing, inside that six seconds, how many players will take time off. They get knocked down and watch, get blocked and stay blocked -- you have to start the play and finish the play." Snow had made a highlight tape of former Sun Devil Derrick Rodgers, an undersized linebacker whose motor never stopped, and showed it to UCLA senior defensive end Kenyon Coleman. Then Snow asked Coleman if he played like that. "He said, 'Not all the time,'" says Snow. "The more guys that do it, it's amazing how many others will follow." The 6'6", 281-pound Coleman is exhibit A of another Bruins bane -- injuries. After tearing the meniscus in his left knee in the third game last year, he missed the rest of the season (one of three defensive linemen to go down for a game or more during the year), and UCLA was left with no experienced pass rusher up front. The Bruins had only 19 sacks in 2000, compared with Pac-10 leader Cal's 44. Though Coleman hasn't yet played for Snow, he is inspired by what he has seen and heard. "I like the pressure Arizona State put on the quarterback and how it relied on the front four to get the sack," says Coleman, who is fully recovered from his injury. "We haven't depended on our defensive line to get sacks. This year it will be 'Front four, go get 'em.'" Snow hasn't set any statistical goals for the UCLA defense, but there's one number he'd like to see the Bruins spike up: three-and-outs.
Randle El's Career Move: In January, when Indiana junior quarterback Antwaan Randle El was trying to decide whether to leave school early for the NFL or return for his senior year, he sought the advice of the league's draft advisory committee, which projected that Randle El would be drafted, but as a wide receiver and kick returner instead of a quarterback. So Hoosiers coach Cam Cameron made a deal with Randle El: If he would stay at Indiana, Cameron would help him improve his draft potential by moving him to wideout. "Having him back as a receiver," Cameron says, "is better than not having him at all." The 5'10", 194-pound Randle El, who over the last three seasons threw for 5,805 yards and 33 touchdowns and rushed for another 2,931 yards and 36 scores for the Hoosiers, is only the second Division I-A quarterback to throw for 200 points and rush for 200 points. Now he'll be Indiana's No. 1 wideout and its primary punt returner, and he'll still see action at quarterback, mostly inside the red zone. The change will also get promising junior quarterback Tommy Jones on the field. In the Hoosiers' spring game last Saturday, Randle El caught five passes for 37 yards, rushed four times for 36 yards and returned one punt for 22 yards. With his Red team trailing Jones's White squad 21-7 in the fourth quarter, Randle El lined up at quarterback and led two scoring drives. Jones completed 15 of 25 passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns in the 21-21 tie. "I got the sense of how it's going to be. I'll play some quarterback and some receiver," says Randle El. "I'm doing this to help the team. Spring ball wasn't about convincing anyone that this is the right thing to do. I had to trust in Coach Cam and my teammates. We're trying to impress each other."
Northwestern's Incentive: No, coach Randy Walker says, "we don't have any signs that say remember the alamo!" The Wildcats, who tied Purdue and Michigan for the Big Ten title, don't need the reminder. How could they forget after they were humiliated 66-17 by Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl? "In the back of everybody's mind, that's what's driving us," says junior center Austin King. "As well as we did last year, we learned where we were compared with Nebraska." Maybe not as far away as the Wildcats think. Now that quarterback Drew Henson has bailed out on Michigan for a $17 million contract with the New York Yankees, and Drew Brees has used up his eligibility at Purdue, and Wisconsin is regrouping, Northwestern is the Big Ten favorite. The Wildcats have 17 starters coming back, including senior Damien Anderson, the nation's leading returning rusher, and will get a break from the league's rotating schedule. Northwestern won't face Michigan and Wisconsin this season; instead, it picks up Penn State and Ohio State, both of which are trying to rebuild. Walker says now isn't the time for the Wildcats to rest on their laurels. Following a lackadaisical showing by his defense one afternoon a few weeks ago, he lectured his defensive players and sent them off to run gassers. "I have a real sense of urgency," he says. "I realize how little time you have to play the game."
Extra Points: Illinois fell from 8-4 in 1999 to 5-6 last season in part because quarterback Kurt Kittner's favorite deep threat, sophomore Brandon Lloyd, stepped off a curb last July, broke his leg and missed the season. On the first play of the Illini's spring game last Saturday, Kittner threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to Lloyd. ... By agreeing to move the Civil War from Nov. 17 to Dec. 1 so it can be televised nationally by ABC, Oregon and Oregon State gave themselves three weeks to prepare for each other. ... After discovering that USC had 12 kicks blocked last season, new coach Pete Carroll appointed Kennedy Pola, a former USC fullback and linebacker, as special teams and outside linebackers coach. Carroll then sent Pola to pick the brain of New England Patriots assistant Brad Seely, a former NFL Special Teams Coach of the Year.
Issue date: April 23, 2001
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