Craig Rutledge’s Job at UCLA Doesn’t Leave Much Room for Error

It just so happened that the Saturday before strong safety Craig Rutledge of UCLA was to be interviewed by The Times, he made a wrong guess in a game at Washington that cost the Bruins a touchdown.

That touchdown was the turning point in a game the Bruins ultimately lost. And that’s the week that everyone wants to focus on him?

“It never fails,” John Lee, UCLA’s All-American kicker, told him. “When I missed that field goal, even the New York Times wanted to talk to me. There’s no better way to get attention than to foul up.”

That only works, though, for players who have first built reputations for not fouling up. It’s the old man-bites-dog routine. It’s news when Lee, who has made 44 of 45 field goals from within 40 yards, misses one. It’s news when Rutledge is the one who is drawn out of his correct coverage.

Tom Hayes, co-defensive coordinator and the man who coaches the defensive backs, said: “Craig Rutledge is our quarterback of the defense. The biggest thing Craig gives us is the coach-on-the-field dimension. He adjusts the calls to get the defense set up right. He’s very bright, besides being an aggressive, tough safety man.”

But then, nobody is perfect. And as Hayes pointed out, “It’s a position that allows for no margin of error. Any mistake is going to be glaring and costly.”

Rutledge’s consolation is that he more often makes quarterbacks’ errors very glaring and costly. In the opener at Brigham Young, for example, Rutledge intercepted a pass by Robbie Bosco and ran it back 65 yards for a touchdown.

Last season, he tied for second place in the Pacific 10 with five interceptions in the regular season.

Rutledge, now a redshirt junior, worked his way into the starting lineup last season when both strong safeties, Joe Gasser and Dennis Price, were injured in the game against Nebraska. Price has since been moved to cornerback and Gasser is now a backup safety. Before that, Rutledge had suffered through a redshirt year and a year of special-teams work.

“I do sometimes talk to the guys who are redshirting now, or who are waiting to get into the lineup,” Rutledge said. “You know when you agree to redshirt that it will be the best thing for you, and you know when it’s over that it was the best thing for you, but while you’re going through it, it seems like one year lasts forever.

“Everybody goes through all the same doubts, wondering if you chose the right school, wondering if you’re ever going to play again, wondering if the coaches really do have plans for you. At least I could tell myself it was because I had to have knee surgery after high school. . . . It’s a tough thing to go through.”

During his two-year drought, he could comfort himself only with memories of his big games for El Dorado High School in Placentia--which was easy enough because he was rooming with one of the quarterbacks he used to burn.

When Rutledge was a junior at El Dorado, his team upset Fountain Valley, 14-10. In that big game, Rutledge had two interceptions and ran one back for a touchdown. The quarterback for Fountain Valley at the time was Matt Stevens.

By simple chance, Rutledge and Stevens ended up making some recruiting trips at the same time--to Stanford, for example--and they renewed their old acquaintance. Rutledge committed to UCLA four days before the signing date, and he called Stevens to tell him that if he wanted him as a roommate, he’d have to go to UCLA. On signing day, Stevens called Rutledge and said, “I get the bed by the window.”

They’ve been roommates ever since. They’re sharing an apartment now--the quarterback of the defense and the sometimes quarterback of the offense.

Do they talk football a lot?

“Sure,” Stevens said. “We try to help each other. . . . It’s funny the way it worked out. We always thought that I’d probably get to play before Craig, and now Craig is all set and I’m still working at it.”

Stevens, who started three games last season and one this season, is listed behind David Norrie this week and is trying to come back from a knee injury he suffered at Washington.

But Stevens is the unsinkable type. Even with his knee in a brace and not-too-likely prospects for playing Saturday against Arizona State, he was smiling as he warmed up before practice. He was quite willing to talk about his roommate, too, until the subject of those high school interceptions came up.

“Never mind,” Stevens said. “I would tell you all kinds of nice things about him, but if he wants to get into that stuff, just forget it.”

Seriously, though: “He’s a very good defensive back because he’s the cool, calm and collected kind of guy,” Stevens said.

“He has good instincts, like Donnie Rogers. I’m not saying he has the same talent as Donnie Rogers, but he has the same awareness of the field that Donnie has. He has also become one of the team leaders, I think because he’s one of the favorite guys on the team.”

Rutledge is the oldest of the young starters in a secondary that includes redshirt sophomore James Washington at free safety, junior Chuckie Miller at left cornerback and redshirt sophomore Dennis Price, who recently returned from an injury to replace redshirt freshman Darryl Henley, at right cornerback.

“I don’t think we should be considered a young secondary any more,” Rutledge said. “I think we’ve grown up through every mistake. We learn from each other, and we continue to grow closer together because we don’t have people who are graduating and going on. We’ve been able to keep getting better together.”