Bruins Are Getting Their Kicks From Franey : With John Lee in the NFL, His Understudy Is Coming Through as the Unlikely Hero

This was supposed to be a big controversy. Surely without John Lee, UCLA wouldn’t have anyone at all to kick field goals this football season, which would be sort of a foot fault.

So how can David Franey be explained?

Here’s a guy who came to UCLA to play golf, switched to football and spent four years sitting on his backswing, wondering if that was par for the course. Then, as a fifth-year senior, he winds up kicking field goals like crazy, even though he hadn’t made one since he was in high school.

What can be made of this?

As it turns out, the explanation is simple. Franey didn’t know any better.

“I’ve never seen a kicker at UCLA who hasn’t gotten it done,” Franey said. “Remember, I spent four years watching John Lee.”

And now, what UCLA thought would be its most pressing problem, its worst fear, its ugliest moment, is actually a snap, followed by the ball being put on the tee, from which it is lofted over the crossbar by an upright citizen, an economics major from Kansas City who will be 23 Saturday.

To the great surprise of everyone, with the possible exception of Franey, somehow he has ushered in the post-Lee era with the kind of kicking that UCLA hasn’t had since last year, way back when Lee was doing the same thing.

Franey has tried 14 field goals and has made 12 of them. In fact, he has been so consistently good that not even Coach Terry Donahue can understand it.

“David has certainly been the most surprising performer of the year,” Donahue said. “I kind of thought David would be a good percentage kicker, but I didn’t know he would be this good.”

Franey is getting help from long snapper Paul Reilly and also from holder David Clinton, who also held for Lee for three years. The results are in.

From between the 20- and 30-yard lines, Franey has made all seven of his field goal tries. He is 3 for 3 between the 30 and 40. Beyond the 40-yard line, Franey has kicks of 41 and 43 yards, but he missed his two longest attempts, from 46 and 49 yards.

Suddenly, Franey is being rediscovered. This is a lot like the training season, but there is a difference. Once he was a question mark. Now, he is the answer.

All of this has reminded Franey of a lesson about being in the public eye. Early in his career at UCLA, he discovered the meaning of news. Learned it from Lee, in fact.

Lee’s field was football, and in his outdoor classroom, there was only one event that had real news value.

Lee kicked a field goal? Ho-hum.

Lee missed a field goal. Now, that was news.

“I remember last year when John had made 17 straight field goals and no one even talked to him,” Franey said. “Then he missed three against Oregon State and the whole world was there in the locker room to talk to him.

“John said, ‘Gee, I should miss more often to get some attention,’ ” Franey said.

“That’s really the way it is here at UCLA,” he said. “I’ve kicked 12 of 14, but that’s not news. That’s old hat. The kicker at UCLA is supposed to make his field goals.”

The kicker at UCLA is making his field goals, but the ex-kicker at UCLA is not. At least not as many. Lee is 7 for 12 with the St. Louis Cardinals, which means he is losing his bet with Franey on who will have the better percentage at the end of the year.

Franey said he talks to Lee about once a week, which is more often than a lot of people have been talking to Franey this season.

“I understand everybody was interested in me before the season, because the story was who was going to replace John,” Franey said. “The only other story would be who would replace me if I didn’t do the job.”

In between is a lot of silence, Franey said he has learned, but only as long as he does his job.

“I don’t need the attention,” he said. “It’s not important to me because I’ll know I’ve been kicking good. In fact, I’d just as soon never say another word.”

Eric Ball, UCLA sophomore tailback who has missed the Bruins’ last four games because of a pulled hamstring and who hasn’t played in five of seven games this season, believes that he may be able to return to action Saturday against Oregon State.

“Hopefully, if everything goes well, I’ll be in for at least a couple of series,” Ball said.

That would be a week ahead of Coach Terry Donahue’s schedule. Donahue still isn’t sure, however, whether Ball would be better off waiting until the Stanford game Nov. 8.

“He’s running OK and he looks fine, but he hasn’t been able to work all of practice, and if he’s tight (Thursday), that may mean the muscle isn’t completely healed yet,” Donahue said.

Ball, who ran for 227 yards and 4 touchdowns against Iowa in the Rose Bowl game Jan. 1, returned to practice this week after pulling his hamstring against Cal State Long Beach Sept. 27. Ball began the season by missing the Oklahoma opener because of a bruised knee and has played in only two games and carried 13 times for 58 yards.

“I’m feeling pretty good, but I’m not rushing myself,” Ball said. “I’m taking it little by little, which isn’t what I did before when I came back too quickly.

“I’ve wanted to play so badly, but with my knee first and then my hamstring, I’ve had a run of bad luck,” he said. “I’ve only got four games left, so if anything else happens, the season’s over for me.”

Bruin Notes

Now that they have improved to 3-1 in the Pacific 10 and 5-2 overall, the Bruins can say thanks to their defense. In seven games, UCLA has allowed only 14 touchdowns, 5 of those in the 38-3 opening-game loss at Oklahoma. UCLA has allowed only five touchdowns in its four Pac-10 games. Against Washington State in the second half, the Bruins allowed 79 total yards and three first downs. . . . The Bruins will play Saturday in Portland against Oregon State. UCLA holds a 25-9-4 lead in that series and has won the last three games, but didn’t play the Beavers in 1981, 1982 and 1983. . . . Karl Dorrell, who caught five passes against Washington State, moved into fourth place on UCLA’s receiving list. Dorrell’s 91 receptions trail only Mike Sherrard’s 128, Cormac Carney’s 108 and JoJo Townsell’s 100. . . . Kickoff time for UCLA’s game against Stanford Nov. 8 in the Rose Bowl has been set at 11:42 a.m. to accommodate CBS-TV.