TEAM PLAYER : Injuries Aside, All’s Well at UCLA With Jackson Back in the Starting Lineup

An army needs foot soldiers, a hive needs worker bees and a football team needs Melvin Jacksons.

Not that Jackson is an average talent, by any means. He’s UCLA’s starter at right outside linebacker--now, as a senior, just as he was in 1985 as a sophomore.

But Jackson is the kind of team player who pitches in and does what needs to be done, ego aside.

He takes care of business. Makes tackles. Goes to class. He’ll have a degree in sociology when he leaves in June. He doesn’t give the coach sleepless nights on any count.

Remember when Coach Terry Donahue was listing outside linebacker as an area of concern because injuries were chipping away at his once-plentiful corps? Eric Smith was out with back problems and Billy Ray broke a leg in the opener.

Heard any complaints from the coach lately about that spot?

That’s because there are players like Melvin Jackson on the team.

UCLA wisely invested a scholarship in Jackson in 1983, when he was graduating from Kennedy High School in Suffolk, Va. He was also being recruited by North Carolina, Penn State, Florida and, as he put it, “the University of Virginia, of course.”

But he chose UCLA. For one thing, he was the youngest of four children and thought maybe everyone had been a little overprotective of him. He was ready to try his wings. For another, he was serious about getting a degree and liked the academic reputation of UCLA.

And, for a third, UCLA was just coming off a Rose Bowl victory, and he thought, as he watched on his TV set, that UCLA looked like a pretty good team to join.

After the usual red-shirt year and the usual “chance to play” as a second-year freshman, Jackson won the starting spot at left outside linebacker as a sophomore. He started all 12 games, including a Rose Bowl victory in which he forced a fumble and made four tackles.

Melvin Jackson was feeling pretty good about UCLA at that point.

But the next year, a sophomore beat him out. He played behind Carnell Lake all year.

His reaction?

“It bothered me at first,” Jackson said. “Those first couple of games were pretty hard, especially after already being a starter before. But I knew I had to accept it.

“One thing that I told myself was that I shouldn’t take it like a demotion because it wasn’t caused by something I did wrong. I knew I had done something right in the previous season, but we were using a different scheme and a different plan of attack.

“I had to deal with it. There were a lot of self-destructive attitudes I could have taken, but I’m glad I didn’t. This just shows that when things aren’t going exactly the way you want them to go, you have to keep working, not get down on yourself, and let things work out.”

So last year Jackson kept working and, although he never started a game, he played 319 downs and made 50 tackles--31 unassisted and 5 for losses of yardage. He could hold his head high.

Jackson thought he’d be playing behind Lake again this season, but when Smith’s back problem persisted and it became obvious that he would not be able to play, Jackson was moved to right outside linebacker, where he had to compete for the starting spot with Ray and Marcus Patton.

Both Ray and Patton have been injured this fall, too. But before they went out, Jackson earned the starting spot on merit.

In four games, Jackson has been in on 22 tackles, including a sack, and he has broken up a pass. There are six Bruins with 20-some tackles, falling in behind inside linebacker Ken Norton, who dominates with 52, and Lake, the guy who beat him out last year, with 35.

But who’s counting? Of course, he gets much more enthusiastic when talking about “team defense.”

UCLA is leading the Pac-10 in total defense, giving up an average of 236 yards a game, and in rushing defense, giving up 76 yards a game.

“I think we’ve been playing pretty tough, especially the defensive line,” Jackson said. “After the first game, we didn’t know whether we were really good or whether San Diego State just had an off game. I think we proved ourselves against Nebraska.”

The loss took away a little of the luster. But now that Pac-10 play has begun, it’s like a whole new season. And the Bruins are 1-0 in the Pac-10 season.

“My mother hasn’t been able to come from Virginia for a game yet, but she’s planning to come for the SC game and stay for the Rose Bowl--I hope,” Jackson said. “That’s why the game this week against Stanford is so important.

“They’re 0-3 now and if we go in lackadaisical, like we did last year when they beat us, they could beat us again. Coach Donahue was telling us Monday that three times when we’ve lost to Stanford, it cost us the Rose Bowl game.

“They were really tough last year. (Stanford running back) Brad Muster was really up for the game. We finally stopped him in the second half, but it was too late.

“We can’t let that happen again. We have to go up there knowing that it’s tough up there and be ready to go after it right from the start.”