Bruins Need Big Game From Wahler Saturday : Defensive Tackle Goes Against Arizona State’s Outland Candidate McDaniel

At last, the big week has arrived. UCLA will play at Arizona State Saturday in a game that will be televised by ABC to most of the country.

This is the one the Bruins have been waiting for, the one that will shed some light on the race for the Rose Bowl berth.

The Bruins are primed and ready to avenge their shabby showing in their Pacific 10 Conference opener last season.

Jim Wahler is ready, too. The Bruins’ right defensive tackle will be facing his biggest challenge of the season, lining up across from Arizona State guard Randall McDaniel for what shapes up as a monumental clash.

McDaniel, widely considered the front-runner for the Outland Trophy and even more widely considered the best offensive lineman in the Pac-10, is a 6-foot 5-inch, 261-pound senior and the key player in an offensive line that UCLA Coach Terry Donahue, for one, considers the class of the conference.

Wahler, a 6-4 1/2, 258-pound junior, is not nearly so heralded.

UCLA leads the nation in rushing defense, giving up an average of just 62.6 yards a game, and ranks sixth in total defense, giving up just 246.4 yards a game.

But any time the Bruin defense is mentioned, attention turns first to the linebackers. Inside linebacker Ken Norton and outside linebacker Carnell Lake get most of the attention because they are rolling up the big numbers--they have 75 and 53 tackles, respectively--and making the big plays. But third on the list of UCLA tacklers is Wahler, with 48.

Ask Wahler the key to the Bruins’ defensive success, and he’s ready with this answer:

“No. 1, we’re a very unselfish group of players. No. 2, we’re very physical. We have a better combination of strength and speed than any team since I’ve been here. We showed that when we completely stuffed Nebraska’s ground game. We’re as strong as anyone in the country. And No. 3, we work so well together. There is no Brian Bosworth shooting off his mouth about making an occasional big play. We work as a team at all times.

“No matter who is getting the attention, we all feel good about it because we know that every play involves everyone.”

This time out, though, Wahler is going to have to handle one of the best offensive linemen in the country if he is to do his part in making it all work.

“Really, I’m looking forward to it,” Wahler said. “When you play against one of the premier players, it has to bring out the best in you. I have a lot of respect for him. It’s easy to get excited about a challenge like that.

“I look forward to playing someone like Randall McDaniel, someone I really respect.”

Wahler understands respect. He’s a product of Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, a Jesuit boys’ school. When he finds his parents waiting for him in the crowd after a game, he kisses his mother and his father, and he doesn’t care what anybody thinks about that.

Wahler’s family is obviously very important to him. He speaks in glowing terms of his brother, Pat, who is a starting defensive lineman for Santa Clara and is “a better natural athlete.”

Like so many others, Wahler went through a freshman year waiting to get into the game. That year turned into a red-shirt year. And then he spent his second freshman year sharing time with nose guard Terry Tumey.

Of course, when he was switched from nose guard to defensive tackle, so that he could play alongside Tumey, he was insulted.

“It bothered me that, instead of winning the position, I was the one who had to move,” Wahler said. “Looking back on it now, that sounds really stupid. But I was upset. I went home that summer with a bad attitude, and my dad had to help me put it all in perspective.

“He told me I was looking at it from a totally selfish point of view, and I should step back and look at it the way the coaches were looking at it, from a team point of view. I did, and I came back that fall with a different attitude. It was the best thing for me.”

Wahler was a starter all last season and is really establishing himself this season.

“It was also the best thing for me when I was red-shirted my first year, but I was really hurt at the time,” he said. “But it’s hard to tell a freshman that when he just wants to play. That’s why I try to talk to some of our young players going through that now.

“I tell them, you have to get down and get dirty and earn your way, here and in everything you do in life. I tell them they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t good, and they can’t lose sight of that just because things aren’t going their way now.

“The world doesn’t meet anybody halfway, but it’s hard to tell young people that.”

At the ripe old age of 21, Wahler tries to get that through.

In the summer he works with inner-city kids in the National Youth Sports Program. Getting to know what those kids are up against has him planning to work for the Drug Enforcement Agency when he graduates from UCLA.

Bruin Notes

Gaston Green ranks second in the nation with his average of 132.2 yards a game rushing. The leader is Emmitt Smith of Florida, who is averaging 144.4. . . . Quarterback Troy Aikman continues to lead the nation in passing efficiency, having completed 94 of 137 attempts--68.6%--for 1,329 yards and 11 touchdowns. He has thrown only one interception in seven games, and that was at Stanford. . . . As a team, UCLA is second in the nation in turnover margin at plus-2. . . . Strange but true, UCLA’s injury report includes shoulder problems for Joe Pickert, Randy Austin and Mel Farr, three who have been working at tight end. Farr, the starting fullback who has been asked to pick up some slack at tight end, may be needed just as much at fullback this week because James Primus has a serious thigh bruise. . . . Tailback Eric Ball, who planned to be back for last Saturday’s game against Cal, was not quite ready. He’s expected to play at Arizona State.