Ryan’s Stock Rising as a USC Defensive Tackle, but He Can Always Box

It has been said that you can’t appreciate the good times until you’ve had your share of some bad times.

Tim Ryan and Dan Owens are kicking back to let the good times roll this season.

Ryan and Owens were members of a USC defensive line that was vilified two years ago. Their unit was called the weak link of the team, a freeway for opposing offenses.

Now, as the Trojans get ready to play Boston College Thursday night in Boston, this once-scorned unit is regarded as perhaps the strongest segment of the team.

Ryan, a 6-foot 5-inch, 250-pound junior who figures to be a four-year starter at USC, is aware of the irony of the re-evaluation process.

“I kind of expected it coming in,” said Ryan, anticipating criticism in 1986. “I was a true freshman. Dan was a redshirt freshman, and Darryl Henderson (no longer with the team) was a sophomore.

“Now we’re third-year starters and it’s like, wow. People are saying the line is the strong point of the defense.”

It has been a gradual maturing process for the defensive line that is now composed of Ryan and Owens at tackles and Don Gibson, who became a starter last year at nose guard as a redshirt freshman.

“I’ve heard it said that we were the best defense in the Pac-10 the last four games last year,” Ryan said during a break in USC’s training schedule at UC Irvine. “I think it helped us get to the Rose Bowl because we really jelled.”

Ryan is regarded as an All-American prospect. He came out of Oak Grove High School in San Jose with glowing credentials, and he has steadily improved.

Last year, as a sophomore, he had 109 tackles, including 11 for losses of 56 yards, and he deflected 6 passes, recovered 1 fumble and forced 4 others.

USC Coach Larry Smith says that Ryan is a dominating, big-play type of defensive player who controls the line of scrimmage.

But Ryan would rather talk about his once-maligned teammate, Owens, and Gibson, the relative newcomer to the line.

Owens, 6-4, 260, a former nose guard, was moved to left tackle, or the weak side of the defensive line, in 1987.

“Dan is probably our best pass rusher,” Ryan said. “He’s usually one-on-one with an offensive lineman. I’m usually double teamed by a back and a tackle and maybe a tight end.

“I think he’s really an underrated player. I’ve seen him do things to other guys on film that I haven’t seen done to any other player. He takes guys 5 yards into the backfield and just throws them.”

Among his other accomplishments, Owens deflected eight passes last season.

Ryan was more publicized than Owens as the first true freshman to start for USC since Riki Gray-Ellison in 1978.

“With my situation, people had heard of my name coming in as a freshman and starting right away,” Ryan said. “Owens is a great player, but he didn’t have the ‘pub’ coming in. If fans could watch films like we do, they’d get a real picture of what kind of player he is.”

As for Gibson, Ryan said that the lineman could have played as a freshman in 1986.

“In practice he held his own against (Jeff) Bregel and the other guys,” Ryan said. “When Coach Smith was at Arizona, he and his staff recruited him real hard.”

Don’s older brother, Boomer, started as a linebacker at Arizona in 1986 (for Smith) and again in 1987.

“A nose guard has to have good body control instincts as to where the ball is,” Ryan said of Gibson’s position. “You’re getting blocked from every angle, and you don’t know where the ball is going. But Don is a quick thinker.”

As for his own position, Ryan said: “The thing most expected of me is to control my gap and contain. I have to contain the quarterback and running back almost every down. I can’t let anyone get outside of me, and if they do, I have to string them out. I can’t let them turn the corner on me.”

Ryan added that agile quarterbacks, such as his teammate Rodney Peete, are the most troublesome.

Although Ryan has missed some practice with an ankle injury, he expects to play Thursday. However, he may not start. He would be replaced by Pat Harlow, a 6-7, 260-pound sophomore.

Harlow has been impressive in practice, as has Randy Hord, a transfer from Riverside City College, who backs up Owens.

Ryan has the distinction of having retired as a boxer at age 13.

“Dad brought some gloves home one night when I was 5 and Jim (his brother) was 7. We boxed and had a ball,” Ryan said. “When I was 8 and 9, I really got into it and traveled. I won the Junior Olympics five years in a row, and Jim won the nationals two years.

“I think boxing had a lot to do with the way I play football. It made me mentally tough.”

Ryan has said if he doesn’t make it in football, he may return to boxing as a super-heavyweight.

His football career, though, is on a steady, ascending course now.

Trojan Notes

USC has concluded a week of practice at UC Irvine, and Coach Larry Smith still hasn’t settled on a No. 2 quarterback behind Rodney Peete. . . . The reserve quarterbacks work behind the second- team offensive line, opposing the first- string defensive unit. It has been a one-sided matchup, Smith said, because the defensive line has just swarmed all over his backup quarterbacks, Pat O’Hara, Shane Foley and Todd Marinovich. Smith said that O’Hara, a sophomore, and Marinovich, a freshman, are sharing the No. 2 spot and will be on the traveling squad to Boston. . . . Smith is most concerned, though, about the progress of his offensive line, which has been hampered by injuries and ineligibility. Bill Schultz, a projected starter, is academically ineligible. Brent Parkinson, a starting guard for two years, hasn’t been able to engage in much contact work while coming back from knee surgery. Center Brad Leggett has been bothered by an injured foot. Tailback Steven Webster, who had extensive knee surgery after the UCLA game in 1987, was held out of contact for the first two weeks of practice. If he plays against Boston College, it would most likely be a brief appearance. . . . Dwayne Garner, who shared a starting cornerback position with Chris Hale last year, is doubtful with back spasms. So is linebacker Junior Seau with an ankle injury.

In a recent scrimmage, fullback-tailback Aaron Emanuel fumbled while trying to score. Lamont Hollinquest, a freshman defensive back, picked the ball out of the air and apparently was on his way to a touchdown. However, Peete tracked him down and tackled him about 30 yards short of the end zone. The play was similar to Peete running down UCLA defensive back Eric Turner at the close of the first half of last year’s game, preventing a touchdown. It was, in retrospect, the key play of the game that USC won, 17-13. Emanuel was running straight up when the ball was knocked out of his hands, reverting to a running style the coaches have been trying to correct. . . . USA Today ranks USC’s schedule as the second toughest in the country behind Louisiana State’s.