Memory of Mother Gives Him Another Reason to Succeed : Football: Her death makes Corona del Mar’s Willard more intent on winning at Cal.

Jerrott Willard has never needed any extra incentive to excel on a football field. This is a linebacker so intense that his high school coach, Corona del Mar’s Dave Holland, said he used to scare teammates during practice.

Whether it’s two-a-days under a blazing August sun or Saturdays in October in front of 60,000, the California junior knows only one speed--full throttle.

But when Willard begins this season with the Golden Bears, he’ll have some added motivation, a reservoir of thoughts to draw strength from in times of need:

The memory of his mother.

Carleen Karcher was 45 when she checked into St. Joseph Hospital in Orange last April for what was described as routine bladder surgery. Two days later the daughter of Carl Karcher, founder of the Carl’s Jr. restaurant chain, suffered a massive pulmonary embolism and died.

“I’m still in shock,” Willard, one of Karcher’s six children, said by phone from Berkeley. “It was one of those things people say can never happen. Everyone said it was the first time they’d ever seen anything like that. But it’s something I have to go on with.

“I’ll never forget her. She went to all my games in high school and several at Cal. Right now, I think I’m playing to make her happy and proud. (Her death) made me realize how short life is, and it made me more intent on winning. I don’t want to waste my time losing.”

Losing does not sit well with Willard. He learned this the hard way last year. Cal had had its best season in 40 years in 1991, going 10-2, beating Clemson in the Citrus Bowl and finishing with a No. 7 national ranking.

Fifty of 64 lettermen, including All-American candidates such as tailback Russell White and receiver Sean Dawkins, returned for 1992, and Cal was expected to contend for the Pacific 10 Conference championship.

But the Golden Bears fell flat on their facemasks, going 4-7 under first-year Coach Keith Gilbertson. It was the first time Willard had played on a losing team, in any sport, on any level.

So what if Willard had an outstanding individual season, leading the Pac-10 in tackles with 133. The only numbers that mattered were four and seven.

“It hit me real weird--I didn’t know how to lose,” said Willard, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound inside linebacker. “But once you lose, you realize how much you hate it.”

Cal is expected to do some more of it this season. White and Dawkins, who still had college eligibility, were picked in April’s NFL draft, and several other top players have departed.

The Golden Bears, who open Sept. 4 at UCLA, have been picked to finish as low as ninth in some preseason Pac-10 polls.

But after a week of drills, Willard has sensed something in this team he likes, a feeling of togetherness he said was absent in 1992.

“Last year everyone had separate individual goals,” Willard said. “I couldn’t stand that. We had guys who were more interested in their NFL careers than winning. People were worried about injuries instead of playing. It was a disaster.

“But this year’s attitude is completely different, 180 degrees from last year. We don’t have all the glory boys back, but we have a lot of hard-nosed players.”

Willard is about as tough as they come. He’s not huge by college linebacker standards, but with a muscular frame, only 6% body fat and an overly aggressive nature, he’s lean and mean.

“It comes natural,” Willard said of his intensity. “I’m a pretty competitive person, and in a game, you have to take yourself to a level where you can overwhelm opponents. I don’t notice it--it’s not like I walk down the street intense--it just happens. You have a whole year to build up your anger and frustration, and you kind of take it out on the football field.”

What Willard lacks in size, he makes up for in speed and instinct.

“He has a great ability to diagnose a play,” said Cal defensive coordinator Artie Gigantino, a former Ram and USC assistant. “I’ve been around some great linebackers, and this guy has what they had, an ability to read and feel a play coming at him. He’s a great student of the game, and mental attributes are as big a part of his success as physical ones.”

Willard has one outstanding physical trait, though. Holland said Willard, who helped Corona del Mar win Southern Section Division VI championships in 1988 and ‘89, has the biggest hands he has ever seen.

“Shaking hands with him is like shaking some guy’s thigh,” Holland said. “The game is played now with your hands instead of your forearms. The offense can use its hands, so the defense has to do the same thing. It’s an advantage to have strong wrists and hands.”

It’s also an advantage to have good speed. Willard, whose 222 tackles puts him within range of David Ortega’s Cal career record of 525 tackles, has been timed in the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds.

“If you weigh 250, you can’t be too fast,” Willard said. “You can’t catch a guy like Marshall Faulk.”

For all the crushing hits Willard placed on opponents in high school--he helped the Sea Kings shut out their first three opponents in the 1989 playoffs--Holland said his most memorable recollection of Willard was a play that highlighted his speed and determination.

“We ran a blitz against Newport Harbor in 1989 and Jerrott went to the wrong hole,” Holland said. “They ran a draw right where he was supposed to be, but he recovered and ran the guy down about 40 yards downfield. It was one of the most awesome plays I’ve ever seen. It was something he had to get done. That’s what he was like.”

He’s still like that. Willard wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school because most big schools thought he was too small. Cal, in fact, only offered a scholarship after another linebacker the Golden Bears were recruiting decided to go elsewhere.

But Willard has obviously proved he can make it at the next level, and some believe he can take his game to an even higher level.

“He’s definitely an NFL prospect,” Gigantino said. “No one can look into a crystal ball and say this young man will be drafted, but he has some of the basics.”