As Usual, UCLA Has a Full Crop : NFL draft: Jamir Miller heads bushel of Bruin talent expected to be selected.

He knew the first day, in Westchester, Pa., at training camp in July.

It was a little faster, but the players were the same size and nobody hit him any harder than he had been hit in college.

“You don’t ever get confident at training camp, especially when you’re an undrafted free agent,” Philadelphia Eagle defensive end Mike Chalenski said. “They throw you into the fire, right off the bat, but I felt pretty good because I had played against some of those guys.”

That was when he was at UCLA, which had the most alumni in the NFL last season, 37, one more than USC and Miami. Florida State and Notre Dame had 30.

In the great American super market system that is the NFL draft, they are the stores most frequently shopped. By close of business Sunday, the first round will probably include UCLA linebacker Jamir Miller.

And when the draft is finished, the names of UCLA guard Craig Novitsky, tackle Vaughn Parker, nose guard Bruce Walker and defensive back Marvin Goodwin will probably have been called. Linebacker Nkosi Littleton and defensive tackle Matt Werner may be tabbed by the pros too.

It is the end of a process that begins every September. Scouts crowd the film room at UCLA, then adjourn to Spalding Field to find new bodies to feed the system.

“We’ve had as many as 30 of them in a small room, watching tape on three monitors,” said Ken Norris, film coordinator at UCLA. “We send four or five game films to the NFL dubbing center to send to the 28 teams, but always they want more.

“And the agents want tape too. We sell it to the agents. A player will tell his agent the games he played well in, and the agent will get the tape from us and make a highlight film to sell his player to a team.”

It’s part of a job placement service the schools spend thousands of dollars to support. The idea is to make the process perpetuate itself. UCLA produces NFL players, so the Bruins recruit the kind of players who can move on to pro football.

“Very few kids that we recruit, at some point in their careers, don’t aspire to that level,” Coach Terry Donahue said. “Most kids want that opportunity.”

Many get it.

“Look, big schools get big players,” New England Patriot Coach Bill Parcells said. “If I want a big lineman, I’m more likely to find it at BC (Boston College) than BU (Division I-AA Boston University). That’s not to say that you won’t find them at Boston University, but you’re more likely to find a skill player, a smaller player there.”

You’re more likely to find several of them at USC or UCLA or Miami or another of the few schools that seem to stamp out NFL players, as though on an assembly line.

“They realize that in the Pac-10, we play the kind of offenses and defenses the pros use,” said Bob Toledo, UCLA’s offensive coordinator. “We throw the ball a lot, and that means linemen learn pass protection. In some programs that use the wishbone or the option, they’re only learning run blocking.

“They’re learning pass defense against passing teams too. It makes a difference.”

College football is a product of a professional influence. UCLA assistants visit their professional counterparts for tips to help them beat Stanford--and get a player ready for the NFL.

And geography helps.

“If you take a kid from a small town in Alabama, then he plays at the state university, well, he’s played big football but he hasn’t lived in a big city,” Toledo said. “Here, they’ve lived in Los Angeles. It probably makes the adjustment easier.”

Big town or not, though, players from major programs have an advantage.

“You can tell them right away at training camp,” said Chalenski. “The others’ moves are a little ‘rawer.’ They used to dominate players at a smaller program with strength, but up here everybody is strong. I tried to use moves I had learned in college, and they worked.”

Drafted Eagles were cut. Chalenski stayed and played on special teams and in specialty situations.

And became part of the lure the schools use to get more and better players.

“Sure, why not?” said Miller, who is leaving college with a year of eligibility remaining. “You can’t assume anything, but I’ll get an opportunity. They mentioned it when they were recruiting me.”

Said Donahue: “We tell them they’ll get a lot of exposure. They’ll be on TV a lot. Pro scouts come on campus a lot. Lots of kids openly or quietly want to play in the NFL, and UCLA is a great springboard.”

For those who aren’t drafted, the chance to play still exists, and that chance is enhanced when the resume is stamped “major program.”

The schools try to keep it that way. Selected players go to an NFL scouting combine tryout camp in Indianapolis to be tested, weighed and measured. UCLA goes the NFL one better, designating three days after the season and letting teams know that the players will be on hand, ready to perform.

The idea is exposure.

Werner, probably on the draft bubble, knows.

“I will get a chance to show that I can play somewhere next season, either by being drafted or signing as a free agent,” he said. “A lot of guys I’ve played against in the last five years have been.”

Chalenski, his roommate at UCLA, told him.

As training camp drew to a close last season, the Eagles played the Atlanta Falcons. It was a critical time, with cuts looming.

“Atlanta had a tackle, Bob Whitfield,” Chalenski said. “He played at Stanford, and I played against him in my sophomore and junior years at UCLA.”

Made the team.