It Takes a Thief : CSUN’s Vaughn Has Scored on Two Interceptions

In the parlance of defensive backs, the kid was born to be a cover guy. Blanket coverage, it seems.

Joseph Vaughn’s mom knew it years ago, when her son was playing Pop Warner ball.

Like the time she watched him play a night game. Funny thing was, Little Joe was in his room. In bed.

“I heard him yelling, ‘Throw the ball, throw the ball,’ ” said his mom, Ramona Logan. “You could see his feet running like mad under the covers.

“That’s when we started saying, ‘He plays football in his sleep.’ ”

Vaughn, 6-0, 200 pounds, has been wide awake lately in dreamland as he applies the sleeper hold to receivers and quarterbacks.

He’s the Cal State Northridge sandman, with more grit.

A senior safety, Vaughn has intercepted three passes in two games and returned two for touchdowns.

He is tied for the team lead in touchdowns and was selected the American West Conference defensive player of the week after last Saturday night’s 52-13 victory over UC Davis.

Talk about primary in the secondary. A pretty fair effort for a guy who’s starting for the first time since high school.

“This isn’t a bad feeling,” Vaughn said, deadpan. “I’m starting to like it a little bit.”

Actually, he loves it, always has. When he was 18 months old, it became obvious that Vaughn was a football natural.

While roughhousing at home, he bounced off the corner of a wall and opened a gash near the hairline on his forehead.

He was rushed to the emergency room, where the wound was sewn shut. His reaction: Sew what?

“He took it really well,” his mom said. “He handled those stitches pretty good.”

Vaughn was left with a one-inch scar as a souvenir . . . which approximates his experience at Cal State Fullerton, from which he walked away with nothing.

His road to Northridge, as it is for many of the team’s players, was an indirect one. Vaughn redshirted as a freshman, then played two years at Fullerton before the program was axed somewhat unexpectedly after the 1992 season.

“A lot of players come back to us from somewhere else,” Northridge Coach Bob Burt said. “Thankfully, we get more than our share of guys (like Vaughn).”

Call it a U-turn for a player who knows the football highways and byways very well. After Vaughn’s freshman year, his family moved to the Valley from the L.A. Basin, and he was none too pleased about leaving Crenshaw High behind. Two years after that, the family moved to Palmdale.

“I didn’t want to switch schools again,” said Vaughn, who by then had spent his sophomore and junior years at Sylmar High. “I didn’t want to move out here (to the Valley) to begin with, to tell you the truth. I regretted it.

“Once I finally got used to Sylmar, though, I didn’t want to leave again.”

So he stayed, sort of, making a round-trip commute of 90 miles to Sylmar each weekday during his senior year.

He became a driving force, practically. Vaughn led area City Section players with seven interceptions in ’89.

“We were a little worried about him doing all that driving,” his mother said. “But we knew he was responsible.”

And then some. Trustworthy, loyal, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful. The last Boy Scout, some might say.

By nature, Vaughn is on the reserved side, which has nothing to do with stadium seating.

His stoic, introverted personality is easily explained. When Vaughn was at Sylmar, he was one of the youngest students in the Class of 1990.

Though he is a fifth-year senior at Northridge, he is only 21 years old.

“He wasn’t a yeller, wasn’t a talker,” Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman said.

“He went about his business. I think the kids almost considered him a square.”

To some, Vaughn will always appear a tad conservative. His stepfather, Walter Logan, is a minister in a Palmdale church and Vaughn used to play drums in a church ensemble. He still attends church, well, religiously.

So he’s strait-laced and understated, like a pair of old, black hightops. Call him the safety who plays it safely.

“I’m not very emotional as far as, well, anything,” Vaughn said, laughing. “I’m not very interesting, I guess.”

He’s fighting back. In fact, he bristles when folks call him Joe. The term Average Joe, after all, isn’t particularly flattering.

“I don’t even like to say it,” he said. “I don’t like to introduce myself as Joe. It sounds too common and plain and ordinary. When you say Joe Vaughn fast, people think it’s only one name.”

Vaughn can be demonstrative--but he picks his spots. He lives alone in a Canoga Park apartment and relishes his solitude, but when he’s out with the guys, things are a bit different.

“He’s laid-back cool,” said James (Scoody) Woods, Northridge’s other starting safety. “He’s like the rest of us, but he doesn’t talk as much.”

When Vaughn opens his yap, folks should heed the words. In the season opener against Boise State, a 40-19 defeat, Woods and Vaughn were on the sideline when Vaughn wheeled and said: “I’m getting the interception. There’s gonna be a party in the end zone.”

Three plays after a possession change, Vaughn intercepted a pass and ran 30 yards for a touchdown to tie the score, 19-19. Classifying what followed as a party is stretching things, though, unless it was a slow dance.

Vaughn hadn’t been in the end zone since high school and had clearly forgotten the celebratory routine. He crossed the goal line and froze.

The same thing--nothing--happened a week later when he returned an interception 81 yards for a touchdown against UC Davis. His defense has been sound, but his spontaneity needs some work.

“I’ll put a little something together for next time,” Vaughn said.

When he’s in the mood, Vaughn can be creative. In fact, he choreographed a dance for the members of the secondary.

They dubbed it the “DB Dance,” and it’s more bump and run than bump and grind.

Woods said it goes like this: “You raise your knees, kind of backpedal, then raise your hands like you’re stopping someone.”

So far, Vaughn has been a traffic cop with a hand extended, and it’s generally been a one-way street.

Against Davis, Woods also intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.

The secondary had four interceptions as the Matadors, who play today at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, Tex., reached a 17-year high in points.

“It was contagious--everybody wanted one,” said defensive backfield coach Ron Foster, a former Northridge and NFL player.

“It was like a bowling ball. Once it started knocking down the pins, it was like a stack of dominoes. Down they go.”

Vaughn figures his good fortune won’t continue indefinitely. But it wouldn’t break his heart if it lasted, say, another month or two.

“With a defensive back, sometimes you’re going to lose and sometimes things go your way.

“It’s been great so far, but I know it probably won’t last forever.”

Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?