Character Builder : UCLA: Stretz held Bruins together during tough times.

From the outside, it looks like any other modest apartment in West Los Angeles. But within its walls, all sorts of unusual things are conceived, built and eventually launched.

There are gas-driven rockets, gas-driven missiles, gas-driven planes, gas-driven cars.

And, player-driven vehicles for turning a season around.

The source of all this energy, the master builder, is Grady Stretz, a senior defensive tackle for UCLA. His roommates are George Kase, Mike Flanagan and Matt Soenksen, all members of the football team.

This has been a highly successful season for Stretz, but not an easy one. He has served as the anchor of the Bruins’ defensive line, and too often, because of injuries and an unfamiliarity with a new system, Stretz has been the main force keeping this line from drifting into mediocrity.

It sounded wonderful to Stretz in the spring when he was told UCLA was shifting from a 3-4 to a 4-3 line to neutralize the size advantage of most opponents and maximize the speed and aggressiveness of the Bruins’ smaller, but quicker, front seven.

No longer would Stretz have to wait for the offense to take the initiative.

“A year ago, I was reading what the guard would do and I would then react,” Stretz said. “Now, I’m attacking into the offensive line and then reading. I kind of read on the run.”

What had sounded great in the spring looked great in the opener against Miami when Stretz had Travis Kirschke beside him at tackle, Phillip Ward near him at one defensive end and Donnie Edwards behind him at linebacker. But when all of them were slowed or sidelined because of injuries, Stretz found himself not only learning the new system on the job, but trying to train others as well.

By the time UCLA had finished its fourth game, a morale-killing defeat to Washington State, things had reached a season low. The defense had given up 62 points in the previous two games and the Bruins were 0-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Nobody seemed to take it harder than Stretz. After all, he was so determined to close out his college career successfully that he spent the summer getting into the best shape of his life.

“It’s tough when you put in that much time,” he said. “You invest so much in yourself and the program that it’s really disappointing.”

When the football stress builds, Stretz turns to building his various miniature vehicles to relieve the tension. He has been doing it since he was a kid growing up in Arizona.

“When I need to rest my mind, this is the way I do it,” he said. “I can’t really go out and do something physical when I need to rest after games, but I get to the point where I need something to escape.”

But there was no escape this time. Stretz and his roommates tried to figure out where their season had gone.

“We’re sitting there dead last in the Pac-10,” Stretz said. “That’s a hard thing to swallow when you’re a senior. Every night, we were sitting in our living room asking, ‘What in the hell is going on?’ ”

Stretz and Flanagan decided to take their frustrations before the entire team. When they talked to Coach Terry Donahue, they discovered he had already planned a team meeting.

When it was convened before the Arizona game, Stretz stood, his face red, the veins in his neck bulging, his decibel level rising.

“This is ridiculous,” he bellowed. “We are dead last.”

Coming from a guy who stands 6 feet 4 1/2 and weighs 285 pounds, that message was bound to get through.

UCLA beat both Arizona and Stanford to climb back into the Pac-10 race. There are certainly other factors in the Bruin revival, such as the development of freshman quarterback Cade McNown, the consistent performance of running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar and the return of some of the injured players. But nobody has downplayed the contribution of Stretz, whose pep talks have become a regular pregame event.

“Someone needed to step up,” Kase said, “not only on the field, but in the locker room. He took the team on his back and is not going to let loose. When I look over at him [talking in the locker room], it gets my motor going.”

Donahue was happy for the help.

“Players can generally talk to each other at the same level,” he said, “because they are the same age. But more importantly, leadership comes from those playing well. If a guy doesn’t back up what he says, the other players will figure he’s full of hot air.”

Stretz has plenty of that too. He still takes his rockets and planes out to the park, and now he has his roommates building and flying their own.

Ever the leader.