Linebacker or Safety, This Bruin Scores

With three minutes to play in the first half Saturday night at Knoxville, Tenn., Abdul McCullough found he had about 1,000 friends in Neyland Stadium and 105,297 others hoping he would fall on his face.

The football had come to him, fluttering from the time Peyton Manning had thrown it with Weldon Forde hanging on him. The ball sailed over Tennessee’s Andy McCullough, into Abdul McCullough’s hands for an interception on his 49-yard line. He started back the other way, veered to his right and went into the end zone.

Again.

Marc Dove, UCLA’s defensive backfield coach, waxes philosophical about such moments. “Some people see opportunities, but by the time they see what it is and decide to act on it, the opportunity is gone,” Dove said.

Others seize the opportunity and return it 51 yards against Tennessee.

Or 98 yards against Arizona State.

Or recover it in the end zone against Miami.

Bob Toledo, UCLA’s coach, is more succinct.

“Players,” he said, “make plays.”

Abdul McCullough is more loquacious. Then again, the strong safety is always more loquacious.

“I don’t want to say some people just know how to get to the ball,” he said, “but I like to play hard every play, and when you play hard, good things happen. And when opportunities occur, some people fall down with the ball, and some people try to score. I like to think I’m one of the people who likes to score.”

He has done it three times in the last three seasons.

The 98-yard return against Arizona State in 1994 closed out the Sun Devils in a UCLA victory.

“Hey, on ‘D’ you don’t get the ball too often,” McCullough said. “When you get the pill in your hand, you’ve got to do something with it. You’ve got to tell the offensive guys, ‘Hey, check this out.’ ”

The fumble recovery against Miami gave the Bruins a 10-0 lead in their opening game last season. That was making the best of a bad situation.

McCullough was a linebacker then, and a somewhat reluctant one, called upon to make the switch from safety because UCLA was short on available bodies at the position, and because the Bruins had noticed the season before that Washington State had been successful with undersized linebackers who could run.

At 204 pounds, he was often dealing with 304-pound tackles on running plays. McCullough was sore, tired and occasionally discouraged.

But he made 100 tackles, 31 more than any other Bruin.

“I learned some techniques that some defensive backs never learn,” he said. “I feel that if I have a lineman or a running back in the open field and they’re trying to block, I can make the tackle. Most DBs, that’s a situation where they’re just out of it.”

Jay Graham learned that earlier Saturday night.

Graham, the Tennessee tailback, was escorting Marcus Nash toward the UCLA end zone after Nash had taken a short pass from Manning. McCullough came from the other side of the field, caught up and used his left hand to fend off Graham, catching Nash after a 69-yard gain to the UCLA six.

“I knew I was going to be able to make the tackle,” McCullough said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve had similar situations in more close quarters, where I wasn’t at the advantage. In the open field I’ve got the speed, and I’ve learned the physicality of the game that most who play in the secondary or receiver never learn. It’s helped make me a more complete player.”

UCLA’s new defense takes advantage of complete players. It’s organized chaos, in which this play’s blitzing defensive back is the next play’s bluffing blitzer-turned-pass defender.

It’s a defense designed to work on the mind of the quarterback, disrupting him by disguising its strengths and vulnerabilities and keeping him guessing. It allows for individual freedom for the defenders, and it’s one that is embraced by McCullough, a senior who has bulked up to 215 pounds and is back at safety, emancipated from linebacker, but combining the skills of the two with speed and an eagerness to hit people that is seldom seen in a defensive back.

One play, he blitzes and wraps Manning around the waist, twisting him until he throws an incomplete pass. The next play, McCullough takes an interception back 51 yards for a touchdown.

One play, McCullough comes up to tackle Graham, holding him to a one-yard run. The next play, McCullough is back in pass defense, tackling Tennessee tight end Dustin Moore and forcing a fumble that is recovered by UCLA’s Darren Cline.

McCullough switches games for a description of the defense.

“The only thing I can do to give an analogy is how Kentucky plays defense, the press, in basketball,” he said. “They trap full court, have an attacking defense that tries to get layups. The interception was just a layup for our defense.”

In its embryonic stage, it’s a defense that seeks to match mistake for opportunity, trading big plays for big plays until it develops enough consistency to create a trade deficit.

A big-play defense that succeeds with big-play defenders.

“I think there’s going to be a lot more plays by our defense this year,” McCullough said. “I’ll tell you one thing: It’s not the last defensive touchdown we’ll score this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we scored one a game.”

So far, McCullough has one a season. He’s looking for more.