Toledo Seeks Way to Motivate Hicks

With apologies to Joseph Heller, at UCLA it has become “Catch 42.”

It’s third and three, a passing down in the Bruin offense, but receivers have been dropping passes since August, and never more so than on Saturday at Michigan.

So maybe it’s really a running down. But Skip Hicks, No. 42, has been slipping up to a hole as though it were at the edge of a cliff. No one is getting bruised tackling him.

You make the call.

Coach Bob Toledo made his Tuesday, when he delivered a blow to Hicks’ ego.

“Skip Hicks has got too much ability to be satisfied with the way he’s playing,” Toledo said. “It’s just not good enough.”

Hicks is UCLA’s leading rusher, with 217 yards in 42 carries, a 5.2-yard average, and four touchdowns.

But he gained 49 of those yards in a single run against Michigan, one that could have been a touchdown with a slight cutback near the goal line. And he gained 101 of those yards, and scored all four touchdowns, against Northeast Louisiana, which put up little or no defense.

In an appeal to Hicks’ pride, he was benched in favor of freshman Durell Price at the start of the second half in Ann Arbor, Mich., last Saturday.

“I was trying to motivate Skip a little bit,” Toledo said. “I’m still trying to find out what his hot button is, trying to make him mad.”

He didn’t Saturday. Hicks ran for five yards in two second-half carries against the Wolverines.

If the benching didn’t awaken Hicks, the aftermath may have. “I looked at the film four times when I got back Saturday night, and I looked at it again yesterday,” he said. “It really, really hurt.

“I’ve never hurt that badly in my life. The little mistakes that I have made really, really hurt.”

Expectations have been great for Hicks, a junior who has been largely inactive since his freshman season because of injuries. He had broken in with a 40-yard touchdown run against California in his second college carry and had 148 yards against Nebraska in his second college game.

His knee, which had required reconstruction two years ago, was sound. So was the ankle that was operated on last season.

He was handled with kid gloves in drills. If Hicks was going to be injured, it was going to be in a game.

It was.

He suffered a mild concussion on the first play of the second series at Tennessee, when he ran for seven yards, but fumbled. He played in a daze the rest of that night. Some believe he has played in one since.

He disagrees that the concussion has had a lasting effect, but admits that the problem is in his head.

“I haven’t felt [I have been running tentatively], but I realize that in certain situations I haven’t been sticking it up there like I should,” he said. “A lot of it is practice habits, I think . . . I’ve got to change that. There’s only so much a coach can say.”

But the coach will still have his say.

Toledo and offensive coordinator Al Borges are so perplexed that they spent part of Sunday seeking answers on a film of Karim Abdul-Jabbar, now with the Miami Dolphins and once beaten out by Hicks for a spot in the UCLA lineup.

“It’s possible [that the effects of the concussion are lingering],” said Toledo. “When you get hurt, you sometimes think about it.”

The answer wasn’t what they were hoping to find.

“They’re two different guys,” Toledo said. “You look at Karim and, wow, he’s a wild man. He’s a violent guy at 190 pounds.

“You look at Skip, and he’s 220 or 210 pounds and you expect him to really deliver a blow, but he’s a glider. He glides to the hole, then accelerates. He doesn’t hit it up in there like we’d like for him to.”

Toledo is also dealing with a difficult possibility.

“Maybe we’re trying to get him to do something that’s not him,” Toledo said. “Maybe that’s just not his style. I didn’t see him too much as a freshman, but I thought he hit harder than that, so I’m going to stay on him. . . . I’m going to do something to motivate him to do what I want him to do. . . . I want to make him angry.”