Ayers Can Be UCLA’s Rock

It was going to be a senior season for the ages, a coming-out party to show the world that Derek Ayers wasn’t a running back playing part-time receiver, but a full-time receiver who could play running back.

The UCLA offense was set up for him: short- and intermediate-length passes caught in a broken field where he could revert to running back with receiver speed, making people miss, turning a 10-yard gain into a long-distance touchdown.

“I would lead the team in receptions,” Ayers mused. “Lead the Pac-10 in all-purpose yards. Make All-Pac-10.”

And now. . . .

“This is not exactly where I wanted to be,” said Ayers, somewhat somberly as befits a player who has only eight catches for 97 yards in four games. “I’ve had to adjust my goals and thought processes and take a step back and take it one game at a time.”

It’s been a painful adjustment.

Ayers sprained an ankle on the first day of practice and watched younger players take advantage of the situation. When he got back, he dropped balls and struggled with the new system.

It’s called the West Coast offense, and it looks easy: Run out, turn and catch the football. But it requires intricate timing and exactness in receivers’ routes. When the play involves a receiver taking six steps and turning, the football already in flight, nothing works when the receiver has taken five or seven steps instead.

Success comes only through repetition, until the route becomes as natural as breathing and concentration can be spent on catching the ball.

It’s tough to get repetitions when you’re standing behind the huddle, helmet off, hands on hips, watching others because your ankle hurts and you’re fighting yourself.

“When the ankle happened, my first reaction was ‘Why me? Why now?’ ” he said.

He had spent the summer working two and sometimes three times a day toward a senior season that he figured might generate a future in football, rather than a last hurrah.

He had talked with coaches about returning kicks. And more runs. As a junior, he had turned nine flanker reverses into carries averaging 16 yards and including touchdown runs of 30 yards against Brigham Young and 29 against Oregon.

A day last season at tailback against USC, in which he carried 18 times for 69 yards because starting tailback Karim Abdul-Jabbar was injured, was a lark. Derek Ayers was a receiver now, and it was his season.

And then it wasn’t.

“Once he got hurt, that really set the stage for a bad start for him,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “He missed so much of camp. That’s where you lay your fundamentals and get going, because once you get to the games, you do less individual drills and more teamwork.”

He came back slowly, perhaps too slowly for new coaches who are trying to establish a new offensive system. While Ayers watched, Rodney Lee, who had just received a scholarship after a strong spring practice--in which Ayers was also injured--stepped out and when the opener at Tennessee loomed, was designated as the starter.

“I hadn’t been in practice, and Rodney Lee deserved it,” Ayers said. “I wasn’t ready.”

He was injured but was healing. More important, he was hurt and angry. He was supposed to be. It was a message to Ayers and the rest of the Bruins that the era of three days of rehab, with miraculous healing on Thursday and lining up on Saturday, were over.

Ayers didn’t take it well.

“He has a little different temperament,” Toledo said. “He’s one of those who need to be patted on the shoulder a little bit, praised a little bit. He needs to get some success.”

Ayers played sparingly against Tennessee, and caught two passes for seven yards. Against Northeast Louisiana, he caught two passes for 46 yards. Against Michigan, he caught one pass for eight yards.

It was a low on a day of lows.

“It was the worst game I’ve ever played at UCLA,” he said. “This team has become a family, and you don’t want to let a family member down.”

The whole family let down. The Westwood offense used 31 passes to gain 62 yards in a 38-9 loss at Ann Arbor.

A week was spent in practice and motivation, beginning with a Monday players-only meeting and ending with a game at Oregon. Before it, Kenny Easley, a former UCLA All-American, talked about playing for the Bruins as a senior.

Ayers, a senior, caught three passes for 36 yards.

“It was three baby steps forward,” he said.

He’s on target to repeat his 23-catch, 310-yard junior season, a far cry from his goals. His two runs on reverses have netted only three yards. And there’s a new demand being made.

“He had a nice day catching the ball Saturday,” Toledo said. “He had a horrible day blocking. So I told him that: He’s got to become a better blocker. . . . What I try to tell them is, if you have the opportunity to catch the ball three-four-five-six-seven times, there’s still another 65-70 snaps. What are you going to do with those?”

Receiver Jim McElroy can block. Eric Scott can block. Tod McBride can block. And if Ayers is going to play as much as he wants to play, he’s going to have to block.

“It’s my senior year and I can’t let this opportunity pass me by,” Ayers said. “It’s a team thing now. I’d like to win games. I don’t want to go out my senior year a loser. I’d like to become a winner with a team, rather than a player who was too selfish about his own goals to help the team win.”