Bruins’ Clark Progressing on Learning Curve

He says he goes with the flow, taking things as they come, preventing surprises that cause emotional highs and lows that can get in the way of football.

And education.

But Jamal Clark had flowed into playing linebacker, then defensive tackle until three years ago he decided UCLA needed help at tight end and he was just the man to provide it.

And he had flowed into passing grades, but he wasn’t excelling in class as he always had, so he decided to get some help and found the problem wasn’t with the work, but with the worker.

Clark may be fooling himself with his assessment of his own outlook on life, but he isn’t letting that appraisal get in the way. He dropped passes in fall camp, so none were thrown to him in games. He worked on catching the ball, and now he is a blocking tight end who can catch passes.

It was a chance to play and escape a hands-of-stone reputation.

“When [tight end Mike] Grieb got hurt, it kind of gave him an opportunity to show what he could do in a game,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “He’s taken advantage of that opportunity. He does a good job of what we’re asking him to do.”

Grieb was the pass-catching tight end, Clark the blocker. Grieb caught five passes in the season opener at Tennessee. Clark blocked well. But Grieb sprained an ankle, leaving a hole in the Bruin offense.

Clark caught no passes against Northeast Louisiana. But he caught two at Michigan, three at Oregon and three on Saturday against Arizona State. Suddenly, Clark is the first UCLA tight end in three seasons to catch passes for more than 100 yards.

His eight have been for 104 yards, and coaches now include him in the game plan as something other than another blocker to spring Skip Hicks on outside runs.

“I don’t know what it is, but I’d like to bottle it,” Toledo said of Clark’s new-found ability. “I wish he could transfer some of it to some of those other guys. . . . We just didn’t expect him to play as well as he is playing.”

Clark had come to UCLA from Minnetonka, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, as an outside linebacker, with speed and 6-foot-5, 225-pound size. He grew into a defensive tackle, but a lightweight one at only 245 pounds.

Then he became a blocking tight end, but was merely a big body in an offense that emphasized throwing to J.J. Stokes and Kevin Jordan.

“It didn’t really bother me,” Clark said. “I’ve always felt confident that the coaches would know better what I should do, through objective observation. I just wanted to do anything, because an opportunity to block or an opportunity to catch is still an opportunity to be had.”

When Toledo replaced the retired Terry Donahue and brought in Al Borges as the offensive coordinator, expectations of the tight end changed. He would have to block and catch the ball.

Clark blocked and dropped it.

“He had to learn that the way you practice is the way you play,” tight end coach Gary Bernardi said. “If he wanted to be a complete player--and he did--he had to learn to catch the ball in practice if he wanted to catch it in a game.”

It’s not that quarterback Cade McNown was reluctant to throw it to Clark.

“When somebody’s in a pattern, I don’t see his face or number,” McNown said. “I just look to see if he’s open.”

But you can’t be open if you’re not running routes because coaches aren’t sold on your ability. Clark, now at 252 pounds, is a nightmare for defensive backs, which he showed against Arizona State when he took a pass 22 yards, to the Sun Devil 11-yard line, carrying two defenders on his back the final 10 yards.

Clark knew the problem.

“Obviously I might not have been projecting my ability to the coaches,” he said. “Others were practicing better, and maybe they felt more comfortable with them. It definitely feels better [to be a more complete tight end].

“But whenever we have a big play, I enjoy it. . . . If I make a key block, to me, it’s just as enjoyable as getting the key reception because you’ve gotten the first down or you’ve gotten the touchdown. You get that much closer to winning the game. It’s all-encompassing.”

It’s passing a test, after a week in class on Spaulding Field.

It’s a test he has struggled with, but he has struggled with a lot of them.

Clark carried a 3.6 grade-point average from Hopkins High to UCLA, and a 2.45 average in psychology at UCLA, plenty good enough to keep him eligible and coaches happy. But not good enough for him.

“My parents really emphasized education,” he said. “I was very fortunate. School was always the most important thing. But I really struggled with test-taking.

“I wasn’t in danger of flunking out, but I felt I should be doing better. Sometimes I would get grades back and felt that I should have known all the information or most of the information, so I was surprised at the results. I just didn’t know why. It didn’t make sense to me.”

Without telling the athletic department, Clark sought answers at the university’s Office for Students with Disabilities.

He was tested, and found to have a learning disability that inhibits his reading comprehension.

The answer: a change to a sociology major in which he could take essay tests, rather than the multiple-choice tests offered in most psychology classes; someone to go to class with him and take notes, while he listens and jots his own thoughts down, and untimed tests.

After 12 years of public school education and four-plus years of college, he is at peace with academics, knowing that he can learn if he does it his own way.

“I guess it’s a physical problem,” he said. “I don’t think there’s much you can do about it. But I do know I can get help, and I now know I can learn. It’s still really difficult, still really a struggle, but at least it’s something I can persevere with.”

As is football.

“He’s blocking well,” Toledo said. “He’s obviously catching the ball very well. His effort is super. Attitude is unbelievable. He’s gone beyond our expectation level. He’s gaining confidence. He’s having success and likes it.”

On the field, and in the classroom.