Bruins Put Noses on Line

They have played the position differently, Jeff Ruckman standing as stoutly as he could as a 250-pound nose guard, dealing with 300-pound offensive linemen, and Weldon Forde trying to use all the speed and quickness that his 233 pounds could generate.

Ruckman, a quiet, blue-collar type, sacrificing his body to help his roommate, Brian Willmer, lead UCLA in tackles.

Forde, loquacious, with dash and verve, loving to hear his name announced to the multitudes: “Sacked by Weldon Forde.”

And now they’re together on the defensive line, Ruckman still at the nose, doing the dirty work in close quarters, Forde relishing his new wider-spaced venue as a defensive end.

Both are looking forward to playing Stanford today in the Rose Bowl because Stanford has struggled to run the football and has relied heavily on the pass and its defense.

“That’s something that makes me salivate, because I like sacks,” Forde said. “Coming off the end, I want to put them out. I want to put pressure on quarterbacks.”

He has been successful in doing so, leading the Bruins (3-4, 2-2) in sacks with four and in tackles for loss, nine, for minus-35 yards.

Ruckman has two sacks and three tackles for losses in fewer plays, largely because he suffered a knee injury in the season opener at Tennessee, sitting out one game and playing only three downs at Michigan.

They will be dealing with a Cardinal offensive line that is rebuilding after losing four starters to the NFL.

“That is one of the areas that we’ve struggled in,” said Stanford Coach Tyron Willingham, whose Cardinal is 2-5, 1-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference. “I think Saturday [in a 41-9 loss to Arizona State] we used seven or eight guys to really see if we can get a whole performance out of our offensive line.”

Actually, the Cardinal used nine linemen, five of them redshirt freshmen, and shuttled its best lineman, senior Brad Badger, between right guard and left tackle to try to create an occasional advantage.

There was some success. Stanford gave up only three sacks against Arizona State. The week before, Oregon State sacked Cardinal quarterback Chad Hutchinson 11 times and broke a 15-game losing streak. Stanford has given up 33 sacks, most in the Pac-10 by far.

“Yes, but they’re scholarship athletes too,” Forde said.

Said Ruckman, not giving up anything, “They’re good and they’re tough and you can’t go in there thinking they’re not any good. We can’t afford breakdowns.”

True, but they’re not from Washington or Michigan, teams that ran over the Bruins. Stanford is last in the league in rushing, with only 593 yards and an average of 2.4 yards a run.

“[The line] has lent itself to slowing our running game down because coming into the season we had a group of backs that we thought could be successful in Greg Camilla, Adam Salina, Mike Mitchell and Anthony Bookman,” Willingham said. “But it’s never one thing’s fault, and we suffer from all areas in breaking down.”

That has included being the most penalized team in the Pac-10, turning the ball over 20 times and being last in the league in kickoff returns and scoring.

But . . . “Stanford always has had a way of winning games they weren’t supposed to win,” UCLA offensive coordinator Al Borges reminded, pointing to a history of upsets of Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Penn State.

And UCLA is not Notre Dame or Penn State.

It’s the kind of game that worries a coach.

“I see it as a pretty good football game,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “The reason I say that is, I know they’re struggling offensively, but defensively they rank higher than we do statistically. And what’s happened is, because their offense hasn’t been real productive, they’ve put a lot of pressure on their defense. I look for it to be a good, close football game. I really do.”

Stanford’s total defense is one yard per game better than the Bruins’, statistically.

To win, UCLA must not give up big plays, must keep the Cardinal in check in the kicking game and must play consistent offense, Toledo said in what has become a weekly litany.

And some sacks wouldn’t hurt, Forde chimed in.

STANFORD at UCLA

* Time: 3:30

* TV: Fox Sports West

* Radio: XTRA (690)