McElroy’s New Role Is as Simple as X, Z

He had come in wide-eyed in 1994, with the confidence of an athlete who wasn’t used to losing races. Then he found himself third in the wide receiver race, behind J.J. Stokes and Kevin Jordan. Or maybe even fourth, because there were other experienced players around.

His eyes narrowed, because he was peeved at a perceived slight.

They are wide-open again, now that he is the No. 1 wideout at UCLA and knows the offense from X to Z.

“Since I fully made the switch from X to Z . . . it seems like I’m touching the ball a whole lot more than in the past,” Jim McElroy says. “Things seem to be working out. I’m enjoying it more now.

“I’ve always enjoyed it, but it’s been like I’ve been waiting, waiting, waiting for my turn to come.”

It’s here for McElroy, the Z-man, or flanker, in the Bruin offense. He had come to UCLA as a speed merchant from Washington High, and was installed at Z behind Jordan. Then McElroy was moved to X, which is what the Bruins call their split end. There he played behind Stokes.

Stokes and Jordan made All-American. McElroy watched and waited, more than a little impatiently.

“When I came in, I thought I knew a lot about football,” McElroy said. “I was kind of angry. . . . I didn’t realize about J.J. Stokes and Kevin Jordan--well, I knew those guys were here, but nobody ever told me how good a receiver Kevin Jordan was. It was all J.J. Stokes. That was all you saw. And then when I came here and saw Kevin Jordan, it was like, ‘Wow, look at how good this guy is.’

“It got frustrating, because I wanted to be thrown in there and prove to the coaches and everybody what Jim McElroy could do. I wanted to make a name for myself early.”

He did, but the name was as small as his 5-foot-10, 160-pound--”on a good day,” he says--stature. He was an alternative receiver his freshman season, used when Stokes was injured and the focus was on Jordan. And during McElroy’s sophomore season, Jordan was still around, making All-American.

Last season, McElroy was the deep threat in a ball-control passing game, thrown to occasionally to loosen up the defense, but not often enough to suit him.

After the eighth game, he was switched back from split end to flanker, in part because flanker Derek Ayers was having trouble catching the ball, as were many of the Bruins in a season in which there were 31 dropped passes.

The move had more significance than just telling McElroy to take a step back from the line of scrimmage. As the Z, he caught eight passes for 149 yards against USC in the season finale. Among those catches was one for 52 yards that set up a touchdown, and others for double-digit yards in each of the Bruins’ three fourth-quarter scoring drives.

“Our system features a flanker more than a split end,” Coach Bob Toledo says. “It’s not to say that we can’t throw the ball to the split end, because obviously we can. But we can put our flanker in more positions because being off the ball affords him the luxury of being in motion. We feel we can get more mismatches with different people by putting him in different formations.”

McElroy lives for mismatches. Or, for that matter, matches.

“I feel like I can go up against any defensive back,” he says. “I don’t care if it’s Deion Sanders. He might win some, I might win some. There’s some tricks of the trade that I’ve learned. . . .

“I can’t separate [from contact with a defensive back] like Stokes, but I’ve learned I can be physical with them if I go out and attack them. . . . And I can threaten someone deep, get their legs turned, get their hips turned and get them on their heels. And then I can stop and come back for the ball and it works. Before I couldn’t do that. It was like, ‘I’m just going to run this route.’ ”

Speed helps. Make that speed to burn. McElroy runs a 4.33-second 40-yard dash, and he won races with the Bruin track team in the spring, when he was clocked at 10.49 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 20.95 in the 200.

It’s the sort of speed that has given him a 19.28-yard average on the 54 passes he has caught, best in school history among receivers with at least 50 receptions and 0.01 of a yard better than Willie “Flipper” Anderson finished with in 1987.

Expect Anderson to regain the lead before McElroy is done, because of the shorter-route nature of the Z-man.

He can also run back kickoffs, and is only the second UCLA player to have done so for more than 1,000 yards. He can also throw touchdown passes, having done so twice on reverse plays.

But McElroy wants to catch passes--”60 this year, for 1,000 yards. That’s my goal”--and he wants to run reverses and do anything he can to get his hands on the ball.

Finally.