Willmer Strengthens UCLA Defense by Several Degrees

Brian Willmer had another long day Saturday, opponents running into him at twice his size, teammates running past him at twice his speed.

But it was nothing like his Wednesdays.

“Now Wednesdays, those are tough,” he said.

That is the day this UCLA middle linebacker arrives on campus at 9 a.m., and doesn’t leave until 10 p.m.

For 13 hours, there are graduate studies, football practice, and more graduate studies.

Crunch time is when he runs off the field just before 6 p.m. and dashes across campus for a four-hour course in statistics.

The other day, he looked down during a lecture and saw a bare leg covered in grass.

“I showered so fast, I missed a spot,” he said.

On a defense that set a school record Saturday by holding Stanford to minus-34 yards rushing in a 27-7 victory, Willmer was what teammates called “The Plug.”

Then again, he is always the plug, if only because he has endured five years of Wednesdays.

“He is the one who holds everything together,” defensive end Weldon Forde said.

Not only because he leads the team in tackles, and had two during Stanford’s first six plays from scrimmage to set the tone for the Bruins’ seventh consecutive victory.

But--and get this--because he is smart.

The undersized Bruin defensive players survive with complicated schemes, so they respect smart. They admire smart. They try to emulate smart.

Willmer is their 239-pound leader not just because of his toughness, but because of his degrees.

Next spring, he will receive his second in two years.

A bachelor’s degree in political science last spring.

A master’s degree in higher education next spring.

All on one scholarship.

“He turns the image of football players around,” Forde said. “People talk about football being for dumb jocks; well, look at him.”

But look fast. He’ll walk away from you to finish studying for next week’s midterm, or next month’s research paper, steps he hopes will lead him toward perhaps an eventual job as a university president.

He has studied in locker rooms before practice. He has studied in team hotel rooms the night before games.

Many UCLA players go to Pauley Pavilion during the middle of the day to hang out. Willmer goes to study, finding a quiet spot in the bleachers to read his latest book on a right-wing educational movement.

“It just makes sense,” said the former Fullerton Sunny Hills High star. “You try to take advantage of what is given you.”

In the most novel of ideas, Willmer has made the school work for him, instead of the other way around.

When most athletes interrupt their four-year career by redshirting, they decide to use all five years of eligibility to earn one degree, if that.

Even the average student who is not involved in athletics takes nearly five years to earn one degree.

When Willmer sat out his freshman season at UCLA, he and his father decided it could be done better.

“We figured if I worked hard, I could get two degrees for the price of one,” he said.

So he took extra classes each quarter. He attended school each summer.

Where some teammates treated the football off-season as if they were in the NFL--taking a three-month spring vacation--he viewed it as a different kind of season.

“Some guys look at a football scholarship as being just for football, but it’s for so many other things,” he said.

For Willmer, one of those things is not movies.

“I wish I could remember the last one I’ve seen, but it’s been so long ago,” he said.

Another of those things is not hero worship.

There are routinely 50,000 people either cheering or booing him on fall Saturdays . . . yet few of them are in his graduate classes.

“A lot of them can’t believe I play football,” he said. “They all spend their weekends studying.”

And when he sees them in class the following week?

“They ask whether we won,” he said. “It’s nice. I’m exposed to a lot of different people.”

What do you know? A story about a college student who uses a scholarship to expand his mind, broaden his world, set the course for the rest of his life.

A story appearing on the sports page.

This is a UCLA defense where smart is cool, and Brian Willmer helped make it that way.

Forde is a political science major who wants to be a lawyer. Larry Atkins’ favorite classes are science and mathematics. Several players made the honor roll last year. This column could further examine the extracurricular activity in which this defense had its best performance of the year, but why ruin it?