There Have Been Few Happy Returns

Wanted: Small, quick high school senior with courage to catch a football amid impending personal danger and the ability to make others look silly in the open field after catching it.

Apply: Bob Toledo, coach, UCLA.

With an ever-improving defense and an offense that becomes more efficient with each passing game, the attention is turned to the Bruins’ Achilles’ heel: punt and kickoff returns.

The Bruins are ninth in the Pacific 10 at returning kickoffs, five returners averaging 17.8 yards a try.

They are last in punt returns, four trying but producing only 5.7 yards a return and fumbling four times.

Neither special team has been that special. Neither has come close to scoring.

UCLA is better off when the opponent throws on fourth down. The Bruins are averaging 21.4 yards an interception return and have scored twice.

“A lot of that is the people returning,” Toledo said. “I think returners make special teams. It’s like a good field goal kicker makes a good field goal team. A good punter makes a good punt team. Good returners make good return teams.

“Look at the kid at Iowa. He’d make any coach a pretty good return coach.”

The Hawkeyes’ Tony Collins leads the nation, averaging 22.4 yards a punt return.

UCLA had looked at Joey Getherall of Bishop Amat, who chose to go to Notre Dame. The Bruins judged him a bit small at 5 feet 9, 165 pounds.

“Maybe we’ve got to get a small guy who can do the job,” Toledo said. “We need a specialist to do something better, so yes, we are looking for a guy to return. We may have one already here though.”

That would be Freddie Mitchell, who is redshirting after qualifying academically for a scholarship only two weeks ago.

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Look for the Bruins to pressure California quarterback Justin Vedder today. Vedder is a junior college transfer from Saddleback who has taken every snap for the Bears and has been hammered the last two weeks, by Washington and Washington State. He has developed what coaches call “happy feet,” meaning that he is not getting set to throw, anticipating being hit by the pass rush.