Ayanbadejo Is Mobile Enough

This was slow? He caught Akili Smith, Oregon’s mobile quarterback, for sacks twice in the same drive, the biggest defensive plays of the game and what may stand as the biggest of the season, and wasn’t feeling very mobile? This was hampered?

Brendon Ayanbadejo, the outside linebacker who helped turn Saturday’s game back to UCLA for good, didn’t have the usual afterburners that have helped him become one of the few consistent standouts on the Bruin defense. What he had, instead, was a brace on his left leg to support sprained knee ligaments.

“I felt like it slowed me down,” Ayanbadejo said. “I wasn’t really coming free like I normally do.”

Try selling that one in Eugene.

On the first play of overtime, with Oregon starting at the Bruin 25, Ayanbadejo sacked Smith for a nine-yard loss. On the second, he got Smith for another three yards. Smith threw an incomplete pass on third down, then was intercepted by cornerback Ryan Roques, ending a threat from one of the nation’s most potent offenses before it really got started.

“He played with a lot of grit and determination,” UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said of Ayanbadejo.

So much that Toledo gave the senior from Santa Cruz the rare honor of being picked as a captain for the second week in a row, all the more fitting, the coach noted, because it will come against a Northern California opponent on Saturday, California. Tight end Mike Grieb was also selected, joining season-long choices Cade McNown and Larry Atkins.

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The return of defensive end Kenyon Coleman on Saturday, after he had missed the two previous games and most of a third because of a sprained knee ligament, was highlighted by two fumble recoveries and a tackle for a loss.

“I felt good going into the game,” he said. “I wasn’t really to the point where I was nervous about the knee.”

Said Toledo: “He was really good. He hustled. It was one of his better performances since he’s been here.”

He now moves back to the starting lineup when the Bruins go to Berkeley.