Baseball Secondary for Bruins’ Manning : College football: Twins’ minor leaguer quickly moves into major role in UCLA defensive backfield as walk-on freshman.

The next great UCLA defensive back, after Carlton Gray and Darryl Henley and Don Rogers and Kenny Easley, is a walk-on. Some people paid for him to come here. Not that he couldn’t have sprung for it . . . and for the entire secondary.

Ricky Manning Jr. is not your typical 18-year-old freshman. For one thing, he plays minor league baseball for the Minnesota Twins, who gave him a five-year, $250,000 contract out of high school and an additional $100,000 to cover college costs since the pro deal means he can’t get a scholarship.

For another, he seems to be faking 18.

“Manning is a guy who’s like 25 years old and playing his freshman year,” Bruin Coach Bob Toledo said. “He is so mature.”

And, obviously, so quick to impress.

Toledo needed only a few days of freshman workouts and one full practice to say Manning would play immediately. Manning then lasted all of two games in a backup role, long enough to make seven tackles, including three for losses, in the opener against Boise State, and make eight more tackles and break up two passes at Ohio State.

Manning was named the starting right cornerback for last Saturday’s game against Fresno State, a promotion that would have come even without Jason Bell’s lingering heel injury and was punctuated by an interception and 83-yard return late in the first half. It proved to be one of the key moments of the 35-21 victory over his hometown team.

“Every time I talk to somebody from home, they always compliment me, tell me I’m doing really good,” he said. “And they tell me in a surprising-sounding voice: ‘You’re doing really good. Everybody is so proud of you.’ All the time. . . .

“I’m probably more surprised than they are. Then again, I don’t know. They probably thought I would redshirt this year.”

Not quite. In a constantly changing secondary, Manning has not only been one of the consistent bright spots of ’99 but has already proved himself to be the foundation for the unit’s future. Bell and two other starters, Ryan Roques and Joey Strycula, are seniors.

“He’s obviously a very gifted athlete,” said Bob Field, the defensive coordinator and secondary coach. “He has quickness, he has speed, he’s very instinctive, so he has all the physical tools that you look for at that position. And then the bonus that comes with it is that he plays older than he is. He’s very mature, he is not intimidated by the game, he wasn’t intimidated the first day of practice. He was very comfortable being out there competing against our top receivers. It doesn’t mean that he made every play, but he competed and played well from the beginning and was not overwhelmed by having to learn everything.”

Maybe that’s because transitions are nothing new. Soon after graduating from high school in June, Manning left Fresno for Fort Meyers, Fla., and the outfield of the Gulf Coast League Twins, where most players had been since the season started in March. In the rookie league, the lowest level of the minors, he played 19 games before leaving early to make the opening of UCLA football, batting only .196, with 10 hits in 51 at-bats along with 12 runs, 14 walks, 13 strikeouts, seven runs batted in and five stolen bases.

The Twins have stressed that making baseball something other than a full-time occupation will hurt his development, but Manning doesn’t worry about that. He plans to play both sports until the end of college, insisting he won’t leave UCLA early if he starts to climb through the minors. The Bruins can be especially encouraged that football is his true love.

“I signed a five-year contract, my signing bonus is over five years, so they didn’t expect me to be up in the major leagues in three years,” Manning said. “They just made me aware that by me playing college football it’s going to take me longer to move, just for the simple fact of all the months I’ll be missing, and there will be a lot of people passing me up athletic-wise on the baseball field.

“I say, ‘That’s fine.’ I also say, ‘We’ll see.’ It’s a chance for me playing football, but I think I’m a fast learner and I think I will improve pretty quickly. It’s going to hurt me. I admit that. It will hurt my baseball status. But I think I’ll be just fine too.”

In the meantime, the Bruins put him the starting lineup, talk about his great future, his impressive present, and joke about hitting him up for loans. Even the coaches. Teammates might not be joking so much when they ask, or when they tell him to take a bunch of guys out to a fancy restaurant.

Maybe they’re simply being practical, since Manning’s big purchase after signing the contract was a new sport utility vehicle that can carry the most passengers. Or maybe they know he’s really faking 18.

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On the Defensive

Ricky Manning Jr. has made a big impact as a freshman defensive back for UCLA:

GAME 1 VS. BOISE STATE

Tackles 7

Rank on team 2nd

Tackles for loss 3

Interceptions 0

GAME 2 VS. OHIO STATE

Tackles 8

Rank on team 3rd

Tackles for loss 2

Interceptions 0

GAME 3 VS. FRESNO STATE

Tackles 4

Rank on team 7th

Tackles for loss 1

Interceptions 1