Defense Gets Wake-Up Call

After three excellent defensive outings to begin the season, the UCLA defense was roughed up by Oregon and Arizona State.

The Bruins gave up 60 points in their two Pacific 10 games after giving up 65 points to Alabama, Fresno State and Michigan.

Injuries have been a factor. UCLA lost its top defensive lineman, Kenyon Coleman, against Michigan. Cornerback Marcus Anderson did not play against Arizona State and cornerback Jason Bell was injured in the Sun Devil game, weakening the secondary.

But UCLA defensive coordinator Bob Field said there were still too many breakdowns the last two games than there were in the first three. He knows the Bruins have a better defense than the one currently ranked seventh in the conference.

“We haven’t tackled as well the past two games,” Field said. “And we had some guys that didn’t play their gap responsibilities well. They would be in a gap, think the ball was going somewhere else, come out of that gap and the play would cut back to that spot they left.

“I feel most games are lost more than the other team winning. I take nothing away from Oregon; they beat us, they did a great job. But we beat ourselves with [bad] alignments, poor technique and poor tackling.”

So the Bruin defense is spending the off week working on fundamentals. It watched a film of the 22 “big plays” by Oregon and Arizona State. And the scrimmages against the offense and scout teams are bruising as the team seeks to regain its early edge.

“Our confidence is still high,” senior linebacker Tony White said. “The last two weeks we have made more mistakes than usual. The guys have noticed that, and we’ve come out with a new attitude about doing everything right in practice so it will carry over in a game.”

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The UCLA players shared dinner Wednesday night with donors who have endowed 62 football scholarships. The Bruins hope to endow all of the 85 scholarships allowed under NCAA rules, with donors making a minimum gift of $100,000.

“I can think of a lot better things to do with $100,000, but then again I don’t have that much money,” wide receiver Brian Poli-Dixon said, chuckling.

“But these people make it possible for me to get an education for free, and I’m really grateful for that.”