Crash Course Has Bruin Defense in Driver’s Seat

It’s about being healthy. It’s about being happy. It’s about being wise.

That’s the best explanation Ryan Nece and Robert Thomas can come up with. That’s the best way Nece and Thomas, two UCLA linebackers, can describe how the Bruin defense has come to be feared and revered instead of poked at and joked about. It’s the only way they can make people understand how the same performers who would have been canceled on Broadway in a week have become, after three years, ferocious hitters who swallow up tailbacks, flatten quarterbacks, erase receivers.

“You can’t hit somebody hard if you have a sore shoulder,” says Nece, who had off-season surgery on both shoulders. “Not to make excuses, but we’re healthy for the first time in a long time and healthy guys can hit harder.”

“We have a different attitude about playing,” Thomas says. “We have the plan to surround the ballcarrier with 11 guys if that’s what it takes. We were told from the first day of practice to be aggressive and go after the ball no matter what. When you have that attitude from your coach, it’s very freeing. And very fun.”

That new attitude comes from new defensive coordinator Phil Snow.

Nece and Thomas are too much the gentlemen to complain about past position coaches. There will be no blame-placing.

“Living in the past is worthless,” Nece says.

“Let’s just talk about now,” Thomas says. “What’s the point in going back?”

There is none. Talking about failure might put negative thoughts in everybody’s mind. So listen to Nece talk about now, today, this minute.

The 6-foot-3, 224-pound senior has just finished practice and is a little breathless. But he is not too tired to talk about a favorite subject. Hitting people.

Nece says that hitting somebody really hard in a football game, hard enough so that your own teeth rattle, hard enough to feel your insides wobble, hard enough to make yourself smile and your opponent grimace, hitting somebody that hard is the same feeling you get in a car accident.

“That’s what I told my mom when she asked me what it felt like to hit somebody as hard as you can,” he says. “The only thing I can think of is that it feels the same as when I was in a car accident. Is that a good thing? Yeah, it is.”

Thomas can’t find words to describe what it feels like to hit someone real hard. He hasn’t been in a car accident. If he can’t describe the feeling, though, he knows it. He understands it. He has, in his mind, a sense of what it would feel like if he were ever to deliver the perfect hit. It hasn’t happened yet. It’s something Thomas is aiming to have happen this season.

It is funny to be talking about UCLA linebackers and big hits. Big Hits Aren’t Us seemed to be where UCLA defenders had done their greatest hits shopping in recent years.

“I think,” Nece says, “that when teams watched film of the defense last year, the offense thought, ‘If we do things right, we’ll score on them.’ This year? I think when they’re watching film, they’re thinking that this is a whole different proposition. I don’t think they’re seeing something that would make them think it’s simple to score on us.”

It’s not an easy thing to admit, that the skill you practice every day in a way that makes your body ache and your mind muddle, only makes you a public object of ridicule and a receptacle for blame, never praise. It is no fun to hear the students and alumni, the media, the players on opposing teams blame you and your defensive teammates for a loss.

But that was life for Nece and Thomas as UCLA football players.

Until now.

“It would feel bad, what I’d hear other people saying,” Nece says. “Not that it wasn’t deserved.”

“People didn’t always understand,” Thomas says, “but all the criticism was hard to dispute. We weren’t performing the way we were capable.”

Thomas and Nece are candidates for the Butkus award, an honor given to the nation’s best collegiate linebacker. UCLA is the only team to have two players on the 12-man nomination list. UCLA, the defensive power. Thomas is the leading tackler in the Pacific 10 Conference with 59 (41 unassisted). Nece has 33 tackles this season. Thomas, a 6-2, 237-pound senior, and Nece provide a one-two punch unmatched in the nation this season.

Nece is the son of Ronnie Lott. Lott, a college star at USC and an NFL all-pro, made his reputation as a man who would always hit harder than anybody else. It has taken four years, Nece says, but Lott is finally impressed with the unit his son plays on.

“My dad has been out here to practice plenty of times over the years,” Nece says. “No doubt, he’s been on the bandwagon of [critics]. This year he tells me he’s seeing a lot of things he likes. But he’s not totally ready to say we’re the best or anything. He says he needs to come out to practice before he decides if we’re the real thing.”

And when Lott comes to practice?

“I hope he’ll see an improved defense,” Nece says. “I think he’ll see guys flying around, being physical, enjoying what they’re doing. I think he’ll see guys who will do whatever it takes, from the way we watch film to the way we conduct practice. I think he’ll see a unit which has a great feeling because the rest of the team respects it.”

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com