Perry Could Return to Bruin Football

UCLA’s football program could receive a boost if versatile wideout Tab Perry is able to qualify academically this summer and return to the Bruins before the start of the season.

Perry, academically ineligible to compete for UCLA in 2003 and given his unconditional release by Coach Karl Dorrell in January, has been taking various courses to regain his eligibility to complete his final season with the Bruins.

“The ball is in his court,” Dorrell said Wednesday about Perry, who caught 62 passes for 1,262 yards and three touchdowns and returned 56 kickoffs for 1,262 yards in three seasons at UCLA. “He’s taken classes in a number of places to get his eligibility back to play this fall,” Dorrell said, mentioning San Diego State and courses on the Internet. “It’s a pretty complicated process at this point, and we’re just hoping that it works out.”

If Perry is able to return, he would give the Bruin offense a big boost. As a junior in 2002, Perry caught 35 passes for 698 yards and one touchdown and returned 25 kickoffs for 626 yards.

“I knew that his goal was to try and come back,” said Dorrell, whose Bruins will start fall practice Aug. 11 on the UCLA campus. “I told him if he could get things worked out, I would be in favor for him returning.”

-- Lonnie White