Walker takes the stern approach on defense

UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker was unhappy. That was clear.

“You can always tell because his eyes get small and he starts glaring at you,” cornerback Trey Brown said.

Walker was wearing sunglasses and a visor -- standard for practice -- but it didn’t matter. “You can feel those eyes,” Brown said.

The coach’s irritation was rooted in the play of UCLA’s defense through four games. It was time for tough love.

“One thing I’ve learned about attitude, at least with these guys, you’ve got to keep the thumb on them,” Walker said.

The result was a thumbs-up moment. The Bruins dominated Oregon State, providing time for the offense to rally in a 40-14 victory Saturday.

It was the type of performance that the UCLA defense became known for last season, when it was responsible for saving the Bruins from bowl-game extinction and, of course, producing a highlight 13-9 victory over then-No. 2 USC.

That was in Walker’s first year, and the Bruins took a huge jump, finishing 35th in the nation in overall defense after being ranked 113th out of 117 major college teams in 2005.

The improvement left Walker with other job opportunities to mull -- including an inquiry from Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis -- but he chose to return with a boost in pay and 10 returning starters in his lineup.

UCLA defensive players were relieved.

It’s not that they don’t have complaints about Walker, it’s just that they sound like recruits griping about a drill sergeant -- think Louis Gossett Jr. in “An Officer and a Gentleman” -- knowing the repeated drilling and grilling are necessary.

“People want to play for him,” defensive end Bruce Davis said. “We wanted somebody to believe in us, and we wanted somebody to believe in.

“We all gravitate toward him and he hasn’t done us wrong yet.”

Well, maybe just once.

Walker was unhappy. That was clear.

Always happy to share successes with players and other coaches, he stood straight-backed in the Notre Dame Stadium visitors’ locker room last October and took the blame for a final 62 seconds that was like graffiti on the Mona Lisa.

Notre Dame went 80 yards in three pass plays for a 20-17 comeback victory, the likes of which even Touchdown Jesus had rarely seen.

Walker took the rap. He said he was waiting one more play to serve up his smorgasbord of blitzes.

A play that never came.

“I stood out there after the game was over,” Walker said last week. “They were celebrating and I took it in. I just looked at the clock and learned something from it.”

No need to wake up those echoes as the Bruins prepare to face Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl on Saturday, though linebacker Christian Taylor recalls things differently.

“That is very admirable that he takes the blame, and I respect him for doing it,” Taylor said. “But I can’t let him. If we don’t miss two tackles on that [last] play, we win the game.”

Indeed, the Bruins were so passive at the end of that game it actually accented how aggressively they had played the rest of the game.

A reputation was born.

“If all you do is run, they load up the box,” said Oregon State Coach Mike Riley, whose team was limited to 248 total yards Saturday. “If you try to beat them passing, they’ll blitz you to death. You can’t be one dimensional.”

That attack strategy was honed in the NFL, where Walker spent nearly a decade as an assistant learning from Pete Carroll, Bill Belichick and Joe Gibbs.

Carroll was so impressed that Walker was the first assistant he hired after taking over at USC. Walker coached the Trojans’ defensive backs in 2001.

“He should be in line to be a head coach,” Carroll said. “He’s that kind of guy. He’s got that kind of background and I think he’s got a real good demeanor about him.”

As evidence, the Bruins were the first team in 63 games to hold the Trojans under 20 points. That game resonated beyond keeping USC out of the national title game, it helped UCLA’s recruiting locally -- which Walker is deeply involved in -- and gave the Bruins’ defense a giant-killer image.

Walker said his relationship with Carroll is less personal now, though, “I’m sure if I call him, he’ll take my call.” He also noted, smiling, that USC’s coach had “never congratulated me” on last year’s upset victory.

Others did -- in their own way. Weis called and officials from Stanford and Arizona State, needing a head coach, asked about Walker. So, too, did NFL teams with staff openings.

UCLA bumped Walker’s salary from $250,000 to $330,000, then banked on his loyalty.

“I’m real committed to trying to do something that hasn’t really been done here in a long time, establishing a defensive mentality at UCLA,” said Walker, who played defensive back at Pasadena City College and the University of Minnesota. “That’s important to us as a defensive staff, to prove you can do that.”

Walker was unhappy. That was clear.

“I think people down in Westwood Village heard him today,” Davis said before last week’s game. “We haven’t been playing up to our standards and we felt his wrath.”

The Bruins spent the week leading up to the Oregon State game hearing Walker’s whistle. “The long whistles are so much worse than the short ones,” Davis said. “You know what’s coming.”

They reacted like Pavlov’s dog. Turnovers handed Oregon State a 14-0 lead, but the Bruins gave up only 101 total yards after the first quarter, a taste of the consistency Walker had been seeking.

While hearing so much about his 10 returning starters yet needing a CPA to calculate the yards the Bruins were giving up, Walker had seen enough and had expressed his will.

“I know sometimes I’ve been criticized with people telling me, ‘Remember, you’re dealing with college kids,’ ” Walker said. “Even my wife tells me that all the time. To me, it’s a contradiction to tell them to play hard all the time but, ‘Remember, they are just kids.’

“You either do it all the time or you’re not going to do it all the time. We’re real close to where I think we should be after that last game.”

UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said that was the type of accountability he sought when he hired Walker.

“He’s a fundamentalist, a hard worker and a good teacher,” Dorrell said. “I wanted structure.”

He got it.

“The whole attitude changed,” safety Chris Horton said. “We wanted to prove to him that we were a good defense. He was like, ‘That’s all talk. Show me.’ ”

The Bruins did in 2006. But it’s a challenge sternly put to them every week, though Davis, laughing, admitted: “It might seem odd, but every once in a while Coach Walker does crack a smile, like most human beings do.”

Davis is right.

Asked what he’d do Saturday if Notre Dame had the ball, trailing by four, with 1 minute 29 seconds remaining in the game, Walker beamed and said, “I’ll let ‘er rip. I might even yell across the field, ‘Charlie, here we come.’ ”

Times staff writer Gary Klein contributed to this report.

chris.foster@latimes.com