Though his face has become something of a fixture, defensive
coordinator Larry Kerr couldn’t be found stalking the
sidelines Saturday in UCLA’s 21-0 victory over Stanford.
That’s because Kerr was calling the Bruins’ defensive
masterpiece from the booth at the Rose Bowl. It was the first time
in six years that Kerr found himself in the booth on game day, but
with how well the UCLA defense played Saturday, it will undoubtedly
be a trend that continues. “I don’t want to overplay
being upstairs because the players made the game,” Kerr said.
“But I will say this ““ it gave me a little better
perspective on things, to really see a few things, and I guess be a
little calmer.” Kerr said that he had requested a bungee cord
be tied to him so he wouldn’t jump out of the box during the
course of the game, but with the way his defense played, his only
jumps would have been for joy. The Bruins turned in by far their
most impressive defensive performance of the year Saturday, holding
Stanford to 307 yards with only 83 of those yards coming on the
ground. And while it’s certainly unfair to explain the
incredible defensive improvement through Kerr’s change in
scenery, it clearly didn’t hurt. “It helped,”
coach Karl Dorrell said. “I’m sure it helped.
“Larry felt comfortable up there. We thought that it was
helpful in the communications part of it. We don’t think that
was the determining factor in why the defense played the way it
did, but it was just the right time for it to come together.”
Bruin players seemed to agree that Kerr called a simpler game with
his perspective from the booth. “I think it helped us a
lot,” safety Jarrad Page said. “It was like a whole
package up there. They could tell from up top what was going on,
and we needed someone up there seeing what’s going on.”
“With Coach Kerr up in the box, he probably got a little
better sense of it,” linebacker Spencer Havner added.
“He called a real simple game.” Kerr, who served as the
defensive coordinator at Colorado State before joining the Bruin
coaching staff last year, joked that he actually had hair the last
time he coached a game from the booth. It’s easy to joke
around when your defense plays the kind of game UCLA did against
Stanford. “Sometimes you just get a sense from your players
what you need to do, and I felt really confident going upstairs
that the guys downstairs could handle the adjustments and let me
see things a little differently,” Kerr said. With Kerr in the
box, Don Johnson is in charge of adjustments for the defensive
line, and Brian Schneider handles the linebackers and the
secondary. Dorrell is also available to help whenever he is needed.
The plan to move Kerr to the booth developed during the course of
the week before the Stanford game. Dorrell and his coaching staff
started talking about making the move on the Sunday following the
team’s 48-42 loss to Arizona State, a game that saw the
defense allow 17 points in the game’s final seven minutes. By
the middle of the week, Dorrell and his staff were comfortable
sending Kerr up above. “It worked out pretty well, and
we’re going to do it again this week,” Dorrell
said.
A POSITIVE VIBE: What a difference a week
makes. Following the debacle two Saturdays ago when UCLA was unable
to finish off the game against Arizona State, the Bruins got ahead
of Stanford early. And they finished strong. “The biggest
point I’d like to mention is what we talked about a week ago
at this conference ““ finishing a football game,”
Dorrell said. “Given what our defense did the last four plays
of the game, sure, we would have won the game at that given point;
but to shut out a team and not let them score at the end of the
game, that shows you a little bit about the emphasis of what
we’re trying to get done.” After Stanford completed a
71-yard pass late in the fourth quarter, the Bruin defense could
have rolled over and allowed the Cardinal to get into the end zone.
But the defense had far too much pride, and the much-maligned unit
came up with consecutive stops to keep the shutout intact.
“We had tremendous improvement on that side of the
ball,” Dorrell said. “We’re excited about where
we’re at defensively.”
NOTES: Dorrell said that senior linebacker Tim
Warfield (leg) is now at full strength, and he will replace Dan
Nelson, who suffered a broken left collarbone Saturday, as Justin
London’s backup at inside linebacker…Defensive tackle
Kenneth Lombard (shoulder) will apply for a medical redshirt and is
done for the season…Dorrell said senior receiver Craig Bragg, who
played about half the game against Stanford, is full go for
Saturday against Washington State. Bragg and tailback Maurice Drew
will share time returning punts.