DeWayne Walker never presumed to be a miracle worker, even
though he was hired by Karl Dorrell to be something close to that
effect, turning around a defense that allowed 232.8 rushing yards
and 34.2 points per game last year.
Dorrell watched his team struggle with one of the nation’s
most inept defenses in back-to-back seasons.
Maybe it was watching Reggie Bush run all over UCLA, or maybe it
was thinking about how much better a 10-2 team could have been with
a solid defense to match its explosive offense.
When Dorrell finally handed defensive coordinator Larry Kerry
his walking papers, he needed a coach to take the Bruin defense and
turn it upside down. He picked Walker, a 45-year-old coach who has
been in the shadows of some of the most successful coaches at the
collegiate and NFL levels.
Walker coached under Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll for the New
England Patriots, and followed Carroll to USC, becoming the
associate head coach and defensive backs coach before moving on to
the NFL’s New York Giants and Washington Redskins.
In fact, when Walker was offered the coordinator job at UCLA,
Carroll advised him to pass, noting that it wasn’t possible
to change the image of the Bruin defense in one year.
But Walker took the job, with that idea precisely in mind and
only one big question: How?
With an aggressiveness and attitude that breed an expectation to
win, and to do it convincingly.
“There’s a swagger that these guys needed, but they
didn’t have it when I got here,” Walker said.
“That’s something that we need, and it only comes from
hard work and producing on the field.”
Adding to the challenge, Walker’s defensive coaching staff
has two other new members, Todd Howard (line) and Chuck Bullough
(linebackers).
“We’re all professionals; we don’t need to go
through a seminar to see how each of us feels,” Walker
said.
Walker employs a defense that relies on man-to-man coverage from
its cornerbacks, allowing the linebackers and safeties to play
close to the line of scrimmage to stop the running game and blitz
on obvious passing downs.
So far, so good. Third down had typically been a time when the
UCLA defense dropped back into a soft zone and gave up chunks of
yards. But after the first two games of the year, Utah and Rice
were a combined 2-19 on third-down conversion attempts.
“So far I’m satisfied with the play, but we have
games coming up in hostile environments that are going to test us.
That’s when we can really see the progress we’ve
made.”