Alterraun Verner makes an interception in UCLA’s 2009 game against Tennessee.
Although the UCLA football team finds itself down on its luck and in the midst of a three-game losing streak, things aren’t all bad for the UCLA football family.
Alterraun Verner, a cornerback on last year’s team, is making waves in the NFL. Verner was drafted in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans and was inserted into the starting lineup after starter Jason McCourty went down because of an injury.
Verner has intercepted two passes in four starts and continued to receive regular minutes when McCourty returned to the lineup on Sunday.
The Daily Bruin’s Sam Strong caught up with Verner after the Titans’ 33-25 loss to the San Diego Chargers Sunday to talk about everything from the state of the UCLA football program to his new home in Nashville.
Daily Bruin: How keyed in are you with what’s going on with UCLA’s program? Do you get to watch their games? What are your thoughts on this year’s team?
Alterraun Verner: I watch as many games as I can. I haven’t been able to watch the last few because of the schedule. Nobody likes the record that they have. They weren’t expecting that but they’ve been working hard. It’s not a lack of effort. Sometimes other teams just make more plays.
We’ve still got a lot of good players. They’ve still got four games. They can still win the rest of these games, make a bowl and have a pretty decent season.
DB: You’re a guy that was here for the coaching change from Karl Dorrell to Rick Neuheisel. Do you think that coach Neuheisel is the right guy to lead this program?
AV: He’s definitely trying to take the direction of the program up. He’s a former Bruin just like Karl Dorrell, so he definitely wants the best for the program. He’s been getting some great recruiting classes, some great young players.
Even when I was there, the young players were enthused and trying to turn the program around, so I think he’s doing a good job. The team just has to get it all together cohesively and build on it, and then just find something stable and work with it.
With their quarterback going down, that’s been tough. And when people aren’t able to play, it’s hard to build that rapport with the players, so they’re just learning and trying to get together in that sense.
DB: How does your rookie season in the NFL compare to your freshman year at UCLA?
AV: It’s not that big of a difference for me. When I was a freshman, coming out of high school, I was kind of raw because that was my first time playing corner so it was a work in progress and I was learning.
The difference in speed from high school to college for me was a way bigger difference than from college to the NFL. Coming in here, I had played corner for four years so it was a little more familiar to me.
DB: Take me back to draft day. How special was it to hear your name called by the Titans? Did you expect to go in the fourth round?
AV: It was exciting to get the call. I didn’t know what to expect or where I was going to go, I was just believing that I was going to go. Ending up in the fourth round was the average of what I was looking at.
DB: Did you expect to see the field as much as you are in your rookie season?
AV: No, I definitely didn’t expect it. They told me that they were going to give me a chance to contribute and things of that nature, but obviously Cortland (Finnegan) is a great player and Jason (McCourty) was playing very well in the beginning of the season, so I wasn’t expecting to start at all until Jason, unfortunately, got hurt, and I was called upon. I was expecting to play sparingly on defense and to contribute on special teams.
DB: When you stepped on an NFL field for the first time, were you any more nervous than you were for games in college or high school?
AV: I’m nervous for every game, even in high school and college, but I wouldn’t say that my confidence was shaken. I put in a lot of work to try to be ready for that type of situation. So, definitely nerves were going, but as the game progressed I was getting better and better.
DB: You’re getting some mentions for the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award. Is that something that you’re aspiring to?
AV: I don’t put much stock into it. It’s a long season and we’re only halfway there at this point. I have no control over that and so I’m not really worried about that. I’m just worried about trying to do my job and trying to help this team win and trying to get us to the playoffs.
If that happened, that would be cool, but it’s not something that I’m going into every week thinking, “˜I’ve got to perform or do this or that to increase my notoriety.’ That’s not something I’m trying to do.
DB: How does life in Nashville compare to life in Carson and Los Angeles? Has it been a big adjustment for you?
AV: Yeah, it’s a pretty big adjustment. It’s a lot slower out here, and it’s not as bustling out here. There are only a few spots here and there that you can visit, where back at home, there’s a multitude of things that you can do, but it’s also a nice environment and community. A lot of people love Tennessee Titans football out here, and so I definitely like it out here.
DB: How has it been playing for coach Jeff Fisher? Does the fact that he’s a USC alumnus get in your way?
AV: Not at all. He only mentioned it on draft day and after that we haven’t brought it up. He’s a good guy. He takes care of us. He’s a good coach, and he’s trying to get us back to the “promised land.”