When your mind is distracted, it is harder to complete even simple physical tasks with your normal efficiency.
When your mind is distracted, it’s also harder to catch a 230-pound running back and force him to the ground before he sprints by you, in front of the 60,000 people watching your every move.
Freshman Jordan Zumwalt plays the middle linebacker position, or “Mike” for the well-informed. If he hesitates in calling out the right play for his defense, he’s in trouble.
In an injury-filled season for the UCLA football team (3-5, 1-4 Pac-10), Zumwalt’s position has been hit especially hard recently, leaving a hole for the first-year player to fill and get his first career start. It’s not the kind of thing that happens a lot by a coach’s choice.
“Coming in as a true freshman and playing Mike is an extremely difficult thing to do,” linebackers coach Clark Lea said.
Redshirt junior middle linebacker Steve Sloan is most likely out for the Bruins’ game against Oregon State at the Rose Bowl this weekend after straining his hamstring against Arizona. Sloan himself was starting in the place of redshirt sophomore linebacker Patrick Larimore, who dislocated his shoulder in the Oregon game a week before.
These injuries mean the job has been left for one man, or boy. It’s hard to say, really.
Zumwalt has the rosy cheeks and big smile of a little kid, but with his six-foot-four, 225-pound frame, there probably aren’t too many people who would tell him that in person. He runs and hits like a big-time football player, too.
“He doesn’t necessarily move like a freshman,” Lea said. “He’s got body control. He’s got leverage. He’s got acceleration. Those elements are advanced for him.”
But playing middle linebacker comes with an extra set of responsibilities, namely letting teammates know what play defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough has assigned for them in the few moments before the opposing offense runs its play.
“Unfortunately, if you’re worried about setting the front and getting everybody in line, that can take away some of those (physical) attributes,” Lea said. “It can reduce your speed and reduce your instinct.”
When Sloan went down in the first half of last Saturday’s game, Zumwalt was an admirable substitute, finishing with six tackles and a sack. There were times though, prior to the snap, where he needed some help from his teammate, junior outside linebacker Sean Westgate.
“Maybe before the play starts I’d ask Sean what’s going on,” Zumwalt said. “He’s like a coach out there.”
Having started all eight of the Bruins’ games so far, Westgate has the experience to lend his voice every once in a while.
“I’m just kind of the watchful eye, I guess you could say,” Westgate said. “I just listen to what he says. I don’t want to interfere with him. I want to let him do his thing. There’s just certain formation situations where there’s got to be certain things called. It’s in situations like those that I’m a little more heads up about helping him out, but he can do everything.”
Lea doesn’t want everything to be in Zumwalt’s hands, at least not yet, but he’s confident in his two outside linebacker mainstays, Westgate and the reliable Akeem Ayers, to shoulder the rest of the load.
“It needs to be Sean’s show and Akeem’s show out there,” Lea said. “When we polish it up for this week, hopefully Jordan can lean on those guys to kind of make sure the little things around him are set so he can focus on executing his responsibility.”
Even if it’s not his show yet, that’s where Zumwalt wants to be. He wants to know it straight, and that’s why he’s had to log some extra hours, meeting with Lea every night the past week.
“He’s doing more right now in the last two weeks as far as trying to learn (the gameplan) than anyone I’ve ever seen,” Westgate said.
“That’s dedication right there.”
Zumwalt reciprocated the appreciation for his on-field mentor.
“I would like to be the Sean Westgate of our defense eventually,” Zumwalt joked. “He knows everything and I’d like to be there.”
In the middle of the fourth quarter Saturday, Arizona was driving into UCLA territory with a chance to put the game out of reach. But Zumwalt worked his blitz to perfection, taking down elusive quarterback Matt Scott and putting the Wildcats out of field-goal range, forcing them to punt.
Head coach Rick Neuheisel gave Zumwalt some praise after Tuesday’s practice when recalling that sack.
“That doesn’t mean he’s a finished product by any stretch of the imagination,” Neuheisel said. “But we certainly believe he’s ready for the next step.”
As always this late in the season, that next step is right around the corner, so Zumwalt is cramming hard now. That way, when Oregon State’s All-Conference running back, Jacquizz Rogers, is heading right at him Saturday, Zumwalt’s mind is free and clear to let his body go to work.