Return to Anaheim: : Greg Bolin Has One More Change in Mind

Before he was a Bruin, Greg Bolin was a Baron. And before the Freedom Bowl had a name, a site and a sanction, the big annual football game at Anaheim Stadium was always played between the Fountain Valley High Barons and the Edison High Chargers.

“I’ve played there three times,” Bolin says. “And I’ve lost three times. Oh-and-three. Gotta change that.”

Bolin will get his chance Tuesday night when UCLA and BYU meet in the third Freedom Bowl. And a good chance it is. The Bruins, who were expected by most to be occupied in Pasadena or Tempe, Ariz., on New Year’s Day, don’t really belong here. And at BYU, where QB no longer means BMOC, the torch that Jim McMahon and Steve Young passed to Robbie Bosco has been dropped. As Las Vegas sees this one, it’s UCLA by 14.

So, change is at hand for Bolin. And wouldn’t that be keeping in context with the rest of the Greg Bolin Goes to College story?

For between visits to Anaheim Stadium in shoulder pads, change has been the operative word for Bolin.

He left the place in 1981, his senior season at Fountain Valley, as a tight end--a big-name, big-time scholarship tight end who caught loads of passes from a big-play quarterback named Matt Stevens.

Five years later, he will return as a bottom-of-the-pile, mud-in-your-eye inside linebacker.

Now, this is a course that has been traveled before. Making the grade in the transition from high school to college football often means adapting to new scenery. Quarterbacks become defensive backs, fullbacks become defensive ends, defensive tackles become centers.

But, usually, these moves are made right away--most of the time during a freshman redshirt season. Not so with Bolin. Bolin waited until his junior season and then, abruptly, switched sides on the line of scrimmage, taking on a position he had only previously read about.

“Spring practice of my junior season was the first time I’d ever played linebacker,” Bolin claims. “I played some rover in high school. . . . (but) I hadn’t tackled anybody since my junior year in high school.”

So, why change?

Well, understand that in high school, Bolin developed a close relationship with the football. As a junior, he averaged more than 17 yards a catch. As a senior, he caught a total of 35 balls.

But at UCLA, he couldn’t catch on. After redshirting the 1982 season, Bolin caught two passes in ’83 and three in ’84. Oh boy.

Bolin didn’t care much for this hands-off policy. And with the Bruins’ starting tight end in 1984, Derek Tennell, eligible for two more seasons, Bolin wasn’t keen on playing out his days at UCLA as the second tight end in short-yardage situations.

“My goal when I came to UCLA was to be a starting player by the time I was a senior,” Bolin said. “After my sophomore season, Coach (Terry) Donahue and Coach Field (linebacker coach Bob Field) asked me to switch. I decided that if I was ever going to start, it most likely was going to be at linebacker.”

And, more specifically, inside linebacker. Depth chart in hand, Bolin noticed that both Bruin inside backers, Tommy Taylor and Steve Jarecki, would be gone after the 1985 season. Seeking the quickest route to starterdom, Bolin decided to go inside.

“The first day of spring practice, I’m out there at inside backer and we start running plays,” Bolin said. “The first thing you know-- wham ! It’s like a freeway in there, bodies flying all around.

“Outside linebacker is a lot cleaner; you try to beat the tight end to the run and cover some pass plays. But inside, you get caught up in all the trash.”

Bolin came away more than a little shellshocked.

“I thought it was going to be really easy, simple,” he said. “I thought I had the skills and I knew I had the moves. But there’s so much going on in there.

“My junior year was a big disappointment. I didn’t know what I was doing, I couldn’t get to the ball. I wanted to make a big impact . . . and I ended up falling on my fanny.”

Or, more accurately, sitting on it. Bolin’s total contribution to the Bruins’ 1985 season: 26 plays. He was in on six tackles.

This was some way to become a starter.

For Bolin, it wasn’t exactly back to the drawing board. Back to the movies was more like it.

During the off-season, Bolin crammed on cans of film. He studied Taylor and Jarecki in slow motion. He watched Carl Ekern and Jim Collins of the Rams, over and over and over.

“I knew I had to get in the film room and learn what was going on,” Bolin said. “I wasn’t the biggest or fastest guy, and I certainly wasn’t the most experienced. But I figured that if you knew where the ball was going before the ball was snapped, if you knew the other team’s tendencies, that was half the battle.”

The other half happened by chance. Or by Chance, as in Chance Johnson.

Johnson is a sophomore linebacker who started UCLA’s first four games of 1986 before a pinched nerve removed him from action. When Johnson went down, Bolin went in.

Bolin started the Bruins’ final seven games, finishing with 42 tackles, including 4 lead tackles and 1 for a loss against USC. At the UCLA postseason awards banquet, he was named one of three defensive senior leaders.

And, now, he’s starting in a bowl game--”in my own front yard,” as he puts it.

Aside from the location, Bolin admits to some difficulty in psyching up for the Freedom Bowl. To him, it was the Rose Bowl or bust.

“When I heard it was the Freedom Bowl, at first, I wasn’t the happiest guy,” Bolin said. “But now that we’re practicing for it, I’ve gotten back in the groove.

“I’m just treating it like a regular game. I don’t care who we play, Glendale College or whoever, I want to make the best of it. Anyway, I looked at the USC game as our real bowl.”

Bolin will never forget the score: UCLA 45, USC 25.

“That was the game as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “USC used to be the football school in this town, but we wanted to prove that that’s changed. That was my bowl game. It’s good to go out having beaten them four of my five years at UCLA.”

Bolin feels fairly strongly about this USC business. Out of high school, most of the Pac-10 schools recruited him, including USC, but Bolin’s decision was pretty much made up for him.

“I wanted to stay in L.A. but not at USC,” he said. “USC always struck me as pompous, cocky, with the horse and all that. They took you through the whole recruiting thing--the Rose Bowl stuff, the national championship ring. ‘You wanna get one of these?’ I never liked that too much.

“I know I made a good decision. I went to three Rose Bowls.”

He also played five more years with his old quarterback and friend, Stevens. Including high school, the two have played on the same team for nearly a decade.

So when Bolin talks of Stevens and his controversial 1986 season, it pays to listen.

“Matt had a tough year,” Bolin said. “He put up with a lot of criticism, but the writers who criticize him don’t have to see the film on Monday. They only look at the final product.

“Matt’s biggest fault is that he doesn’t have a tough enough skin. He’s the type of guy who takes things personally. It’s been that way since his freshman year in high school.

“He got a lot more calloused as the season went on. He got angry at things. There were times when he’d kind of drift off into space. He’s usually a fun-loving guy, he enjoys life, but you could see it upset him. I saw a big change in him, and that was sad.”

And Bolin’s impressions of Stevens’ 1986 season?

“I think he did OK late in the season,” he said. “He had a great SC game. His problem was consistency. If he was not having a good game (early), he’d go in the tank. He’d throw a bad ball in the first quarter, and you could see it affect him for the rest of the game.

“He’s got to learn to forget about it and go on to the next series. He’s a good quarterback and I think he’ll be a pro quarterback. He’s exactly the same as he was in high school--a big rifle who likes to throw deep, a real downtowner. When you’re a receiver, you love to play with a quarterback like that.”

Now, when Stevens drops back to throw, Bolin is on the outside looking in. Bolin admits it’s sometimes hard to take the tight end out of the boy.

“I’ll see Derek Tennell make a big play and think, ‘That coulda been me,’ ” he said. “But then I’ll come back to earth and say, ‘I’m doing just fine on defense.’ I’m happiest at linebacker. I do miss scoring a TD, but there’s nothing like making a big hit. It gives you a feeling of power that’s hard to explain to someone who’s never done it.”

Bolin, an English major, worked on the Daily Bruin in 1985, seeing for himself how the other half lives. Yes, he spent a semester as a sportswriter, covering gymnastics and “odds and ends,” as he puts it.

“It was enjoyable, learning about writing a lead and how to work on the computer,” he said.

Bolin was asked how he would phrase it if he were to put the word processor to UCLA’s 1986 football season.

He thought about it for a minute or so before coming up with a headline. “Bruins Start Slow, Finish Fast” was his offering.

“Well, that is the story,” Bolin added with laugh. “We got off to a rocky start but came through and salvaged the season.”

Kind of similar to the way Greg Bolin came through and salvaged a college football career.