High Hopes for New Bear of a Bruin : College football: UCLA’s Jonathan Ogden, a 6-foot-8, 340-pound freshman offensive lineman, has impressed the coaches and could soon become a starter.

Visions of Magic Johnson dancing in his head, UCLA offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden saw himself as a point guard when he played basketball on the playgrounds of his native Washington, D.C.

But the NBA apparently isn’t ready for a 6-foot 8-inch, 340-pound point guard.

“All big men have the idea that God made a mistake and that they’re point guards trapped in a lineman’s body,” said Ogden’s father, Shirrel, 6-6 and also 340.

But the NFL will soon be casting covetous eyes at Ogden, a freshman who recently turned 18. Still growing, Ogden doesn’t shave yet.

“He’s the biggest guy we’ve ever recruited since I’ve been at UCLA,” Bruin Coach Terry Donahue said. “He’ll forever kill the ‘gutty little Bruin’ image.”

Ogden is the only true freshman who figures to play a significant role in UCLA’s season opener against Cal State Fullerton Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.

Listed as a backup to left tackle Craig Novitsky, a second-team All-Pacific 10 Conference selection last season, Ogden could become a starter before the end of the season because injuries have weakened the Bruin offensive line.

Ogden has been so impressive that the Bruin coaches have experimented by putting him at left tackle, moving Novitsky to the right side and switching right tackle Vaughn Parker to guard to fill in for injured James Christensen.

Ed Kezirian, UCLA’s offensive line coach, said Ogden could be the first freshman offensive linemen to become a starter so quickly.

“This is my 11th season and it hasn’t happened since I’ve been here,” Kezirian said. “I remember (guard) Duval Love started against USC as a freshman, but he wasn’t a starter early on in his career and Jon has a chance to do that.

“He’s just not a 340-pound kid we want to run behind. He’s versatile. He can run-block and pass-block and pull. We don’t have to do anything to hide him early on in the season.”

Although left tackle is one of the most difficult offensive line positions to master because he usually faces the best pass rusher and must protect the quarterback’s blind side, Ogden has adapted quickly after playing right tackle in high school.

“It’s hard to find a guy who can generally block the best pass rusher the defense has,” Kezirian said. “Left tackles are hard to find, whether in college or in the pros. He has a knack for being able to play that position.”

The last offensive tackle to make a significant impact in the Pac-10 as a freshman was Stanford’s Bob Whitfield, the eighth player selected in the 1992 NFL draft. Ogden is bigger than Whitfield was as a freshman.

“I felt . . . that Jonathan had a very good chance of being a three-time All-American and a first-round draft pick,” said Dick Allanson, who coached Ogden at St. Alban’s High in Washington. “Jonathan is bigger than Whitfield was as a freshman and he’s probably a better football player.”

Dave Moeller, Ogden’s line coach at St. Alban’s, agreed.

“I knew from the first time I ever saw him, and I coached him for three years, that Jonathan would be as good as anybody who ever played the game if he wants to be,” Moeller said. “I’ve never seen anybody as big as Jonathan and that includes (Washington Redskin lineman) Joe Jacoby.”

Voted the Washington prep football player of the year in 1991, Ogden never missed a game at St. Alban’s, where he graded out to 98% blocking efficiency.

“He hurt his little finger when he was a sophomore and I told him, ‘Ogden, there’s no way that little six-ounce finger is going to keep a 320-pound kid from playing,’ ” Allanson said. “I said, ‘Jonathan, we’ll cut that thing off and go without it. You have plenty of excess.’ ”

Although Moeller recently accepted a position as a Notre Dame graduate assistant, and Ogden’s best friend, Jeremy Akers, a 6-6, 270-pound tackle, signed with Notre Dame, Ogden chose UCLA over Notre Dame, Florida and Virginia. He didn’t take any other recruiting trips after visiting UCLA last January.

“There was some discussion between Jonathan and Jeremy about going to the same school because they’re very close,” Shirrel Ogden said. “It’s really difficult for a kid to turn down the lure of a Notre Dame, but Jonathan really loved UCLA.”

Moeller wasn’t surprised that Ogden didn’t follow him to Notre Dame.

“Jonathan’s very much a person with his own plans,” Moeller said. “He’s very sure of himself and if UCLA is the place he wanted to go, it doesn’t surprise me that he would choose that school because I don’t think he’d be influenced by where I was going to coach or where Jeremy was going to school. I hope that Jonathan is absolutely an unbelievable player and ends up in the Hall of Fame because we don’t have to play him.”

Ogden, who had a 3.0 grade-point average and scored 1,100 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, chose UCLA because it combined a good football program with strong academics.

“When he returned from UCLA he said, ‘Dad, this is probably the only school I’ve been to where kids I’ve met in the football program and the others talked as much about the academic life as they did about the athletic life,’ ” Shirrel Ogden said. “He wanted to go somewhere where he was going to be a student.

“At some of the other schools, . . . he would be introduced as a potential football player and I think he took some offense to that because he really wants to go to college and he really wants to enjoy himself.

“He wants to play in the NFL, but I’ll give him credit because he also realizes that once you get to the NFL, you have to have some understanding of what your management people are doing with your money. So to him, the academics are just as important as the football.”

UCLA’s track program also was a factor in Ogden’s decision. Ogden, who recorded bests of 60 feet 6 1/2 inches in the shotput and 163-6 in the discus, plans to compete for the Bruins and hopes to be in the 1996 Olympics.

“Track is a very important part of the whole equation for Jonathan,” Shirrel Ogden said.

Ogden and his 11-year-old brother, Marcus, have been living with their father, an investment banker, since their parents divorced four years ago. Dissatisfied with the public school system, Ogden’s father sent him to St. Alban’s, a prep school whose graduates include Sen. Albert Gore, the Democratic candidate for vice president.

Ogden adapted quickly to being one of the few blacks in the 280-student all-boys school, where some students have names such as Marriott and Rockefeller.

“Sometimes you think rich children would be spoiled, but they weren’t,” Ogden said. “Everybody in my school liked me. It’s hard for me to explain because I’ve never really been in another situation where I haven’t been with those people.”

Ogden quickly became a leader at St. Alban’s.

When the football team held its preseason camp in the West Virginia mountains, Ogden led the freshmen on a raid of the senior cabin.

“I saw Jonathan coming up the path in the lead and he looked like Fat Albert and the Cosby kids,” Allanson said. “And Jonathan said, ‘We must be the baddest freshman class ever.’ ”

Ogden could be one of UCLA’s baddest freshmen ever.