Greenwood Leads UCLA Against BYU

It’s only after the game and the season that a cornerback can ponder the instants of success and failure and put them in the grand scheme of his play. UCLA’s Carl Greenwood remembers the times he was beaten deep for touchdowns. They stand out as big-screen, Technicolor reminders of moments he was caught short in front of God, man, thousands in the stands, cameras and instant-replay devices.

“Carl Pickens (of Tennessee) got me in my first start, in my second year (in 1991),” he said. “Then (Brian) Manning got me in the Stanford game this year, but I still don’t think that was a touchdown.”

But when Brigham Young’s Eric Drage catches a pass in Greenwood’s area tonight at the Rose Bowl--and he will catch some--there will be no time for brooding.

“You just have to forget about them and get ready for the next play,” Greenwood said. “I guess that’s the best thing about playing cornerback, to see how you react to adversity. You get to see who’s a man and who’s not a man.”

Manning caught a Steve Stenstrom pass barely over the goal line and an instant before Greenwood hit him, knocking the ball away. The nearest official signaled incomplete, only to be overruled by an official a quarter of the field away. The game film, Greenwood says, seems to support an incompletion, but the play was over. It was forgotten on the next series, but it was filed away in his mind.

So, too, was a play in his first UCLA game, in 1991 against BYU, in the fourth quarter with the Bruins ahead, 27-23, but BYU driving.

In the last minute, BYU’s Ty Detmer threw toward the end zone. “I knocked it away in the right corner,” Greenwood said. “It reminded me of a high school game, when we were ahead, 28-21, and our opponent was driving toward a touchdown. I intercepted a pass in the right corner of the end zone, the same place.”

The moral goes beyond advising against testing Greenwood in the right corner of an end zone in the game’s last minute. It’s his yen for the big play, the challenge that he seeks and that will be answered when the 25th-ranked Bruins (2-2) play 19th-ranked BYU (4-0).

Greenwood’s assignment, Drage, is BYU’s leading all-time receiver in yards and touchdowns and a big-play specialist with pass plays of 65 and 58 yards this season, 77, 65 and 97 yards in previous seasons in a career that includes totals of 2,675 yards and 27 touchdowns.

Greenwood’s challenge is nothing new. It follows games of dealing with San Diego State’s Darnay Scott and Stanford’s Justin Armour. Greenwood’s job is to cover the other team’s No. 1 receiver, as Carlton Gray did before him.

“My job might have been a little bit harder (last year) than Carlton’s when he had the No. 1 guy,” Greenwood said. “Then, in film time, I would have to watch two or three receivers to look for tendencies and he only had to watch one. Now, I only have to watch one guy, and it’s easier for me. Wherever he goes, I go to his side of the ball.”

Wherever he goes, the ball will catch up. Every team has a defender assigned to Drage, and quarterback John Walsh’s tendency to find him, no matter what the defense, is testimony to BYU’s passing game, which has few rivals in college football. Walsh and Drage hooked up 12 times for 213 yards and two touchdowns in BYU’s last game, a 30-3 victory over Air Force.

“You know they’re going to complete some passes, make some big gains,” Greenwood says. “You try to keep it from happening, but it’s going to happen when a guy puts it up 45-50 times a game. All you can do is try to minimize the effectiveness of them.”

This was the mission UCLA accomplished in its last game, against San Diego State, which completed 30 passes for 350 yards but only one touchdown. The Bruins won, 52-13, with Greenwood getting his first interception, cutting off a pass toward Scott in the end zone.

“I was probably the happiest person in the stadium, getting that off my back,” he said. “Now, I feel like they’re going to start coming to me. I’ve been seeing some balls recently, and now I can get some plays, some interceptions, some ‘PBUs.’ ”

The PBU, or pass broken up, is part of the statistical measure of a defensive back, and the opportunity for a PBU increases when you are defending the other team’s top receiver.