UCLA's DeWayne Walker can't do anything about these passes
KURT STREETER
The architect of UCLA's stout defense watches as others continue to fill college head coaching jobs.
Trojans 28, UCLA 7 -- not exactly the overpowering USC win many guessed it would be.
This was sort of like watching a high-powered sports car try to speed down a freeway full of potholes and sharp nails. Responsible for the obstacles was a Bruins defense that -- talent-challenged and playing with little rest because the offense could barely function -- kept this game from getting out of hand.
Kudos to the Bruins' D for playing smartly, cohesively and with pants-on-fire hustle.
College football: Kurt Streeter's column in Sports on Sunday about DeWayne Walker, UCLA's defensive coordinator, wanting to be a college head coach said that if Walker were made a head coach, the number of nonwhite head coaches at major colleges would have increased to four out of 119. In fact, the number of nonwhite coaches would have been five, though the number of African American head coaches would have been four. (Monday, New Mexico hired Mike Locksley as head coach. He now is the fourth African American major college coach.)
This brings me straight to the plight of that unit's architect: DeWayne Walker, UCLA's defensive coordinator.
Walker, it is widely known, wants to be a college head coach. He has done everything right. He has served as an NFL assistant under masters such as Bill Belichick and Joe Gibbs. Since 2006, he has overseen the only consistently bright spot on the Westwood gridiron.
It was his defense that snuffed out USC two years ago in that miracle upset, his defense that kept the last two cross-town rivalry games at least somewhat close. His defense that has kept the otherwise hapless Bruins competitive and been largely responsible for every big win UCLA has had for three years running.
Next step: head coach. So far: no luck.
"It's real disappointing, yeah, I'll admit that," Walker said Saturday, downcast after another tough loss.
It's also just one more example of an issue that brings great shame to major college football.
Walker doesn't want to go there, but I will. Non-white football coaches continue to get a raw deal by our major universities. As I wrote a few days back, this year an already terrible situation has gotten worse. All 119 Division I colleges are more than happy to count on young black men to score touchdowns and rake in millions. But out of all 119 schools, only three have football teams that are led by blacks. There are no Latinos. There is only one Asian.
What an irony we witnessed Saturday, Walker matching wits with USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian. A fine coach, Sarkisian, 34, has just been hired as head coach at the University of Washington. Terrific.
But imagine how a guy like DeWayne Walker feels. In the mid-1990s, when Walker was a young assistant at Brigham Young, he recruited Sarkisian to play quarterback. In 2001, when Walker was at USC and working as Pete Carroll's associate head coach, Sarkisian was getting his toes wet as quarterbacks coach for the Trojans. On that USC staff was another lower-level assistant, Lane Kiffin.
