BERKELEY — Keisean Lucier-South peeked over the right shoulder of the Cal offensive lineman. The football rolled on a wobbly axis in a patch of green turf. No one was within 2 yards of it. The redshirt junior pounced.
Lucier-South quickly scooped up the loose ball forced on a sack from redshirt freshman Odua Isibor and rumbled 38 yards. He crossed the goal line and extended a finger in the air. It was the first touchdown of his career, and it helped UCLA’s first win of the season.
During UCLA’s 37-7 rout over Cal on Saturday in Berkeley, Lucier-South had his most eye-popping stat line of his career: six tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery that he returned for a touchdown and an interception.
The performance was the long-awaited result of weeks spent listening to the coaching staff’s message of incremental improvement while getting off to the program’s worst start since 1943. When the work finally paid off Saturday night, Lucier-South could not help but grin throughout his entire post-game press conference.
“Every week in practice (we) became positive,” Lucier-South said. “Work on the things we need to work on, and today it showed.”
The coaching staff harped on defensive penalties that extended drives and turned into touchdowns. Of UCLA’s four penalties Saturday, only one was on defense, a 15-yard unnecessary roughness call on linebacker Krys Barnes in the second quarter. The Bruins responded by limiting Cal to just 4 yards on the next three plays to force a punt.
UCLA repeatedly worked on fumble recovery drills in practice. The coaches described the differences between a “country fumble,” when the ball that is roaming free in the open field, and a “city fumble,” where the ball is sitting in traffic. Lucier-South, seeing the open space around him in the fourth quarter, scooped up a country fumble. In the first quarter, after Darnay Holmes jarred the ball free on a hit against Cal running back Patrick Laird, Adarius Pickett saw the ball rolling toward the sideline. He safely fell on the city fumble to set up UCLA’s first touchdown drive.
“Football, you have to get turnovers to win the game,” Pickett said. “I feel like as far as any good defense, to force turnovers is something that’s exceptionally a key part to winning any football game.”
The Bruins had just five takeaways in the first five games. They matched that total Saturday thanks to a four-takeaway barrage in the fourth quarter, which included Lucier-South’s standout performance.
The redshirt junior from Orange Lutheran High said the defense has also continued to work on the missed tackles that plagued them early in the season. Lucier-South knows those struggles intimately.
The former five-star recruit had a chance to sack Colorado Steven Montez on third down of what was still a five-point game in the third quarter. The Colorado quarterback wiggled free and scrambled for a first down, which led to a Buffaloes touchdown on the following play.
“I’m sorry for what happened tonite,” Lucier-South tweeted in the aftermath of UCLA’s 38-16 loss to Colorado. “I let all u guys down.”
Lucier-South still recorded seven tackles in the game and set a then-career-high for tackles for loss with three. Outside linebacker coach Roy Manning quickly jumped to support of his player.
“Erase this tweet,” the first-year coach replied to Lucier-South’s message. “U played ur butt off! We win and lose as a team!”
Erase this tweet. U played ur butt off! We win and lose as a team!
— Roy Manning (@CoachRoyM) September 29, 2018
Lucier-South deleted the tweet. On Saturday night, in response to a tweet highlighting his standout performance, he posted again.
“All cuz of my boys man!!! Can’t thank them enough.”
All cuz of my boys man!!! Can’t thank them enough https://t.co/N0vcfVITQs
— Keisean Lucier-South (@KLSouth11) October 14, 2018
