EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior strong safety Jason Stephens celebrates after a
defensive stop in a victory over Washington earlier this season.
By Scott Bair
Daily Bruin Reporter
Soldier down. UCLA suffered its first crucial defensive injury of the season in the 38-28 loss to Stanford.
Bruin strong safety Jason Stephens suffered a case of turf toe in the first-half last Saturday that will keep him out of commission for 2-4 weeks.
Turf toe is a severe hyper-extension of the big toe and the ligaments surrounding it. Unfortunately for Stephens, the healing process is slow.
Stephen’s injury is unfortunate for the Bruin defense as well.
“Jason is quarterback of the secondary,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo said.
As the strong safety, Stephens has to make checks based upon how the offense lines up. Stephens has four years worth of experience making these types of checks, making sure that every eligible receiver is accounted for before the opposing quarterback snaps the ball.
The secondary is now without its quarterback. Backup freshman strong safety Ben Emanuel will have to step in.
“I’m ready to play every week,” Emanuel said. “I’m going to do my best so that the coaches don’t see a difference in how our secondary plays.”
The coach with the watchful eye will be UCLA defensive coordinator and safeties coach Phil Snow.
“Any time you lose a player of Jason’s caliber, it hurts your team, but I have full confidence that Ben Emanuel will step up and do just fine in a starting role,” Snow said.
Emanuel will be thrown into the fire for his first start. His starting debut will come against Jason Gesser and Washington State’s high-octane passing game. Gesser averages 268 yards per game, and Washington State will throw five receivers at the thin Bruin secondary that now features two freshman starters.
In the game against Stanford, Coach Toledo noted that the secondary missed some key checks and assignments in Stephens’ absence.
Senior free safety Marques Anderson will try to make Emanuel’s job easier by making some of the checks to WSU’s complex passing offense.
As for Stephens, his role will change over the next four weeks.
“Coach Snow told me that I should be more like a coach,” Stephens said. “I’m going to sit with Ben all week and do everything I can to make sure that he’s mentally prepared for Saturday’s game.”
The loss of Jason Stephens is large for an already thin Bruin secondary, so any help he can offer will soften the blow of losing one of our defense’s best soldiers.