AT 305 POUNDS, HE’S AS BIG AS ALL TEXAS. . . : David Richards Fits Right Into UCLA Line

If David Richards had his druthers, as they say back in Texas, he’d be playing his senior season at his beloved Southern Methodist University and he’d be real, real close to getting his degree in economics before he put his 300-plus pounds on the line for a professional football team.

That was the way it was supposed to go.

But the political machine that runs college football ran over SMU, “selectively enforced” rules that are being broken all across the country, dealt that school the death penalty, eliminating football altogether for the time being, and left a handful of innocent bystanders to fend for themselves.

That’s the way it seemed to Richards, anyway, when he got the news of the demise of his team last spring on the saddest day of his life.

Richards was left to choose between finishing his education at the school he loved and that was just blocks from his hometown of Highland Park, Tex., or finding a school that would afford him the opportunity to play football his senior year and have a decent shot at the National Football League draft.

Richards is one of 37 former Mustangs who chose a new football team.

He chose UCLA.

It was not a sad day for UCLA. Imagine how Coach Terry Donahue felt at suddenly adding a 305-pound, All-Southwest Conference, three-year veteran tackle to his offensive line. And it wasn’t even his birthday.

And get this. When Donahue sent Bill Rees, UCLA’s recruiting coordinator, to the SMU campus to compete with recruiters from across the country for the crop of instantly available and instantly eligible veterans, he was hoping to get senior linebacker Ben Hummel, a player the Bruins had recruited when he came out of Rockwall (Tex.) High School.

Hummel decided to transfer to UCLA, and he talked his good friend David Richards into coming with him.

So the Bruin offensive line, which has been getting bigger and bigger every year, got quite a bit bigger last spring.

UCLA will go into Lincoln Saturday to play Nebraska with an offensive line that averages 276 pounds.

Richards pointed out that the line is pretty darned big without him. And he added: “I think this is a pretty physical football team. My head hurts from all the banging we’ve been doing.”

Of course, the Bruins always seem big until they get to Lincoln. Nebraska always has very big linemen. As Richards notes, a lot of Big Eight teams have a lot of huge players. He considered for a moment and concluded: “I don’t think I should comment on that. I’m getting a reputation for being too quotable. I’ve been told to be careful what I say. If I don’t watch it, people will be thinking of me as another Boz.”

Not quite.

Richards is nothing like Brian Bosworth. With his bulk (6 feet 5 inches and weight that fluctuates up from his listed 305), Richards does not need a multicolored Mohawk to attract attention. And he’s quotable not because he makes outrageous, antagonistic statements without thinking, but because he is always thinking. He has opinions and he’s willing to express those opinions.

Hordes of reporters dogged him all over the SMU campus after the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. penalties were announced because they knew he’d make a great spokesman. He was a good student, came from a good family and had never been implicated in any way when charges were made that players were paid to play at SMU. He was free to speak. He was a 21-year-old senior who wasn’t afraid to comment on the obvious.

He’s talked about the paying of players on ABC’s “Nightline” and he’s told Sports Illustrated that he has never disagreed with the paying of players.

But he sure doesn’t like what the scandal has done to his college career.

Having to drop out of classes at SMU last spring and having to try to transfer credits has set him back in his progress toward his degree.

And he never really thought of himself as the California type. When he came out of high school he had a crew cut and he wore “boots, Wrangler jeans and Oxford shirts from Penney’s.” He’d go out looking for fights, just for sport. In short, he was a Texan.

Now he’s getting into beach volleyball.

And when he’s not all hot about the way his alma mater was handled, he can see all kinds of advantages in his move to UCLA.

For example, although he felt a bit “mercenary” leaving a school he felt loyal to just to pursue his football career, he was able to find a top-notch football program where he could, at the same time, get a top-notch education.

And he figures that he “became a better football player just by coming here.” He explained, “Because of the reputation of UCLA football, I think I enhanced my value overnight by coming here.”

His value was already high. He had been the first lineman ever named national high school player of the year by Parade magazine, and he played in every game at SMU, starting with the first game his freshman year. He became a starter as a freshman. Last season, he played 637 snaps and graded 81%.

But he thinks that he also has, actually, become a better football player since making the move. Richards said that he learned more last spring than he had learned at SMU in three years. Playing against the smaller, quicker player of the Pac-10 he expects to improve his technique. And he has already vastly improved his pass-blocking.

“Playing against those big ol’ boys in the Southwest Conference it was an all-out brawl, a wrestling match on the line, week in and week out,” Richards said. “Here it’s more finesse, and finesse has not been my best game.

“This week when we get to Nebraska, I just hope I’m able to shift gears back into what I was used to before. To tell you the truth, I’d rather be up against somebody 6-5, 270-whatever, guys who want to come straight at you and take you on rather than trying to run around you or through your knees.”