If it would seem like old occasions at UCLA, then Ken Norton Jr. will have succeeded in return

The outdated linebacker is educating the new technology what it implies to follow like a Bruin.

“Get there, get there, get there!” he hollers for the duration of a pursuit drill. “Great intent, now. Terrific intent!”

The aged linebacker desires his successors to recognize what it signifies to be indicate.

“See ball, get ball,” he howls. “Gotta have it!”

The outdated linebacker … effectively, he isn’t satisfied.

“Naw, naw, naw,” he says. “Come again.”

Ken Norton Jr. desires a do-over. This isn’t up to the UCLA normal. The team’s new inside linebackers mentor wiggles his fingers, beckoning Jake Newman again to the blocking sled.

A member of the past batch of Bruins to get a Rose Bowl, only months prior to the area shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986, Norton is forging a new legacy at his alma mater.

Halfhearted work doesn’t minimize it. Norton crouches in front of the sled, exhibiting Newman how to placement his body and strike with a lot more drive. Using a feeble slap at the ball, Norton mimics the way Newman experienced attempted to pressure a turnover.

Norton throws a number of jabs with his right hand into the heavy late-summer time air to show electricity. The namesake son of a heavyweight boxing champion appears completely ready to go the length.

“Get up in there!” Norton instructions. “Hands up significant. Go!”

It’s go time in Westwood, thanks to probably the biggest Bruins linebacker of them all. He has returned to recapture blue-and-gold grandeur, a 55-yr-previous with a hitch in his stride placing a spring in the phase of gamers approximately a person-third his age.

“I just want to do my section,” he told The Moments afterwards on the exact same practice field, “in helping us regain that glory.”

Considering the fact that the onetime All-American remaining UCLA for the NFL additional than 3 decades ago, Norton has not viewed the Bruins intently. He hasn’t skipped substantially. UCLA has been back to the Rose Bowl only twice, in 1994 and 1999, getting rid of each situations.

Meanwhile, Norton ongoing to prosper. A a few-time Professional Bowl range, he grew to become the initially participant to acquire a few consecutive Tremendous Bowls, two coming with the Dallas Cowboys and just one with the San Francisco 49ers. As a coach, he was part of USC’s national championship in the 2004 year and a different Tremendous Bowl title with the Seattle Seahawks in the 2013 time, successes that came less than longtime UCLA nemesis Pete Carroll.

Dallas Cowboys linebacker Ken Norton Jr. reacts soon after bringing down Buffalo Expenses quarterback Jim Kelly in Tremendous Bowl XXVII at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 31, 1993.

(Rick Bowmer / Related Press)

Together the way, Norton hardly ever ceased an inside 8-clap.

“Everywhere I’ve absent on my journey,” Norton mentioned, “UCLA has normally been in my coronary heart.”

Some shudder at the imagined Norton could have remained a Bruin this full time. He designed powerful overtures about joining the UCLA staff upon Karl Dorrell’s choosing in advance of the 2003 season, but a misunderstanding led to Norton turning out to be a Trojan. Dorrell mentioned at the time that his only opening was for a whole-time situation and he wasn’t absolutely sure whether or not Norton just required to dabble in the profession, his very first position coming as an assistant at Los Angeles Hamilton High.

“Everywhere I have absent on my journey, UCLA has normally been in my coronary heart,” claimed Ken Norton Jr., who gained a few consecutive Super Bowls as a linebacker with Dallas and San Francisco.

(Wally Skalij / VFAB)

By the time Dorrell dangled a graduate assistant occupation, Norton experienced previously taken the exact submit across city. Probably it was just as nicely, Norton explained this week.

“At the time, I was extremely emotionally associated,” he reported, “but items turned out for the improved. You know, I’ve had a genuinely interesting coaching profession and it’s been seriously entertaining, so it did not come about for a explanation since I was able to increase and knowledge so several unique items and be touched by so quite a few players and coaches and scenarios.”

Just one of those coaches was almost UCLA’s Rick Neuheisel, who tried out to convey back Norton to Westwood as an assistant head mentor prior to the 2008 period. Norton said no, telling reporters the timing was not appropriate to occur residence.

The awkwardness intensified afterwards that calendar year when Norton alleged Bruins coaches have been seeking to lure recruits by telling them Norton would sign up for the UCLA employees if defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker still left for yet another career.

Questioned about that scenario this 7 days, Norton explained he had overlooked the facts, the passage of so numerous a long time fogging his memory. No matter. He’s again now, Carroll finally performing UCLA a favor early this 12 months by dismissing Norton as Seattle’s defensive coordinator.

Chip Kelly pounced on the option, the Bruins coach familiar with Norton’s benefit as a rival at Oregon and in the NFL. It assisted that UCLA experienced an opening at Norton’s place in the wake of Don Pellum’s retirement.

Ken Norton Jr., ideal, was a standout linebacker at UCLA and served guide the Bruins to their past Rose Bowl victory, in January 1986.

(Getty Photos)

“Ken was most likely the first guy we believed of, brought him in to stop by with him a very little little bit,” Kelly explained. “He however has a house listed here [in Marina del Rey], so this is sort of an offseason home for him, so it just variety of lined up and match.”

Reminders of Norton’s time as a Bruin are — and are not — almost everywhere. The gleaming Wasserman Soccer Heart and fancy follow discipline are part of an athletics overhaul that make the coach feel he may well as effectively be on Mars, not back again at his alma mater. But the regal academic structures continue to have the same hold on him when he strolls to other pieces of campus.

That aged rivalry hatred has also been revived. Norton referred to USC as “the other school” and instructed the Bruins may well be on the verge of a return to their property stadium shortly after the calendar flipped to 2023.

“I consider we’re about because of,” Norton stated. “We’re about because of to make some new recollections in the Rose Bowl.”

They certainly will not go down quietly. Norton’s voice is the one particular that often carries throughout the follow discipline each and every morning, words that could possibly frighten other folks invigorating the newest batch of Bruins.

“He’s challenging on us, [but] it’s not any challenging thoughts,” linebacker Darius Muasau mentioned. “At the end of the working day, he’s just obtaining his information across via all the yelling. You know, he’s an aged-school mentor — he’s been listed here, he played right here, been in the league, coached in the league, been there, carried out that, so that is just his way of coaching and we’re all just adapting to him and we’re loving every single next of that.”

New inside of linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. is “hard on us, [but] it’s not any challenging emotions,” Bruins linebacker Darius Muasau stated.

(Wally Skalij / VFAB)

Very well, perhaps not each and every next.

After absorbing his prolonged tutorial, Newman introduced himself into the sled, the metal base lifting off the floor before landing with a heavy thud. He stepped toward the ball provider and slapped the ball toward the turf prior to choosing it up.

It even now was not very good plenty of for the previous linebacker who is aware of how it must be performed.

“OK, Ok,” Norton reported “Now, we’ll work on that.”