Ken Simonton
By Adam Karon
Daily Bruin Reporter
Ever try catching a gnat with your bare hands? It’s pretty
difficult. Now give that gnat outstanding power, extra speed, and
great vision, and it’s virtually impossible.
Such is the case with Oregon State’s Ken Simonton.
The 5-foot-7 Pittsburgh, Ca. native has been tearing up the turf
in Corvallis for the past three years. This year the nation finally
took notice.
Simonton needs just 16 yards this Saturday against UCLA to pass
O.J. Simpson for 12th on the all time Pac-10 career rushing list.
He also needs just 106 yards to reach 1,000 for the third straight
season.
Not bad for a guy who was deemed “too small” by most
programs.
“He’s a great back,” said UCLA safety Marques
Anderson. “We have to contain him. When he gets wide he gets
loose.”
Containing Simonton will be no easy task. With starting linemen
Kenyon Coleman and Sean Phillips out, the Bruins will be at a
decided disadvantage to stop a man who averages 5.5 yards per
carry.
“We’re a bit banged up,” UCLA defensive
coordinator Bob Field said. “Other guys are just going to
have to step up.”
Coach Field said that the Ball brothers, Dave and Mat, will have
to fill the gaps vacated by Coleman and Phillips.
“Mat saw considerable time against Cal,” Field said.
“They’ll both have to step up Saturday.”
Perhaps they’ll have to step down, or at least get lower
to try to stop the 194-pound Simonton, who uses his size to hide
behind blockers and is currently fourth in the nation in
rushing.
“I think it’s very admirable what he’s done
with his size,” Field said. “Obviously he’s very
productive, very explosive.”
The toughest part about stopping Simonton is the fact that the
defense is unable to focus all its attention on the back. Oregon
State runs out of a three wide receiver set much of the time and
therefore forces teams to spread out. This is when Simonton takes
over and why he has scored eleven touchdowns this year.
“We can’t focus all our attention on him,”
safety Audie Attar said. “If we focus too much, they’ll
just throw on us.”
UCLA plans for stopping the Beavers revolve around a balanced
defensive set ““ trying not to get too wrapped up in stopping
Simonton.
“They spread it out a lot and we have to adjust,”
Anderson said. “We’re going to put a lot of pressure on
the quarterback and try to make something happen.”
Simonton is coming off his worst rushing game of the year. He
picked up 81 yards against Stanford on 14 carries. This number is
deceiving because the Beavers seemed to focus more on the pass with
quarterback Jonathan Smith going for 324 yards.
“They execute well,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo
said. “They don’t do a lot of runs, but they do them
well.”
Simonton’s biggest game this year came against USC. The
Trojans were pre-season favorites for best defense in the Pac-10,
but Simonton showed he hadn’t heard the news.
He ran for 234 yards on 37 carries en route to assisting Oregon
State upset the Trojans to the delight of a sellout crowd in
Corvallis. Simonton also helped seal the game by scoring three
times, including a 36-yard run to put the game away with 1:18 left
in the fourth quarter.
Perhaps UCLA will catch a break this weekend. Simonton sat out
the end of the Stanford game with a sore groin. But according to
Oregon State head coach Dennis Erickson, this shouldn’t
prevent him from playing in Pasadena this weekend.
“He’s fine,” Erickson said in a press
conference on Tuesday. “He’s a little sore. We’ve
got a lot of guys a little sore, but I think everyone does this
time of year.”
Sore or not, the key for UCLA is to contain Simonton. In Oregon
State’s only loss this year, the Washington Huskies held him
to 104 yards on 23 carries. Perhaps more important is the fact that
the Huskies were able to keep him out of the end zone.
The Bruins face a daunting task this weekend: contain Simonton,
stop the passing game, and do it all with several starters missing
or banged up.