DANIEL WONG/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff Ryan
Smith attempts to catch a deep pass during the fourth
quarter of UCLA’s loss to the Stanford Cardinal.
By Joshua Mason
Daily Bruin Staff
Dave Minnich has had tougher days than this.
Coming back from practice lately, the 28-year-old junior college
transfer is stiff and in pain. It was only a month ago against
Oregon State that the Cougar star played the best game of his life.
In it, he pounded out a school-record 195 rushing yards on 34
carries. And if that wasn’t enough, he caught a touchdown
pass, threw a touchdown pass, made two tackles and forced a
fumble.
Of course, he also tore cartilage in his knee that day, an
injury that sidelined Minnich until he played last week against
Oregon. Almost four weeks since surgery, the senior Cougar
co-captain still hurts after practice.
“I’d say I’m at about 30 percent,”
Minnich said. “But I’ve definitely experienced more
pain than this before.”
Which makes perfect sense, considering Minnich has years of
experience beyond the gridiron. Five years in the marines as a
communicator, and five-plus as a husband and father, have helped
mold Minnich into the warrior he is on and off the field.
“The things I did in the marines were much harder than
anything I’ve experienced in football,” Minnich said.
“Here we work our tails off with two-a-days, a few weeks
during the summer, but there it was non-stop intensity for 13 1/2
weeks of boot camp.”
It’s hard to refute the claim that Minnich is anything but
intense.
Before the injury, Minnich helped propel a little-regarded
Washington State team to an undefeated record by rushing for 598
yards in the first five games of the season. In his return against
Oregon last week, a less-than-healthy Minnich rushed for 91 yards
on 17 carries and a touchdown.
His average of 113.3 rushing yards per game is second in the
conference to UCLA’s DeShaun Foster.
“Nine times out of 10 a runner will stop his legs on
contact,” UCLA linebacker Ryan Nece said. “(Minnich)
doesn’t, so that makes him a hard person to tackle. First
contact, first hit, we have to bring him to the ground, or
we’ll get ourselves into trouble.”
The 220-pound bruiser could very well be WSU’s secret
weapon this Saturday against the Bruins, since much of UCLA’s
defensive package will focus on shutting down a Cougar passing
attack that leads the Pac-10 with 325.5 yards per game.
“They do a good job of spreading their offense out,”
UCLA linebacker Robert Thomas said. “The running back has a
lot of space to run in when they spread out sets of four and five
receivers. They really position themselves to make big plays at the
right times. That’s a hard offense to stop.”
Sore knee or not, when Minnich takes the field on Saturday at
Martin Stadium, the Bruins will be staring down the toughest back
they’ve faced this season.