LOS ANGELES – A UCLA football jersey, the kind Tyler Gonzalez used to wipe up off the floor, now hangs in the locker room with his name across the back.

The former Fullerton High kicker now stands on the sideline as the Bruins' backup kicker holding on to a dream, not as team manager holding on to a couple of water bottles.

Gonzalez's dream was born on the athletics fields in Fullerton, nurtured in high school and dashed when Gonzalez went to college.

Gonzalez was a four-sport athlete in high school. But when he wasn't recruited by his dream school, UCLA, for football or soccer, he decided to give up any idea of playing collegiate sports and enroll at the Westwood campus anyway, where many family members had earned degrees.

"I always wanted to go to UCLA ever since I was little and I got in for academics," said Gonzalez, who graduated from Fullerton High with a 4.67 grade-point average. "So that was more important to me than playing at a school I didn't want to go to."

Because of his "stubbornness," Gonzalez never tried out for the soccer or football teams. If he wasn't recruited, he didn't want to try out, he said. Yet he was never far from the action.

When rowing didn't pan out because of scheduling conflicts his freshman year, Gonzalez became a manager for the football team. After one season, he joined the soccer team as its manager.

His life changed three weeks ago when Bruins starting kicker Kip Smith suffered a groin-muscle injury and Gonzalez's roommate, a student football assistant, convinced him to try out. Gonzalez, in his final quarter at UCLA, figured he had nothing to lose.

As Gonzalez was attempting a few practice kicks, Coach Rick Neuheisel showed up. He quickly saw potential.

"He said, 'OK, I want you at practice at 3 o'clock,'" Gonzalez said. "I said, 'OK, that's like in two hours,' And he was like, 'What's the problem?'

"I said, 'There's no problem, I just haven't thought about it. It's something I have to think about.'"

Gonzalez didn't have time to think. Neuheisel inserted him at the end of a two-minute drill for a 40-yard field goal attempt. As the team lined up, the reserves shifted from the sidelines onto the field to watch. When he nailed the attempt, the team gave him a rousing ovation.

"I was super nervous before that kick, so when I saw it go through I had a big rush of relief and everyone lifted me up," Gonzalez said. "It was a great feeling."

Neuheisel gave him the jersey later that day.

"I was definitely excited, but since I have been around athletics, I know what it's about. I had been in the locker room before. I think if I had been a complete novice, it would have been different."

But it had been a long time since Gonzalez had experienced that kind of team camaraderie.

"It was a weird feeling ... OK, it was cool. My parents were more excited than I was," he said.

Gonzalez had a hard time hearing his parents on the phone that evening because of the screaming going on in their modest Fullerton home.

"It was like a dream," said his mother, Judy Gonzalez. "I kept saying that to myself for two days. It happened so fast.

"It was pretty neat to see him realize his dream of playing collegiate sports."

In high school, Gonzalez played golf and ran cross country but excelled in soccer, earning third-team All-CIF honors his senior year. Football? No thanks.

But the Indians needed a kicker his senior year and an assistant football coach asked him to handle the kicking duties. Sound familiar? Gonzalez kicked six field goals and scored 22 extra points his lone football season.

While being on the football team was fun, Gonzalez was hoping to play collegiate soccer. The 5-foot-8, 145-pound former midfielder was recruited by Stanford, University of San Diego, Occidental and a couple Division II schools, but not UCLA.

"We kept telling him to try out, try out, but Tyler wouldn't," his father, Joe Gonzalez, said. "He shows so much respect to others that he didn't want to bother anyone."

The closest Gonzalez would get to being a member of the Bruins' soccer team was serving as team manager for two seasons.

"A part of me wishes I had tried out for soccer," he said. "A part of me wishes I went to a different school and played soccer, but really I don't regret any of it."

Gonzalez will graduate after the fall quarter with a major in sociology and minor in anthropology. He wants to be fireman nd will enroll in fire science classes next spring. But that's later, after the Bruins football season.

Fox Sports West

There was a strange sight at UCLA football practice Wednesday evening.

 It wasn't the fact that the Bruins went through the two-minute drill during the last period of practice or the fact that the period ended with a field goal or even the fact that the entire team surrounded the field goal kicker trying to distract him as he lined up his attempt.

 A smaller individual  — compared  to the football players who surrounded him  —  in a blue No. 27 jersey, stepped up to attempt the field goal.  As the ball split the uprights, the Bruins went crazy.  The field goal was good from 40 yards, but who kicked it? 

 With kicker Kip Smith out nursing a sore hip flexor, head coach Rick Neuheisel decided to spice things up a bit.

 Enter the guy in the No. 27 jersey.

 "Tyler.  He's on a tryout with us,"  Neuheisel said.

 Tyler is Tyler Gonzalez.  He's a senior at UCLA, who is also a student manager on the men's soccer team.

 "We're just taking a look around.  By rule we can have a couple of day tryouts, so we're just taking a look," Neuheisel said.

 Gonzalez is the roommate of one of the student assistants on the football team.  He was a kicker and punter at Fullerton High School, where he made six field goals and 22 point-after-touchdowns as a senior in 2006.  He was also third team all-CIF as a soccer player.

 Smith left practice Tuesday, and his backup Joe Roberts has also been sidelined with a strained quad. That could put the onus on Jeff Locke to execute field goals, kickoffs, and punts Saturday against Texas if neither is available.  It's something Locke says he has no problem doing.

 Smith is not expected to practice Thursday.

 "We're just resting (him)," Neuheisel said.  "We'll see how it responds to treatment.  My expectation is that he'll be ready to go (against Texas)."

By RYAN MENEZES / The Daily Bruin

As far as valuable assets go, Jeff Locke’s left leg might be up there alongside Kevin Prince’s right knee.

Locke has been one of the best punters in the nation for two years running – making the Bruins a threat to change field position no matter where the offense stalls – and he doubles as the kickoff specialist.

That’s already a pretty full workload, but another serving could get heaped on the redshirt junior’s plate come Saturday: place-kicking duties.

Gone is the sure leg of Kai Forbath, named the best kicker in the country in 2009, and in comes a question mark at the position for the first time in years. Even before Forbath, the Bruins boasted NFL-caliber kicker Justin Medlock.

Redshirt freshman Kip Smith was tabbed as Forbath’s successor the minute he signed with UCLA, but the No. 1 kicking recruit in the country in 2010 has been inconsistent dating back to spring camp. The same goes for redshirt freshman walk-on Joe Roberts, the only other kicker on the roster.

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel knew the transition out of the Forbath era wouldn’t be easy, but it wasn’t supposed to be this hard, so he threw Locke into the equation.

“Instead of letting Kip and Joe take all the reps, they wanted me to jump in and make it a competition again,” Locke said. “Competition does bring out the best in everybody, and we’ve all been kicking a little better since I came into the mix.”

It’s a competition that Locke says he wants to win, but increasing his workload by 50 percent would increase the strain on his leg by much more than that. Locke handled the kicking trifecta in high school, but too much kicking led to injuries. Plus, he’s coming off an offseason surgery to repair the hip flexor above his left leg.

“We’d have to be smart with (Locke’s) reps, no question,” special teams coach Angus McClure said.

“I definitely learned from (my high school) experience,” Locke said. “Even now, I’m cutting my reps probably in half that I take in practice, and before the game I follow a strict pitch count, you could say, just to make sure I’m not over-kicking my leg.”

The best way for Locke to avoid over-kicking would be if Smith or Roberts could win the place-kicking job outright. Both are taking measures to make sure that’s the case. Smith is starting with a change in mechanics that has led to some improvement in the latter part of fall camp.

“I’ve changed my swing, and I’m more comfortable with it,” Smith said. “(Before) it wasn’t good form, wasn’t the right ball flight I was looking for.”

Regardless of who UCLA turns to, the Bruins could quickly find out exactly how spoiled they were with Forbath. Field-goal range will be redefined without a kicker who can boot it from 40 and even 50 yards out, and offensive playcalls could change as a result.

Locke will be active nonetheless, and McClure isn’t afraid to use him, or Smith, or even Roberts. Someone will have to put their best foot forward.

“We’re trying to put the puzzle together and use their talents in the areas that will help them have success,” McClure said.

“The more things you can do, the better. … I’m not going to hold someone back just because of other players or their future or anything like that.”

By Rob White / World-Herald Staff Writer

Former University of Nebraska-Omaha kicker Greg Zuerlein had a scholarship offer from UCLA and a number of other Division I-A schools, including hometown Nebraska, lining up and showing interest.

But the NCAA has denied Zuerlein’s appeal for a sixth season of eligibility at college football’s highest level. Instead of kicking on television this fall, Zuerlein said he plans to finish his college career at Division II Missouri Western.

“Obviously I wanted to play Division I, and it almost seems unfair considering everything that has happened,” the Lincoln Pius X graduate said. “Going to Missouri Western is going to be great for me ... but it would have been nice to compete at the highest level. It would have been a good experience.”

Zuerlein, who missed last season because of a hip injury that eventually required surgery, had been granted a sixth season of eligibility on the Division II level before the University of Nebraska at Omaha dropped its football program in March.

And while his teammates were able to transfer and play immediately at any level, Zuerlein had to apply for an extra year in eligibility in Division I. Eligibility windows are counted differently between Divisions II and I — in Division II, the athlete has 10 full-time semesters in which to complete four seasons of competition, while in Division I, there is a five-year clock for the four seasons.

Zuerlein, who was a healthy redshirt his first year at UNO, has had his five-year clock expire, but he was a part-time student this semester, so he’s still within his six-year window for Division II eligibility.

“It kind of stinks that all of my teammates are able to go wherever they want without penalty and I’m the only one who can’t,” Zuerlein said.

A strong-legged kicker capable of field goals beyond 60 yards, Zuerlein twice led Division II in touchbacks.

The All-American was contacted by many Division I powers after UNO dropped football, including Clemson, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. In addition to UCLA, he also visited Oklahoma State.

Nebraska assisted him with his eligibility appeal. He said he wouldn’t re-apply to the NCAA.

“It takes time, and once they’ve made their ruling, they aren’t going to change their mind anyway,” Zuerlein said. “They said I wasn’t being denied an opportunity since I’m still eligible in Division II, and when one of the best arguments you have is that there’s a chance to play in your home city where you can stay home and save money ... really, there’s no point.”

Zuerlein said he’s excited about working with the coaching staff at Missouri Western, one of UNO’s conference foes which had been known to line up its return men 9 yards deep in the end zone to try to return his kickoffs. Missouri Western is the home of the Kansas City Chiefs’ training camp.

“They have a great facility and a great kicking coach (Jay White),” Zuerlein said. “I’ve known some of the kickers they’ve had there, and I’ve seen how much they’ve improved while they were there. I think I can improve, too.”

Zuerlein, who has a chance to continue to kick professionally, said his rehab from hip surgery has gone well. His physical therapy has included kicking soccer balls, and he expects to be cleared to kick footballs next week. He expects to be full strength by fall camp.

“Even though it’s healed, I’ve still been a little timid about kicking with full power,” he said. “I’ll probably ease into it and see how it feels each day.”

By Jon Gold / Dailybreeze.com

Heading into spring practice with new coordinators, UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel made the decision to devote little of the schedule to special teams.

Add to that the fact punter and kickoff specialist Jeff Locke would miss all of the spring schedule after offseason hip surgery, and it's quite understandable why the Bruins spent precious few hours on the kicking and returning games.

But despite a schedule that focused heavily on Mike Johnson's new offense and Joe Tresey's new defense, new special teams coach Angus McClure doesn't feel like his units have suffered tremendously.

"We haven't been able to do kickoff, and obviously with Jeff we would've done that, so that has hurt us a little bit," said McClure, who takes over for Frank Gansz Jr., recently hired as special teams coach for SMU. "But it's been great that he's been the holder for our score team. He's gotten a lot of reps doing that, and the positive is, we've got a lot of reps doing punt.

"That's the longest play in football, and we really focused on fundamental techniques and assignments, and it's been great in that way."

Locke said the transition from Gansz to McClure has been smooth, despite the Bruins losing many pieces from a special teams unit that was among the best in the country. The entire kicking unit of kicker Kai Forbath, long snapper Christian Yount and holder Danny Rees has graduated and likely replaced by redshirt freshman kicker Kip Smith, long snapper Kevin McDermott and Locke as holder.

But Locke returns after a sophomore season that saw him rank fifth nationally in punting average, the 45.84 yards per punt ranking second on the team's all-time list.

"I don't really think we're that far behind," Locke said. "We kept a lot of the same techniques, a lot of the same coverages that we had with Coach Gansz. I don't really think we're far behind.

"Most of the guys are from last year still who are playing on special teams, so we still have continuity."

And the Bruins also add a little more talent to the special teams unit as the team's vaunted recruiting classes of 2008-10 come of age.

"We preach it all the time," Locke said. "If you really want to go to the next level, you have to play special teams.

"Most of these guys, their goal is to go to the next level after this. We have a lot of talent on this team, so I really do hope it will trickle down like that."

"Once I kick one, I don't get too excited about it," the UCLA kicker said Monday. "When I miss one, I don't get too down."

So the redshirt freshman was predictably ho-hum after making three of four field-goal attempts Saturday during the Bruins' first spring scrimmage, alleviating concerns about the departure of decorated kicker Kai Forbath.

"I wouldn't say I'd take it," Smith said after missing from 48 yards but connecting from 45, 42 and 28 yards, "but it's all right for now."

Angus McClure, UCLA's special teams coach, said Smith "has a leg up" on Jeff Locke, a junior who is sidelined by a hip injury, in the battle to replace Forbath, the Lou Groza Trophy winner last season as the nation's top kicker.

"Kip has an edge right now," McClure said. "But we're still looking for the best guy. The best guy is going to play."

Smith said he figured the kicking job was "my spot to lose" because Locke already has a heavy workload with punts and kickoffs, and not many teams want their kickers to handle all three duties.

If Smith wins the job, he'll have Forbath and Locke to thank. He said both teammates told him during a redshirt season filled with inconsistency that he needed to focus more on precision than distance.

"I had to work on more finesse, on more accuracy, than trying to nail 50-yarders all day," Smith said. "I mean, in high school you can do that, but in college, your money is inside of 40; there are not so many 50-yard kicks. It took me awhile to change my form.

"Kai and Jeff basically told me I needed to change or I probably wouldn't see the field. They told me what I needed to change and how to do it, and Jeff is making sure I'm doing it now that Kai is gone."