EL PASO, Texas – It looked like a perfect setup.
Running back Tyrell Sutton, the Big Ten’s freshman of the year, was ready to face the worst rush defense in Division I.
But Sutton only ran 18 times in the game, gaining 84 yards and fumbling once in the 50-38 Sun Bowl loss to UCLA (10-2). The Bruins had little trouble moving the ball on the ground, as they had two running backs with more than 18 carries and 100 yards, neither being All-American Maurice Drew.
“It wasn’t that it wasn’t there,” Northwestern coach Randy Walker said. “We tried to run the ball, we tried to make some plays. We didn’t rush the ball as well as I thought or hoped we would, but I give a lot of credit to UCLA.”
Sutton carried the ball once in the Wildcats’ first drive of the second half, then he fumbled at his own 16-yard line on his first carry of the next drive. UCLA scored to take the 36-22 lead on the ensuing possession, and Sutton was benched for the rest of the quarter.
The Cats (7-5, 5-3 Big Ten) finished the season with a 4-1 record when Sutton rushed at least 20 times. Including the Sun Bowl loss, they were 3-4 when he didn’t reach the mark.
“My only concern is winning the football game and protecting (senior quarterback Brett Basanez) and doing whatever I can to contribute to the offense,” Sutton said. “We were down, and we’ve been down before, and that always causes more passing situations.”
NU finished with a total of 168 rushing yards, 61 fewer yards than UCLA’s defense had allowed a game. With the success against the Cats, the Bruins’ defense earned its way out of the bottom of the rush defense rankings – it’s now 116 out of 117.
UCLA senior linebacker Spencer Havner said his team moved defensive linemen and linebackers around at the line of scrimmage before the snap to try to create confusion for NU’s offense.
“We had two or three weeks to prepare and put together a good plan, and it just happened that we could do it,” Havner said. “We kept it really simple and just tried to play extremely hard.”
NU couldn’t mount a consistent running attack all game and ran just 32 times. The lack of a running game forced Basanez to attempt 70 passes, both a career high and Sun Bowl record.
Even with UCLA’s struggles against the run this year, Sutton said he expected UCLA to be able to adjust to NU’s run game.
“I was definitely not surprised,” Sutton said. “They had a lot of time to come out and prepare for everything, and they did a good job.”
Walker echoed Sutton’s observation, as he said the extra month UCLA’s defense had to prepare impacted what NU was able to accomplish on offense.
“UCLA did a great job with their preparation,” Walker said. “They look at tape just like we do, and they made it tough.”
Sutton finished the year seventh in the country in rushing, averaging more than 122 yards a game. He is 17th in the country in scoring, with 18 touchdowns and an average of nine points a game.
Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].
