Lombard Has It All Covered

Ends Justin Hickman and Bruce Davis make the most highlight-reel plays and Kevin Brown and Brigham Harwell draw the most double teams, but UCLA’s most valuable defensive lineman might be Kenneth Lombard.

The 6-foot-1, 261-pound sophomore can play -- and has played -- any of the line positions.

“Lombard is our sixth man,” defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said. “Wherever you need to fill, he can get the job done. You can plug him anywhere across the line, he’s such a smart football player.”

Lombard, who started two games in 2004 before suffering a shoulder injury that forced him into a redshirt season, was a starting tackle for the Bruins’ first two games this year. He came off the bench against Washington last week and often played when UCLA used three linemen in a pass-coverage lineup.

This week, Lombard showed his versatility again when Coach Karl Dorrell wanted to get a look at second-team defensive end William Snead at tight end. With Snead on offense, Lombard practiced at end.

“No one really talks to me about it, they just know I can play all four positions,” said Lombard, who has six tackles this season, including one for a loss. “It’s something I started doing back in spring when they moved me from both end positions and nose tackle. Because of injuries and other things, I’ve had to play all four positions.

“They put me wherever they need me, and that’s cool. It’s just sometimes I don’t know when they are going to do so. They just do it.”

Lombard, selected to the Pacific 10 Conference All-Academic first team last season, says he does not have a favorite position. He just likes getting on the field.

“It’s tough at times,” Lombard said. “I have my glitches. Every once in a while I have to take a second to think about what I’m doing. But each position has positives and negatives.

“Against the run, I like nose tackle and open-side end. Against the pass, nose tackle is the hardest but tight-side [over the tight end] end is also hard. Open-side [over the weakside offensive tackle] end is where everyone wants to play. That’s where you can have some fun because you only get a couple of blocks and everything is pretty much one on one.”

Lombard relies on speed and instinct rather than force. That’s how he made a career-high eight tackles against Northwestern in last year’s Sun Bowl and four tackles, including two solos, against Rice this season.

“I’m not the biggest guy, so I have to use my quickness,” Lombard said. “The coaches have been doing a good job of putting me in situations where I can do that.”

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Dorrell on UCLA’s play-calling against Stanford, which is last in the conference in rushing yards given up: “I’m not paying attention to any of those things. I’m worried about us playing as good as we can play.... Defensively, we’re doing some really good things. We’re working on tackling. We are working on all of the issues that we think we need to improve on.”

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