David Carter Exposes Former Defensive Line Coach at UCLA

Bruin Senior DT David Carter was drafted in the sixth round last week. Congratulations to him.  BC_Bruin brought attention to a detail on Carter's "new personal coach" in the fanshot. I think it also merits additional discussion in a fanpost.  When Carter talked to Jon Gold about his selection he made the following comment about UCLA's previous DL coach:

Do you kind of feel like your ability was just ready to come out?

"I had the game to do it, but I learned how to use my body, use my hands. Run like I'm supposed to, rush at a certain angle. I already had the tools, the power, the speed, but I learned certain moves, new moves. I learned from a real defensive tackle how to play defensive tackle. That worked really well for me. Coach Howard was a great defensive end coach, but he never played defensive tackle. He knew how to play, but he didn't know the tricks. I needed to learn from a defensive tackle."

Todd Howard by all accounts was a good guy. But the comments about him from Carter is troubling. Keep in mind Howard was one the Walker threes . UCLA essentially made Rick Neuheisel hold on to the core of Karl Dorrell's defensive staff - DC Dewayne Walker, LB coach Chuck Bullough and DL coach Todd Howard - after the previous head coach was let go.

Bullough's results speak for themselves. We were never really sold on Walker. He had 13-9 moment and few other flashes here and there. His overall performance though was mixed at best which was also dotted with number of embarrassing defensive performances including the meltdown in South Bend and an embarrassing humiliation against BYU. Carter's latest comment only reinforces the question what was DG thinking when he reportedly pushed Neuheisel to hold on to Dorrell's mediocre defensive staff.

Patroclus will put together a roundup of NFL draft related notes later this week.