Stevens Feels the Criticism Piling On : UCLA Passer Says He’s ‘Rapped Too Much,’ Credited Too Little

One night this week, a woman in a restaurant asked Matt Stevens about the UCLA T-shirt he was wearing. She said she was a real Bruin fan and watched all the games on television, although she didn’t recognize Stevens.

The fan sadly shook her head. She told Stevens she was still upset about the Bruins’ loss Saturday to Stanford. He expressed his sympathy.

“But you know the worst part?” the woman angrily asked Stevens. “I couldn’t believe the stupid quarterback threw that interception that lost the game.”

Stevens then introduced himself to one very stunned fan as that same stupid quarterback.

And so it goes for Matt Stevens. Wherever he goes, he’s on the menu, usually as grilled quarterback. As UCLA finishes what so far has been a disappointing season, it is clear that Stevens is a player who needs no introduction--to trouble.

For instance, there probably won’t be a Jan. 1 bowl game for the Bruins this year, a turn of events that has Stevens muttering to himself. It’ll be his fault, he is sure.

“I could easily be depressed about that fact,” he said. “The Stanford game could be blamed on me, but I’ve thrown two picks (interceptions) since the Oklahoma game before Stanford. You can just see, here in L.A., the Marc Wilson syndrome is sort of snowballing. I get blamed a lot.

“I think I’ve been rapped too much,” Stevens said. “I don’t know if it’s because it’s L.A., who’s doing it, or what. But I feel I’ve been used as a scapegoat a lot on this team. By the press, by I don’t know who, just the whole thing sort of. Like, ‘Hey, it’s his fault what’s going on.’ ”

So Stevens has gone on the offensive to save his reputation. Maybe he has to, since he only has games at Washington on Saturday and then against USC to get it done.

Will history treat Air Matt kindly at UCLA?

“That remains to be seen,” Coach Terry Donahue said. “There could be a great moment coming. But there may not be. If there isn’t, unfortunately, Matt will just have to understand.”

Understanding this is giving Stevens a little trouble.

After nine games, the Stevens file is still open. His personal statistics are pretty good, but the fact remains that UCLA’s record is only 6-3, and that very well could be the standard by which Stevens is judged.

Part of his problem is that Stevens got off to a gruesome start, throwing five interceptions in a 38-3 loss at Oklahoma in the Bruins’ opener. Now, eight games later, Stevens has completed 55% of his passes for 1,501 yards. He has thrown eight touchdown passes, but he has also thrown eight interceptions.

His 121 completions rank seventh on UCLA’s single-season list, and his career mark of 202 completions is fourth behind only Tom Ramsey, Dennis Dummit and Gary Beban.

All things considered--he was the quarterback of record in the Bruins 45-28 annihilation of Iowa in the last Rose Bowl game, completing 16 of 26 passes--Stevens figured he’d do pretty well in a job performance review. And that makes him wonder what’s happened to him this season.

Among other things, Stevens wondered why his coach felt it necessary to give him a vote of confidence in mid-season and why his teammates seem to get more credit for a victory than he does. Stevens also questioned whether he was receiving enough support from his teammates and whether the media were picking on him.

Stevens said he is still puzzled by Donahue’s motives for the vote of confidence after UCLA began its Pacific-10 schedule by losing to Arizona State.

“I don’t know why he said that,” Stevens said. “Maybe he was panicking. We were 2-2, things didn’t look good, he was looking for changes and I was the first one he could turn to. All I know is we definitely would not be where we are if I had been pulled at that time. He’s got to realize I can’t do it all sometimes.”

It is Stevens’ opinion that the Bruins never reached their potential this season, especially the offense.

“Last year’s team was destined to go to the Rose Bowl,” he said. “There was so much talent on it. You could do anything you want and gain 10 yards. This year, it hasn’t been that way.

“Either I had to throw it or it was Gaston (Green) on the sweep or Gaston to the weak side of the field,” Stevens said. “Those have been the plays. We just don’t have as much offense as we had. I don’t know why. Maybe it was because of Eric Ball being hurt, Marcus Greenwood, now Mel Farr, Derek Tennell not being there for the whole fall camp. But you can’t say it’s all my fault.”

The process of assessing blame and dispensing credit rankles Stevens, who said he’s had too much of one and not enough of the other.

“I have a spectacular second-half against Arizona, but it’s Gaston Green who is the highlight,” Stevens said. “I get a little credit. I play consistently in the other games, but they don’t need me that much. Against Cal, I go 9 for 15 and throw two touchdowns and it’s just, ‘Matt, good job.’ We were beating them so bad, I really didn’t matter. We had three or four games like that.

“Then comes Stanford,” he said. “I mean 20 of 33 ain’t a bad day with one pick. And yet that one pick, for some reason, is seen as what cost us the game. I don’t know if I’m just someone to point the finger at, but I think I have been used. We are a team and we have to realize it’s not all my fault and that they know that. They need to look inside themselves, too, because I can only do so much.”

Terry Tumey, UCLA’s starting nose guard, said he thought Stevens had been treated fairly.

“Some of the criticism has been undue and some of it has been due,” Tumey said. “He may have been hurt by UCLA’s high prestige position of quarterback. It’s quite a legacy. And people had such a high expectation for us this season. If we lose, it doesn’t mean the guy choked or anything. People always talk about the guys who handle the ball, whether it is Matt or Gaston or whoever.”

Donahue, who said he has always contended that a quarterback gets too much praise and too much blame, believes that Stevens’ senior year would have been much different if he had played more as a junior. But that job went to fifth-year senior quarterback David Norrie last season.

“Matt is really an inexperienced player,” Donahue said. “Not in terms of years in the program, but in game competition. This year, he’s had his moments of brilliance. He’s also had moments that weren’t very good. If you could just imagine him back next year, he’d be a sweet player.

“Getting heat is part of being a quarterback,” he said. “I can remember fans booing Rick Neuheisel and David Norrie. I can remember it vividly. I can also remember those same fans cheering Neuheisel as the most valuable player of the Rose Bowl and the cheering for all the great games Norrie had. It changes so much. With Matt this year, well, it’ll all depend on what happens the next two weeks. If we win and get a bowl game, then he’s a success.”

Stevens does not think it fair he should carry such a burden.

“You can’t really put the whole thing on my shoulders,” he said.

“At first, I didn’t have confidence I could go out there and play well,” Stevens said. “But I know I can play well now. I’ve been through so much adversity, with the people, with the coaches, sometimes in the media, with my peers, I don’t think I can be hurt anymore.

“If they’re ready to knock me down, well, they’ve got two games left,” he said. “I think we can still get to a New Year’s Day bowl. I’ll be leading us, even though Gaston’s going to get the credit. None of this bothers me if we win. When we win, it’s, ‘Gaston gets his 100 yards, that’s great. Stevens had a nice performance.’

“I know I have a very important part of my life coming up,” Stevens said. “I can be a goat or I can be a hero. If we lose, I’m sure I’ll be the goat. No matter how I play, my performance will be reflected only that I played poorly and didn’t lead our team to victory. And if we win, I’ll at least save face and can walk around this place.

“I wouldn’t care if they blame everything on me and I’m the complete jerk of this city and school for a year,” he said. “I won’t squander this opportunity. I have no intention of going to Washington and faltering.

“You know, I’m not bitter, but I have one question: Why me?”

‘At first, I didn’t have confidence I could go out there and play well. But I know I can play well now. I’ve been through so much adversity, with the people, with the coaches, sometimes in the media, with my peers, I don’t think I can be hurt anymore.’

MATT STEVENS: GAME-BY-GAME FOR 1986

Opponent PA PC PI YDS TD Result Oklahoma 28 14 5 112 0 Lost, 38-3 San Diego State 12 4 0 119 1 Won, 45-14 CS Long Beach 26 18 0 211 2 Won, 41-23 Arizona State 25 10 0 93 0 Lost, 16-9 Arizona 37 22 1 284 1 Won, 32-25 California 15 9 1 174 2 Won, 36-10 Washington State 26 16 0 198 1 Won, 54-16 Oregon 18 8 0 116 1 Won, 49-0 Stanford 33 20 1 194 0 Lost, 28-23 Totals 220 121 8 1501 8 .550 Completion Pct.