By Bruce Tran
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]
The UCLA defensive backfield is beginning to resemble more of a
baseball team and less of a football team. With incumbents Ricky
Manning Jr., and Matt Ware already playing professional baseball
during the summer, incoming recruits Mike Nixon and Jarrad Page
were both selected in the first five rounds of Major League
Baseball’s draft Tuesday, putting into question whether
either will ever don a Bruin football uniform.
Baseball can offer the duo enough money to bypass college
altogether, something Ware and Manning Jr. as 21st and 22nd round
picks, respectively, did not have to contend with. Still, UCLA
football head coach Bob Toledo is hopeful that both recruits will
turn down the big bucks.
“Our coaches have talked to them last night,” Toledo
said. “Obviously, they’ve got to discuss contracts with
the baseball people, but both of them are very academic people.
Both are goal-oriented and would like to get a degree.”
“And I would think that unless the money is astronomical,
I believe that both of them will be here in August.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers selected Nixon, a catcher in high
school, with the 91st pick, and the Milwaukee Brewers chose Page, a
shortstop, with the 139th pick in the draft. Both players were
crucial to UCLA’s top-10 recruiting ranking this past year
and were expected to make an impact in a defensive backfield that
lost its two starting safeties to graduation.
Earlier this week, Nixon told the Arizona Republic that he was
willing to give up his football playing days ““ for a price.
Coincidentally, Nixon caught a Dodger pitcher last Saturday during
a workout, and it is the Dodgers who are expected to pony up the
signing bonus for their third-round pick when the two sides meet on
Saturday for contract negotiations. Nixon, who hit .500 and stole
31 bases in as many attempts this past year, told the Arizona
Republic, “Unless something goes wrong on Saturday,
it’s going to be baseball.”
Page, out of San Leandro High near the Bay Area, is a five-tool
player on the diamond, noted Perfect Game USA, a scouting
publication. Entering the draft, Page seemed the least likely of
the two to play baseball full-time, and while nothing is sure yet,
San Leandro officials don’t believe Page will forgo his UCLA
football scholarship.
“I talked to Jarrad this morning, and while there’s
a chance, it’s not much of a possibility that he will play
baseball full-time,” said Scott Nady, a San Leandro assistant
football coach. “If anything, he might play during the
summers. But he loves football, and he wants to play for (UCLA
defensive coordinator) Phil Snow.”
Bruin football coaches envisioned Nixon and Page as hard-hitting
defensive backs. It could very well be, however, that both will be
looking to make hard hits of a different kind ““ the kind with
a bat.