Coach Profile: DeWayne Walker

DeWayne Walker is currently the interim head coach for the Bruins. His dramatic turn around of an abysmal UCLA defense and the huge upset victory over the Trojans in 2006 have catapulted him into the national spotlight. Is he the right man to lead this program next season?

Background

Walker played his college ball as a corner back at Minnesota. He played one year in the Canadian football league and then two in the USFL before hanging up his cleats. After completing his bachelor's degree at Regents College in New York, DeWayne went into coaching.

Walker began his coaching career at Mt. San Antonio College. He served as the secondary coach for four seasons before becoming defensive coordinator in 1992. He bumped around the college ranks coaching at Utah State, BYU (where he worked with Norm Chow) and California (where he worked with Steve Mariucci).

In 1998, Walker jumped to the NFL as the secondary coach for the New England Patriots. He spent three seasons there, two under Pete Carroll as a head coach. In 2001, Walker joined Carroll's staff at USC for one season before returning to the professional ranks in New York. Walker was the secondary coach for the Giants for two seasons and then held the same position with the Washington Redskins.

The last two seasons he has been the defensive coordinator at UCLA. He helped turn the UCLA defense from one of the worst in the nation to one of the best in the conference in just one year. Walker has coached UCLA to the 2nd best scoring defense in the PAC-10 for two consecutive seasons and one of the top 40 defenses nationally. He managed to accomplish this with virtually no offensive production from his counterparts on the other side of the ball.

Walker currently makes around $330,000 as the defensive coordinator.

College Head Coaching Record

None

Positives

One of the best things Walker did with this defense was give them a sense of toughness. They play like a team, swarm to the ball, and attack. That is in stark contrast to the soft defensive image UCLA has fostered over the years. He transformed a team that was ranked 113th in the nation, that was losing a number of senior starters, and couldn't tackle into the strength of the program.

Walker is a dynamic recruiter. Rivals named him the PAC-10 recruiter of the year in 2006. He is the primary reason why UCLA's recruiting the last two seasons have been dramatically better. One of his first recruits, Brian Price, is already making a significant contribution to the team as a true freshman. Right now Walker is the primary lynch pin in the 2008 recruiting class.

Negatives

DeWayne is still adapting to the college game. His defenses have struggled at times against more athletic, pass-oriented, spread offenses. It is early in his career as a coordinator and he still needs some time to learn and adapt from the professional version of the game.

Walker has no head coaching experience. Sometimes good coordinators become good head coaches and sometimes they don't. UCLA has rolled the dice a number of times now on coaches with no prior experience and the results haven't been particularly good.

Verdict

I'm really high on Walker as a coach. His defenses have been good and his recruiting is fantastic. I believe that with a few more years of experience, he'll develop into a top notch defensive coordinator, especially when he can start playing guys he has recruited. I really hope Dan Guerrero does everything he can to keep Walker on the staff. I think he could be a great head coach one day.

All that being said, I'm not too excited about Walker being the head coach right now. I would really like to see somebody with some head coaching experience get the position. If we can't land anybody with significant experience, then I would be open to selecting DeWayne as the new coach. But it would definitely be a second option.