Stacey King
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No holding back Barr
Hardworking linebacker projected as top-20 pick
By David Leon Moore
UCLA outside linebacker Anthony Barr figures to be among the top defensive players taken in the NFL draft, something his mother might have seen coming a long time ago.
“There was a feeling I had from the very first day with Anthony,” Lori Barr recalled in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “I told him f rom the time he could talk that he was a leader and that he was destined for greatness. I’m not sure why. It was intuition, I guess.”
She was right. Barr fulfilled his mom’s prophecy by putting together two stellar seasons at UCLA that have made him an All-American and a surefire first-round draft pick. Mock drafts have him being selected between the top 10 and 20 picks.
“It’s been fun to see this rather quiet kid of a couple of years ago become such a man,” says UCLA linebackers coach Jeff Ulbrich, who played 10 seasons at linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers and helped turn around Barr’s college career. “I’m just so happy for him and his family. He’s a guy who has absolutely deserved the success he’s achieved.”
UCLA will miss his ability, his tireless work ethic and his engaging, soft-spoken personality. And it’s just beginning, according to Ulbrich.
“He’s nowhere near a finished product,” Ulbrich says. “I think he’s a guy who will continue to get better and will become a perennial all-pro in the NFL. I tell NFL people looking at him, ‘If you like what you see, you’ll love what you get.’ ” UCLA head coach Jim Mora, who encouraged Barr to switch from running back to linebacker when Mora replaced Rick Neuheisel after the 2011 season, sometimes can’t come up with enough superlatives about Barr’s play on the field and his character off it.
“He’s the best player on our team and the hardest worker on our team,” Mora says. “He’s a great leader who does it with his actions, his work ethic, his attitude, his commitment. In my opinion, and I haven’t seen everyone in the country, but there is nobody I’d take over Anthony Barr. And I spent 28 years in the NFL, and I have a real clear understanding of what they’re looking for from football character to personal character. He’s an A-plus in everything.”
He was an all-state high school running back as a junior at Loyola in Los Angeles, gaining nearly 2,000 yards. Though he missed most of his senior year with an injury, he was recruited by Notre Dame, UCLA and others.
His father, former running back Tony Brooks, had played at Notre Dame, as did his uncle, Reggie Brooks. He had other Notre Dame alumni in his extended family, and they all figured Barr would stick with the Irish.
But incoming Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly wanted him to play wide receiver.
“That kind of turned me off a little bit,” he says. “Coach Neuheisel said I could play running back, and it was close to home, so why not?”
But he got lost in the shuffle as a freshman and sophomore at UCLA.
So when Mora arrived, Barr approached the meeting with him as an opportunity for a turnaround.
“I told him my story, how I was feeling, that I was kind of losing confidence in myself and I was asking what could I do to be a better player and maybe I should switch positions,” Barr says.
The next thing Barr knew, Mora was asking him to take a linebacker stance.
“I didn’t know what he was talking about,” Barr says.
Mora showed him how to stand as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense, which he was installing at UCLA.
“He said, ‘That’s your spot. You can make plays there. You can make money there,’ ” Barr says. “He was so passionate and crazy about it. I said, ‘OK, whatever you say. Sounds good.’ ” Barr was injured for most of the spring workouts that followed, but he spent every moment he could in team meetings and in Ulbrich’s office, watching piles of tape.
“That turned out to be a great benefit,” Ulbrich says. “He’s a very cerebral guy. He’s not a guy who needs a thousand reps to understand something. That time in the classroom really helped his development.
“It didn’t take long that fall for him to seize a starting spot and do what he’s done.”
There was a hiccup or two. Like on the first play of his first game at linebacker against Rice.
“I lined up in the wrong spot,” he says, chuckling. “In the film session that week, Coach Ulbrich put up the first play and says, ‘Tell me what’s wrong with this picture.’ ” But a lot went right. He finished his first season at linebacker as a second-team All-American with 13½ sacks (second in the country) and 21½ tackles for loss (tied for fourth).
He also became famous for a signature highlight, a hard sack that ended the season for Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley (with a sprained shoulder) in UCLA’s late-season 38-28 victory.
Finally, Barr had done something for his Notre Dame family, for he had knocked out Barkley just before the USC-Notre Dame game. Without Barkley, USC had trouble moving the ball, and Notre Dame won 22-13, clinching a berth in the Bowl Championship Series title game.
“I’m sure my family was happy about that,” he says.
Barr would have likely been a first-round selection had he entered the draft after his junior year, but he didn’t feel ready.
“I basically was a freshman last year,” he says. “I wasn’t confident enough to make that jump.”
Barr put together another great season as a senior. His 10 sacks and 20 tackles for loss led a UCLA defense that helped the Bruins go 10-3, including a 42-12 win against Virginia Tech in the Hyundai Sun Bowl.
He now has enough confidence that he said he could play as a 4-3 end, if needed.
But he concedes he has work to do. “Shedding blocks, defending the run, using my hands,” he said. “I think those things are still new to me, things I’m still working on.
“If I continue to work, the sky’s the limit.”
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