The Eye Test: UCLA Scrapes By Against South Alabama

Nicholas Barr-Mira hit all four of his field goal attempts, including the game-winner with no time left on the clock. (Photo credit: Scott Chandler/uclabruins.com)

---

Ok, I’ve now rewatched the game from the comfort of my home and not a poolside cabana. My takeaway is that UCLA played a pretty even football game against South Alabama.

Your opinion of what that statement means for the program going forward may vary.

Let’s get into the breakdown. As is the style this year, I’ll go into depth on topics that I think deserve it, while doing a light analysis on everything else.

Offense

Quarterback: B

If you’re looking to pin an uneven offensive performance on someone, Dorian Thompson-Robinson is the last person you should consider. He went 20-30 for 263 yards and three touchdowns, putting up a 173.3 passer rating in the process. He also added seven carries for 27 yards as well. It was an efficient performance from DTR, and likely would have been better had the personnel around him stepped up and the playcalling been a little less sporadic.

In fact…

Running Back: C

Receiver: B

Offensive Line: C+

Let’s be even more clear about some things. UCLA’s success offensively is going to rely on whatever magic Thompson-Robinson and Zach Charbonnet can muster in large part because the talent surrounding them has fallen from where it was last season. The receiving core looks ok, with Jake Bobo, in particular, having his best game so far this season, but there isn’t a clear standout like UCLA had last year in Greg Dulcich and Kyle Philips. It’s the group with the most potential, but they’re going to have to develop in a hurry.

Running back behind Charbonnet feels like a mess. The Bruins really did have a luxury last year with Brittain Brown as the secondary punch to Charbonnet, as Keegan Jones is just not at the same level at the moment, and would need to show a ridiculous amount of in-season development to get there. It did not help that Charbonnet is more hobbled than UCLA let on during the week leading up to this game, which meant there was more Jones than you’d like to see. The fumble on the pitch was entirely his fault, for the record. If TJ Harden is healthy, this next game would be the perfect time to give him an extended run and see if he has what it takes against a Power 5 defense.

The offensive line was better than I thought on rewatch, but not necessarily great. The good news is they did not give up a single tackle for loss, but a lot of that had to do to individual plays of brilliance from Thompson-Robinson. And I’ll harp on this a bit later, but against South Alabama, a healthy UCLA program should be able to generate consistent push in the run game and solid pass protection. That did not come even close to happening.

Overall: B-

Really, excellent play by Thompson-Robinson and the receivers is what keeps this grade from tumbling further.

I alluded to this during the season preview for the offense, specifically on the offensive line, but UCLA’s depth is not super great. They have some obvious talent (Charbonnet, a few of the receivers) but the two-deep is lacking in ways that it should not in Year Five of a program. This is more noticeable on the defensive side, which has a lot of plug-and-play transfers that have not had great starts, but the poor talent acquisition job by this coaching staff is showing itself.

Defense

Overall: D

Just…ugh.

All three levels of the defense looked terrible in this game. The defensive line, which was supposed to be much improved this year, failed to generate any sort of pressure on Jaguars quarterback Carter Bradley, with only one QB hurry on the day. The lone tackle for a loss came on the bizarre fake field goal attempt, which is as good a time as any to pull that off. Maybe most concerning is that South Alabama was able to run for a sack-adjusted 5.2 yards per carry. The Jaguars running backs were routinely able to get 3-4 yards downfield before contact, indicative of a defensive line that struggled to hold up against the South Alabama offensive line. That’s extremely concerning going forward.

At linebacker, Darius Muasau has started to look out of his depth. The defensive system requires him to read the play, and more often than not Muasau’s reads end up taking him out of the play entirely. His stats suggest he was an impact player, but the tape says otherwise. JonJon Vaughns was the best of the linebackers, but found himself splitting time with Choe Bryant-Stother, who has potential but is very raw.

The secondary….I don’t know anymore. Part of this feels like a coaching issue, with the secondary back to giving up large cushions even on downs and distances that don’t make a ton of sense. On the flip side, boy did the corners look bad even when they were in the right spot. Devin Kirkwood played the best of the corners (weirdly enough, he’s also the one with the most talent) but even he struggled. Safety play was a bit better, but we’re getting dangerously close to Mo Osling reaching Quentin Lake territory as the safety being asked to paper over too many defensive issues.

Special Teams

Overall: A

Finally some positive news.

Nicholas Barr-Mira hit all four of his field goal attempts, including the game winner and a separate kick from 49 yards out. His lone punt also went 46 yards and landed inside the 20. Also important was the reaction by the coverage team to the fake field goal attempt; the group could have been left scrambling but reacted calmly and was able to sniff out exactly what South Alabama was trying to do, covering every single option.

Logan Loya looks very comfortable returning punts, which is a good sign. South Alabama continually kicked to Kazmeir Allen, which was an interesting choice but one they were able to cover well. Still, he’s liable to break one for a touchdown if teams continue to test him.

Advanced stats breakdown courtesy of Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC).

Coaching

Offensive Gameplan: B+

It was pointed out to me that I am often extremely critical of the offense in these Eye Tests while praising Chip Kelly as a brilliant offensive mind elsewhere. I understand and even agree with the statement, so I will start by giving out some flowers here. As currently designed, the offensive system that Chip Kelly uses is impressive. It’s so impressive that UCLA continues to have a top 20 offense according to SP+ despite clear talent deficiencies in various spots. Now, it’s hard to say how much of that rating is due to singular offensive efforts from Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Zach Charbonnet, but it is still an excellent system.

I also thought the gameplan itself was smart. I don’t know if UCLA recognized this during game prep or during the game, but the Bruins came out with a clear intent to pass the ball. Eight of the first 12 plays on UCLA’s two opening drives were designed pass plays, and that opened up the run game a bit more. Receiver was where UCLA did have a clear advantage against the Jaguars defense, so the Bruins really attacked that advantage early and often, which allowed them to play off that initial decision more as the game went on.

(That said, I will note this grade is focusing on the gameplan and playcalling. Not the execution. More on that in a bit.)

Defensive Gameplan: F

Meet the new defensive coordinator, same as the old defensive coordinator.

You may be forgiven if you thought that Jerry Azzinaro was still calling the defense in this game, but no, after three games this does appear to be new defensive coordinator Bill McGovern’s system. It’s a bare bones system aiming to keep everything in front and limiting big plays, pretty much your standard 4-3 NFL system. The problem with that system at the college level has always been one of talent. If you have a Georgia or an Alabama, then running an NFL-style system will be fine because you have the talent to make it work. If you are, say, UCLA and lack game-breaking talent at multiple positions, then you have more of a problem.

Most defenses when lacking high-end talent aim for creating as many havoc plays as possible. UCLA….does not really do that. Sure, they got two turnovers, but that was about it from a havoc standpoint. With the personnel they currently have, the Bruins should be trying to create as much pressure as possible, getting players like Muasau upfield in a hurry while using the athleticism of their secondary to play up on their man in coverage. If they get burned sometimes, that’s fine - your offense is more than capable of punching with most teams.

Ironically, this is the defensive system that worked best with Chip Kelly when he was at Oregon. Nick Aliotti schemed up a hyper-aggressive defense that tried to force as many turnovers and havoc plays as possible, knowing that the Oregon offense was already acting as a constant source of pressure. UCLA could utilitize this same system, but by hiring McGovern to essentially run a similar version of the defense that was failing the Bruins prior, it is clearly not something Kelly is interested in doing.

Overall: D

Back to that execution bit from the offensive preview. A lot of the issues with the offense boiled down to execution, but the failures in execution spoke less to the issue being the player and rather the rotations and coaching. The pitch that Keegan Jones misplayed, for example, looked like something he specifically had never practiced, though Thompson-Robinson looked perfectly fine on his end. In general, there always seems to be a disconnect between the playcalls being made and the personnel on the field for that play, and you would think after five years this would be fixed.

Defensively, it simply looks like too many guys don’t know what they’re doing at various times. Some of that is breaking old habits from the previous defensive coaching staff, but it barely looks like technique is being coached to many of the players(I am starting to question the continued employment of Brian Norwood now that we’re in the second year of poor secondary play).

And maybe that’s the big thing that I mentioned in the Random Thoughts article: if you’re finding yourself in a fight with South Alabama where both teams look evenly matched, then it’s very easy to look at the current program-building at UCLA as a failure. UCLA’s talent level has fallen pretty far from where it was at the start of the Chip Kelly era, and his strategy of bringing in a high number of transfer players does not look to be a winning one, or at least one that would bring a high level of success.

Anyway, this coaching staff should send Kane Wommack a fruit basket or something for that fake field goal call.

Vibes

Vibe check: Smelling fishy

Now my personal vibe check for last weekend was great because I have the power of foresight and could see this game being bad. Thus, I instead went to Las Vegas, where I proceeded to have a great time celebrating a friend’s birthday. Great decisions by me.

The vibes in the stadium and around the program, however, are quickly getting rancid.

Attendance took up a big part of my Tuesday notes article, but it bears repeating that UCLA has already logged in the two worst-attended games of the Rose Bowl era this season. And this is for a team that is currently on a six-game winning streak! It feels pretty obvious by now that the fanbase has given up on Chip Kelly as UCLA head coach, and why should they? The Bruins need last-second field goals to beat a Sun Belt team. Granted, that’s better than some other teams I know *cough* Texas A&M and Notre Dame *cough* but it’s still not good, and should be treated like the giant red flag that it is. This is especially true once you look around the conference and see most of the Pac-12 has improved. I don’t think the conference is strong now, but at the very least it is not the flopping mess that it was last year, which is a problem for a UCLA team that got pegged to nine wins in the preseason.

Suddenly, the fake extension Martin Jarmond signed this past offseason looks like a great deal. UCLA could not realistically fire Kelly after last year and essentially had to sign him to an extension. But the extension they got was a much better deal for the Bruins, as it made it much cheaper to let go of Kelly moving forward. Keep that in mind as the season progresses.

Final Composite

Offense grade: B- (2.7)

Defense grade: D (1.0)

Special Teams grade: A (4.0)

Coaching grade: D (1.0)

Vibe check: Smelling fishy

Final grade for South Alabama Jaguars: C (1.91)

A reminder of the previous grades:

Bowling Green Falcons: B- (2.76)

Alabama State Hornets: B+ (3.47)

---

UCLA plays Colorado this week, which might be the worst Power Five team in the country. It’s still a road game, but the Bruins should get to 4-0.

Then a much-improved Washington team comes to the Rose Bowl the following week. Enjoy this Colorado game while you can, because things are about to take a turn.

Go Bruins!

---

Thanks again for supporting The Mighty Bruin. Your paid subscriptions make this site possible. Questions, comments, story ideas, angry missives and more can be sent to @TheMightyBruin on Twitter.