The 2022 UCLA Football Preview Part 2: Starting Over on Defense

The Bruins see a ton of change on the defensive side of the ball.

Stephan Blaylock will look to build on a solid 2021 season. (Photo Credit: Scott Chandler/uclabruins.com)

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Welcome to Part 2 of our 2022 UCLA Bruins football season preview. We’re now going to take a look at the defense and special teams, which have seen a lot of turnover this year for both the coaching staff and the players.

Coaching Staff

The defensive coaching staff received a major overhaul this past offseason. Bruin fans no longer have to deal with defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro. Positional coaches Don Pellum, Johnny Nansen, and Jason Kaufusi have also left the program. Azzinaro resigned from the position in January while Pellum retired back in February. Nansen was hired last December to become the new defensive coordinator at Arizona, and would subsequently bring Kaufusi with him to coach linebackers. Of the losses, the departures of Nansen and Kaufusi could be seen as the only big ones as the pair are both solid recruiters.

That said, it’s hard not to see this new coaching staff as an upgrade. Ikaika Malloe comes over from Washington to be the new outside linebackers and special teams coach, while Chad Kauha’aha’a comes in as the new defensive line coach. Perhaps most intriguingly, the prodigal son has finally returned. UCLA great Ken Norton, Jr. joined the staff in March as the inside linebackers coach. All three are excellent positional coaches, but I can’t help but be giddy over the idea of Norton Jr. finally back roaming the sidelines of the Rose Bowl in blue and gold.

The big change is at defensive coordinator, where Chip Kelly tabbed Bill McGovern as the new man in charge. It’s an interesting choice. McGovern only has three years of coordinator experience when he was in charge of Boston College from 2009-2012 and most of his past decade was spent in the NFL, bouncing between the Eagles, Giants, and Bears. It’s that Eagles stint that gives McGovern his Kelly connection, as he was hired when Kelly took over in Philadelphia. It’s a similar resume to Azzinaro without as much college experience, which feels like a major red flag.

As far as what defense McGovern will run, reports from spring practices and this fall have stated that McGovern’s scheme is not too different from the base defense Azzinaro was running, but with the striker position removed in favor of four linemen and two linebackers. A lot of the changes appear to be coverage-based, which may help fix some of the issues that were plaguing the secondary these past few years, but a lot of it remains to be seen.

And, not to be remiss, the lone holdover from last year remains Brian Norwood, who retains all of his titles of assistant head coach and passing game coordinator, on top of his positional responsibilities as defensive backs coach.

Defensive Line

The defensive line saw a ton of attrition from last year, with key contributors Otito Ogbonnia, Odua Isibor, and Datona Jackson all gone. The Bruins hit the transfer portal hard here and came back with some keepers, chief among them the Murphy twins. Grayson and Gabriel were at North Texas last year and quickly showed they were too talented to remain at the lower FBS level. At UCLA, they’ll slot in as a rotating pair of destruction at defensive end, hopefully providing UCLA with the kind of pass-rushing ability the Bruins have been missing for a few years.

In the middle, we’ll likely see some more new transfers playing major snap counts. Harvard-transfer Jacob Sykes will likely get the starting nod at one spot, with the returning Martin Andrus taking over at the nose. That said, I expect to see a lot of Jay Toia this year as well, giving this group three solid to exceptional players to rotate among. I also would not be surprised to see Washington transfer Laiatu Latu get some run here if he proves up to the task.

At the other end spot, UCLA is going for more of a rush end/linebacker hybrid. At the moment, this looks like the spot where Carl Jones will be plugging in, which I’m sure is exciting for UCLA fans who spent a good amount of last season wondering why Jones was having trouble seeing the field consistently despite being one of UCLA’s better players. Also slotting in here appears to be Bo Calvert, using his super-senior season and moving closer to the line, which feels like a good spot to utilize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses.

Depth-wise, there’s some intriguing options. Duke transfer Gary Smith could see some run on the interior, and it will be interesting to see if former commit and Notre Dame transfer Devin Aupiu finds an early role on the outside or if they spend a year developing him before unleashing him in 2023. I would also watch for Hayden Harris, who impressed reporters during the spring.

Linebackers

This is an interesting position because UCLA is seemingly cutting back on how many true linebackers will be on the field at once. A few of them (Jones, Calvert) are being moved up to a hybrid role on the defensive line. So, the Bruins will typically only run two linebackers when in their common nickel formation. There’s been some losses in the depth chart with a few major contributors like Caleb Johnson and Mitchell Agude transferring out (both players ended up in Miami). Ale Kaho, the former Alabama transfer who looked solid last season, is dealing with an injury that could keep him out for the year and Damien Sellers, the former four-star recruit who was occupying one of the starting linebacker spots in the spring, is not currently on the roster, though coach Chip Kelly did state he is still part of the team.

To throw more bad news on the pile, one of the presumed starters Kain Medrano has been out most of fall practice with an injury, and his status for the home opener is up in the air. When healthy, Medrano has shown to be an instinctive coverage linebacker who isn’t afraid to get physical. So, his loss could hurt. The good news is Choe Bryant-Strother has spent a lot of time filling in for him with the first-string defense and has looked more than capable of filling in. Behind him, we could also see a good amount of two-sport athlete JonJon Vaughns as the main backup.

Middle linebacker has been a solved problem since January. That’s when Darius Muasau officially transferred in from Hawaii. He was a force at Hawaii, leading that team in tackles en route to being first-team All-Defense in the Mountain West. Muasau came in during spring practices and immediately slotted in to the first string at middle linebacker and he has quickly become a leader on the field. Kaho and Jeremiah Trojan are the likely backups here, but with both dealing with injuries currently, we could see some early action for incoming freshman Jalen Woods.

Secondary

Two stalwarts of the UCLA defense in recent years are gone with Qwuantrezz Knight and Quentin Lake both off to the NFL. A third major contributor, cornerback Jay Shaw, transferred to Wisconsin, which makes sense considering how the coaching staff loved to mess around with their best coverage corner.

UCLA does still return some solid talent in the backfield. Cornerback Devin Kirkwood came in with plenty of hype last year and mostly delivered, offering solid play while growing into the role, and he looks poised to take on more of a leadership position this year. At safety, the Bruins are returning multi-year starter Stephen Blaylock, who had perhaps his most consistent year in 2021. Joining him in an expanded role is Mo Osling III, who played a large amount last year and should provide a close approximation of what Lake brought last year.

The last full-time starting spot in the secondary should go to Wyoming transfer Azizi Hearn. Hearn should provide solid play at the opposite cornerback position, though I would hesitate to call him a perfect Shaw replacement.

Beyond the starting group, UCLA is pretty thin. I think it’s likely we will see a good amount of both John Humphrey and Kenny Churchwell when UCLA goes into a nickel formation, as they’re the next-best options at those spots. Jaylin Davies, the transfer from Oregon, may see the field at times this year as well. In the safeties, it would not be shocking to see incoming freshman Kamari Ramsey break into the rotation, especially as UCLA has a lot of unproven talent backing up the two starters. We could see more of Isaiah Newcombe, the former four-star from the 2021 class, this year as well.

Special Teams

Not a huge amount of change here. Nicholas Barr-Mira will handle placekicking again this year and he may be in line to add punting to his duties, at least early on, due to Luke Akers’ transfer to Northwestern. The Bruins did bring in a new punter in Chase Berry, who is rated as a 5-star in Chris Sailer’s punting rankings, but he’s looked shaky this fall, so the Bruins may give him time to adjust.

On return duty, it looks like kickoffs will again go to Kazmeir Allen. Allen really developed into a weapon in the return game, averaging 30 yards a return and getting a momentum-swinging touchdown against Southern Cal last year. Punt returning duty is a bit more up in the air. From practice reports, it looks like Jake Bobo will get first crack at it, but Allen, Kam Brown, and Logan Loya have been rotating in as well. It would not surprise me to see Brown or Loya take over the role as the season progresses, as they have a bit more ability to make a big play in the return game, while Bobo is more of a safe option.

Tomorrow, we’ll get to the game predictions.


Go Bruins!

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