UCLA Football Preview: Bruin Offense Should Wear Out NCCU Defense
UCLA Football Preview: Bruin Offense Should Wear Out NCCU Defense
The Eagle defense just won't be use to playing against Chip Kelly's offe
Having looked at the North Carolina Central coaching staff, special teams and offense, let’s finish this week’s UCLA football previews by looking at the Eagle defense. Based on the depth chart in the NCCU game notes, the Eagles will run a 4-2-5 defense.
I have to be honest. I’m not quite sure of what to make of the North Carolina Central defense. On one hand, the defense looks very stingy, but on the other, the teams they played make the defensive stats look like video game numbers.
So far, the NCCU defense is holding teams to an average of 18.5 points per game and they are giving up an average of 139.5 yards per game rushing and an average of 120 yards per game passing. The Eagles’ opponents have run the ball 62 times and they have just 40 pass attempts. That’s just 51 plays per game and, this North Campus major, will say that opposing teams have run the ball a little more than 60% of the time and thrown it 40%
By comparison, UCLA’s offense is more balanced than that. The Bruins have run 70 times and thrown 58. That’s 64 plays per game and it’s an average of 35 rushing attempts and 29 pass attempts per game, meaning the Bruins run the ball about 55% of the time and throw it about 45%.
UCLA has also averaged 280 passing yards per game and 203.5 rushing yards per game. So, I expect the Bruin offense to put a lot more stress on the Eagle defense, in general, and their pass coverage, more specifically, than they’ve dealt with to this point.
Let’s look at North Carolina Central’s defensive personnel.
Defensive Line
The guy I expect to play the game of his life tomorrow is sophomore defensive end Thomas Johnson. Johnson grew up here in Lawndale and played at Lawndale High School. I’m sure he played with and against a bunch of guys from UCLA that he will be up against tomorrow. Playing in the Rose Bowl will almost certainly be the thrill of this young man’s season.
The rest of the defensive line will be juniors. The other defensive end is redshirt junior Dontae Slocum while redshirt junior Jaden Taylor will start at defensive tackle and true junior Christian Smith gets the start at nose guard. Taylor is one of just four Eagles who have sacked the QB this season and he has five tackles total. Smith is right behind him with four tackles. Meanwhile, Slocum and Johnson have one each.
Linebackers
With four down linemen and five defensive backs, that leaves just two guys playing linebacker. Redshirt sophomore Max U’Ren starts in the middle and true sophomore Jayden Flaker will be the weakside backer. Flaker leads the Eagles in tackles with 13 including three TFLs and a sack. U’Ren has made three tackles.
Secondary
At a time when many teams are shifting to defenses similar to the one we saw last year from South Alabama, NCCU seems to be employing more of a traditional nickel with two corners, a free safety, a strong safety. The fifth DB is referred to as a Rover in the North Carolina Central depth chart. It’s certainly possible that he could be asked to fill that hybrid linebacker/DB role we’ve seen from other teams, but it’s not sure.
The secondary certainly has the most experience of any unit on this side of the ball with three seniors. Strong safety Manny Smith is a redshirt senior while free safety Khalil Baker is a true senior. The third senior is true senior JaJuan Hudson who will start at one of the corners.
The other corner will be sophomore Jason Chambers and the Rover will be junior Kole Jones.
Chambers leads the secondary with 10 tackles so far. What isn’t clear is whether he’s made that many tackles because opposing offenses have been picking on the fact that he’s the youngest of the group or if it’s because he’s the beast of the secondary. Smith’s experience is probably the reason he’s third on the team in tackles with six.
So far, Jones has made five tackles while Baker and Hudson have two each. Baker’s stats are a bit of a surprise, considering he was tied with Smith for the most tackles on the team last year.
Analysis
Let’s make no mistake. I do think that NCCU is a very good FCS team. They are ranked 17th in the FCS, after all. But I don’t think any defense can scale up in a week to properly prepare for Chip Kelly’s offense if they aren’t used to playing against teams which play a up-tempo offense.
Again, this isn’t to say that the Eagles don’t have a good defense. Last season, they averaged just under 204 passing yards per game, and that was without playing an FBS team. Through two games this season, they’ve reduced that average significantly.
But I just think that, in order to keep the Bruins off the scoreboard often, NCCU will need to generate turnovers and punts. The Eagles have not been particularly effective at turning the ball over. They have only one take-away so far this season. That was a fumble recovery and they have no interceptions. That said, their defense has been very effective on third down conversions. They have only allowed six on 23 attempts.
By comparison, UCLA has converted 12 of 23 third down opportunities offensively while the Bruin defense, which has been excellent, has allowed opponents to convert 13 of 33 third downs.
Of course, failed conversion attempts on third down lead to punts on fourth down.
Conversely, UCLA will be looking to continue converting on more than 50% of their third downs, or better yet, pick up a new set of downs on first or second down and not have to worry about converting on third down.
Ultimately, much like SDSU last week, I think NCCU will suffer from not having played a better schedule so far and UCLA should dominate offensively.
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 to @TheMightyBruin on Twitter.