UCLA Football Preview: ASU Likes to Run Inside the 20
The overwhelming majority of the Sun Devils' touchdowns have come on the ground.
So far this season, if the Sun Devils score 35 points or more, they have won. In their loss to BYU, they were held to just 17 points. As a result, the team whose defense proves tough enough to stymie their opponents is likely to win tonight’s game. If the Bruins allow ASU Jayden Daniels to get points on the scoreboard, tonight’s game could look a lot like UCLA’s last home game against Fresno State. But if the aggressive defense, as seen against LSU and Stanford, is back tonight, I expect a win by the Bruins.
That said, let’s look at the offense that UCLA will face tonight.
Quarterback
Jayden Daniels is a true dual-threat quarterback. Not only has he completed more than 72% of his passes, but he also leads the Sun Devils in rushing with 282 yards on the ground. He’s averaging almost 240 yards passing each game. So, he can hurt the Bruins with his arm or his feet. There is, however, one thing Daniels hasn’t done much of so far this season: throwing touchdown passes. Yes, that’s right. So far, he only has two TD passes this year.
As a result, look for ASU to go to the ground inside the red zone.
Running Game
In addition to Daniels, the Sun Devils have several backs to give the ball to. Of course, there’s Rachaad White, who is second on the team behind Daniels with 269 yards rushing. White also has six touchdowns. Redshirt freshman Daniyel Ngata is the third part of the team’s triple threat with 222 yards rushing and three scores. While DeaMonte Trayanum has two TDs, I don’t expect to see the sophomore tonight because he hasn’t played since the game against Southern Utah.
All told, six Sun Devils have run for touchdowns this season. Last week against Colorado, the Sun Devils even gave the ball to receiver Elijhah Badger for a touchdown.
Receiving Corps
When a team’s QB is their leading rusher, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that their leading receiver. That’s how versatile Rachaad White is. He currently leads the team with 20 catches for 187 yards. No other player has more than 13 receptions.
One of those guys is LV Bunkley-Shelton, who is one yard behind White for the team lead in receiving yards. Junior Ricky Pearsall is the other guy with 13 catches, but he only has 107 receiving yards.
None of these guys pose much of a deep threat, though. ASU’s two deeper threats are Curtis Hodges and Andre Johnson. These guys have the longest average yards per catch, but interestingly, neither one has a touchdown so far this season.
All of this means one thing: If the UCLA secondary insists on playing far off the ball today, the defense is going to get torched by Daniels.
Between ASU’s focus on the run as they get closer to the end zone and the team’s penchant for the short passing game, UCLA’s defensive backs need to be playing much shorter than they were against Fresno State.
Offensive Line
Let’s wrap this up by looking at the offensive line.
ASU starts graduate transfer Kellen Diesch at left tackle. Diesch joined the Sun Devils last year after playing at Texas A&M previously. LaDarius Henderson will play next to Diesch at guard. While Henderson made his first start at guard this season, he was the team’s starting left tackle for nine games in 2019. So, he has some starting experience.
At center, Dohnovan West is in his third year as a starter and he was named to the Outland Trophy preseason watch list this season.
Meanwhile, over at right guard, Henry Hattis is another second year grad transfer starting for ASU. Hattis came to Tempe from Stanford where he started six game in 2019 before getting hurt and missing the remainder of the season. Last, but not least is starting right tackle Ben Scott. Scott may be the weakest link on a rather strong offensive line since he has only started a total of seven games at the collegiate level.
Analysis
ASU looks to be a team that looks to use the run to open up the pass. Expect the team to use Daniels, White and Ngata to try to confuse the defense with misdirection and RPOs. Also look for Daniels to use the short passing game to keep the defense honest and not focusing primarily on the run.
But, make absolutely no mistake…when this team gets into the red zone, the Bruins need to get aggressive and stuff the run as the Sun Devils seem to have proven that that’s how they like to score.
Go Bruins!!!
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