UCLA Football Preview: Bowling Green's Defense Struggled to Stop the Run Last Season
The Falcons' poor rushing defense could lead to a big day for UCLA's Zach Charbonnet.
Today, we wrap up our preview of the Bowling Green Falcons with a look at the Falcon defense.
Most Bruin fans are very familiar how bad the UCLA defense was under Jerry Azzinaro. Last season, the Bruin defense averaged 388.2 yards allowed per game to opposing offenses. That ranked UCLA 73rd in the country.
By comparison, Bowling Green allowed an average of 374.1 yards per game which ranked the Falcons 60th in the nation.
But yards allowed isn’t the only story when it comes to defense.
Despite giving up that much offense, the Bruins only allowed an average of 26.8 points per game while Bowling Green actually gave up 30.7 points per game. Now that would seem to imply that the Falcons’ opponents may have benefitted from better starting field position due to poor special teams play, but it could also mean that Bowling Green just wasn’t as effective at keeping teams out of the end zone.
Even that still doesn’t tell the whole story about the Falcon defense.
Believe it or not, Bowling Green had one of the best pass defenses in the country last season. The Falcons were 9th in the nation in the fewest passing yards allowed per game last year with 186.2 yards allowed per game and they were 35th in the country in opponent completion percentage.
However, the Bowling Green rushing defense was absolutely awful. They were ranked 102nd in rushing yards allowed per game with 187.9 and they were ranked 120th in rushing touchdowns allowed per game with 2.5. Opponents seemed to prefer to run the ball down the Falcons’ throats. Bowling Green was 129th (second to last) in rushing attempts per game with 45.2 rushing attempts and they gave up and average of 4.2 yards per rush.
All of this would seem to play into Chip Kelly’s stubborn play calling. Expect Kelly to call Zach Charbonnet’s number early and often. Don’t be surprised if Charbonnet finishes the day with more than 200 yards rushing on Saturday. Of course, the unknown factor in the equation remains the state of the Bruin offensive line. As long as they can manage to open up the holes, Charbonnet will have a huge day. Hopefully, the coaching staff also gives Dorian Thompson-Robinson the green light to tuck it and go if his receivers are unable to get open in order to prevent him from forcing his passes.
Let’s look at the Bowling Green scheme and starters.
Defensive Formation
According to the Bowling Green depth chart, expect the Falcons to play a base 3-4 defense. Despite that, expect them to flex one of the linebackers up on the outside.
The depth chart lists a nose guard, a defensive tackle and a defensive end with four linebackers. In other words, it sounds similar to what the Bruins have run the past few years under Jerry Azzinaro.
Defensive Line
Junior nose guard Anthony Hawkins started seven games last season and played in 11. He finished the season with 32 tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss and 1.0 sack. His best game of the season came against Buffalo when he made 10 tackles including his only sack of the season.
Senior Walter Haire will start at the defensive tackle spot. Haire made 38 tackles including 8.5 TFLs and 4.5 sacks last season. His best game of the year last season came against Kent State when he had seven tackles.
Defensive end Karl Brooks is one of the Falcons’ team captains. The senior from Lansing, Michigan finished fifth in sacks in the MAC last year with 7.5. He also made 42 tackles including 12.5 TFLs.
Linebackers
The guy the Bruins need to watch out for on the Falcon defense is junior linebacker Darren Anders. Last season, the weakside backer led the Bowling Green defense in tackles with 124 including 9.5 TFLs and 3 sacks. Meanwhile, middle linebacker Brock Horne was second on the team in tackles with 90. This combination would seem to imply that the Falcons’ opponents tended to run the ball up the gut of the Bowling Green defense.
Junior Blaine Spires will get the start as the strongside backer while senior Bryce Brand will start at the fourth linebacker spot which will likely be a hybrid linebacker/rush end position on the right side.
Secondary
Moving to the secondary, the Falcons will start three seniors. Chris Bacon is the only newcomer to the starters in this group. He transferred to Bowling Green after playing his first four seasons at Georgia State. He will start at the boundary safety spot while the field safety will be Jordan Anderson. Anderson tied for the most interceptions on the team last season with three.
The third senior will right corner Devon Ferguson. Last year, Ferguson led the secondary with 68 tackles including eight TFLs and two sacks.
Over at the other corner, sophomore DeShawn Jones, Jr. will start. Now, don’t assume that just because Jones is a sophomore that DTR should focus throwing the ball his way because he’s the guy who tied Anderson for the most picks last year.
Analysis
It seems pretty obvious that Chip Kelly will look to ram the ball down the Falcons’ throats by using Zach Charbonnet as the workhorse this weekend. A year ago, he averaged 5.6 yards per carry against better competition. If it weren’t for the suspect offensive line, I’d expect him to improve on that average this weekend.
But even if the Falcons can take advantage of the Bruins’ line situation, I think Charbonnet should still be good for at least 200 yards on Saturday.
Now if Kelly sticks to his usual run first, throw second philosophy, it might keep the Bruins from putting up the most possible points. So, theoretically, covering the spread might be tough, even if winning the game is not.
Go Bruins!
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