UCLA Football Preview: Bruin Defense Needs to Apply Pressure to Stop the Hawai'i Run and Shoot
UCLA Football Preview: Bruin Defense Needs to Apply Pressure to Stop the Hawai'i Run and Shoot
Brayden Schager has the potential to turn this game into a shootout.
Wow. Tomorrow is game day already. My how time flies!
Since that’s the case, let’s get right to business, and today’s business is to look at the Rainbow Warrior offense which the UCLA defense will be up against tomorrow afternoon.
When Timmy Chang played quarterback at Hawai’i, his head coach was June Jones. Jones has long been a proponent of the Run and Shoot offense, which was popularized by Mouse Davis, who was Jones’ head coach when Jones played for Portland State.
Coincidentally, Davis was an assistant on Jones’ staff at Hawai’i during Chang’s senior year.
So, this explains why Chang is also a proponent of the Run and Shoot.
In the Run and Shoot offense, the offensive team uses its receivers to determine whether the defense is utilizing zone coverage or man-to-man coverage and it relies on the quarterback reading the coverage to know which route certain receivers will run because it looks to exploit the weakness in the coverage.
Here’s a video of June Jones explaining the Run and Shoot from when he was the head coach at SMU:
When Nick Rolovich, another member of the Mouse Davis-June Jones coaching tree, was the head coach at Hawai’i, this video was recorded also explaining this offense. Coincidentally, Rolovich took over as the quarterback of the Rainbow Warriors after Chang graduated. So, it’s funny that after Hawai’i let go of Todd Graham, Rolovich’s replacement as head coach, that Chang was hired.
Now that we have a better understanding of what to look for from the Hawai’i offense tomorrow, let’s delve into the team’s offensive personnel.
Quarterback
Senior Brayden Schager will start at quarterback for the Rainbow Warriors. Not only was Schager Hawai’i’s starting quarterback for every game last season, he has started 23 of the team’s last 26 games over the past two seasons. Last year, he completed 332 of 525 passing attempts (63.2%) and he threw for 3,542 yards as well as 26 touchdowns. That ranked him 23th nationally in passing yards, 15th in passing TDs, and 6th in completions per game (25.5).
It seems hard to believe, but Schager actually improved his total passing yards last season by more than 50% over the year before when he threw for 2,348 yards. He also threw twice as many touchdowns last year than he threw the year before. Meanwhile, he improved his completion percentage from 55.5% two years ago to 63.2% last year.
So, don’t let last week’s stat line for Schager fool you. Yeah, he was only 17 of 34 for 203 yards with two touchdowns against the Hornets, but it shouldn’t be taken as an indication that Schager is a mediocre quarterback.
The bottom line here is this: Schager is an experienced quarterback who has developed over his time under Chang, and that makes him potentially dangerous.
Running Game
Considering that the Run and Shoot tries to exploit the defense’s weaknesses with a vertical passing attack, the running game is almost always an afterthought in this offense.
This is an area where the Run and Shoot differs from the Spread offense, which relies upon the running game to spread the width of the field, allowing the offense to attack both vertically and horizontally.
Look for Hawai’i to use the running game sparingly as a way to keep the defense honest.
The Rainbow Warriors starting running back will be junior Landon Sims. Sims started just five games last season and only carried 63 times for 255 yards. Last week, he carried ten times for 58 yards.
Overall, Hawai’i ran the ball 27 times last week, but ten of those carries belonged to Schager. It’s hard to know if those were designed quarterback runs or if something broke down and forced Schager to run for his life.
This much is clear: When you subtract those QB runs, Hawai’i threw the ball twice as often as they ran it.
You just aren’t going to see Hawai’i running the ball the way UCLA did over the past few years.
Receivers
The Run and Shoot will utilize four wide receivers. As Jones explained, sometimes, they will lineup two receivers per side while others they will go to trips on one side or the other. While they could use motion as a way of determining the coverage in the secondary, don’t expect to see it used for that purpose.
One thing is for sure: there are no tight ends in this offensive system.
The dean of the Hawai’i receivers is senior Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala, who is the older brother of UCLA’s Titus Mokiao-Atimalala. Last week, he had two receptions for 19 yards and 11 yards, respectively. The 11-yard reception went for a touchdown. Last season wasn’t the best for him. He made just four catches all year and he has already surpassed his yardage for all of last season after just one game. He will be the Y receiver for the Rainbow Warriors.
Junior Dekel Crowdus should start as the team’s Z receiver. Crowdus joins Hawai’i this season after spending the last three seasons at Kentucky. Last week, he made three receptions for 49 yards and a touchdown.
Last year, sophomore Alex Perry pulled in 24 catches for 277 yards and three touchdowns. Against Delaware State, he made two receptions for just 14 yards. Perry will start as the X receiver for Hawai’i.
Finally, there’s sophomore Pofele Ashlock who will start as the team’s H receiver. A year ago, Ashlock led the team in both receptions with 83 and receiving yards with 832. His nine touchdowns were third on the team. Last week, he caught five balls for 81 yards against the Hornets.
Offensive Line
With Hawai’i throwing the ball so much, Schrager will need to rely on his offensive line to protect him. That’s why it’s interesting to see that the starters on the Hawai’i offensive line are all upperclassmen.
The anchor of the offensive line is Sergio Muasau, who is the brother of former Bruin Darius Muasau. Last year, Sergio started all 13 games at left guard, but center isn’t a new position for him. In 2022, he started five games at center.
Next to Muasau will be starting left guard Zhen Sotelo and right guard Kuao Peihopa. Both guards are juniors. Sotelo started his first game last week after playing 12 games last season in a backup role and on special teams. Like Muasau, Peihopa started every game last year.
Junior Ka‘ena DeCambra will start at left tackle. He played in all 13 games last year and started in 11 of them. On the other side, senior Luke Felix-Fualalo also played in all 13 games last year and, like DeCambra, he started 11 of them as well.
So, the bottom line here is that the offensive line for Hawai’i has plenty of experience with a total of 44 starts last year and only one guy who didn’t start any games last season.
Analysis
If there’s any aspect to Hawai’i which could seem scary, the offense is it. They return a seasoned quarterback who has made a big jump from his sophomore year to junior season. They also have an experienced offensive line to protect that quarterback.
All last season, I kept waiting to see the secondary crack against a team which threw the ball effectively. Thankfully, the pressure coming from the defensive line and linebackers prevented that for much of the season. I’m not sure that the same thing will happen this year because the Bruins are replacing some key starters among the line and the linebackers.
If the Bruins can continue to deploy an effective pass rush, it could prevent Schager from picking apart the pass coverage using the Run and Shoot. But if UCLA cannot disrupt Schager from getting the ball to his receivers, this game could become…well…a shootout.
Go Bruins!!!
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