UCLA Football Preview: Bruin Offense Matches Up Well Against Arizona Defense
If UCLA can avoid putting the ball on the ground, they should be able to score frequently against the Wildcat defense.
Having looked at the coaching staff, special teams and offense of the Arizona Wildcats, our final preview of tomorrow night’s game will look at the Wildcats’ defense.
Under first-time defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen, Arizona will run a 4-2-5 defense similar to what many of the Bruins’ other opponents have run this season.
In this scheme, the defense will have a nose tackle, a defensive tackle, two defensive ends including one edge rusher that’s being called a Kat, which is an obvious wordplay on Wildcats.
Moving to the linebackers, Arizona will have a pair of inside backers and, then, in the secondary, we’ll see a boundary corner and boundary safety along with a field corner and field safety. Finally, there will be that Star safety/linebacker hybrid rather than using a traditional nickel back.
Unlike some of the Bruins’ other opponents, Arizona does not list more than 11 starters on the defensive side of the ball. So, there is no traditional nickel back listed. It doesn’t mean they might not use one. It just means that they haven’t included a nickel back in the list of defensive starters.
Now that we understand Arizona’s defensive scheme, let’s take a look at the Wildcat defensive personnel.
Defensive Line
The depth chart for the Arizona defensive line looks a little different than it did at the beginning of the season. The starting nose tackle is still junior Kyon Barrs. Barrs has made a respectable 30 tackles this season including 2.5 TFLs. The big difference on the line comes at the defensive tackle position which appears to be a work in progress even at this point in the season.
According to our friends at Arizona Desert Swarm, initially, Paris Shand and former Bruin Tia Savea were the co-starters. Well, Savea is injured and Shand has fallen to second on the depth chart behind freshman Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei, even though Shand has more tackles per game than Uiagalelei. In fact, Shand has more tackles than Savea and Uiagalelei have, combined. So, it’s not clear why the smaller guy is getting the start here.
Redshirt senior Jalen Harris will get the nod at defensive end. Harris has done a good job of creating havoc on his side of the ball. He has 38 tackles including four TFLs and a sack and a half. Harris has also broken up three passes and hurried the QB once.
Over at the Kat end will be Southern Cal transfer Hunter Echols. If Harris has created havoc on his side, Echols has really gotten the job done on his. He has 42 tackles this season including 7.5 TFLs and 4.5 sacks to go along with two pass breakups, two QB hurries, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
If I’m Chip Kelly, I would probably try to stay away from Echols’ side of the line of scrimmage based just on that stat line.
Linebackers
Arizona’s defense will be anchored by Mike linebacker Jerry Roberts. Roberts is the Wildcats’ leading tackler with 60 including a TFL. He also has a pass breakup, a QB hurry, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
Moving over to the Will linebacker, this is another position where the Arizona depth chart is very different from the start of the season. Freshman Jacob Manu will start at the Will spot. Manu wasn’t even listed on the three-deep depth chart at the start of the season. Despite that, he’s played in all nine games and he’s made 33 tackles including 2.5 TFLs.
Secondary
The Arizona secondary will have responsibilities much like the South Alabama Jaguars’ secondary had. Both the corners and the safeties will divide the responsibilities based on the position of each on the field. One corner and one safety will be the field corner and field safety, covering the wide side of the field. The other corner and safety will be the boundary corner and boundary safety, covering the short side of the field.
Junior Christian Roland-Wallace will start at the boundary corner. Roland-Wallace has made 45 tackles along with 6 pass breakups and a forced fumble. Senior Christian Young will start at the boundary safety. Young is third on the team in tackles with 55. He’s got 5.5 TFLs including half a sack and he has two pass breakups, a QB hurry and a fumble recovery.
The starting field corner will either be sophomore Treydan Stukes or freshman Ephesians Prysock. Stukes has the better stats with 27 tackles, one TFL, three pass breakups and an interception while Prysock only has 10 tackles and no other significant stats. The starting field safety will be junior Jaxen Turner. Turner is a defensive playmaker. He’s second on the team in tackles with 57 and he has a TFL, an interception, a pass breakup, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
Last but not least, look for Gunner Maldonado to start as the Wildcats’ Star. Maldonado is listed on the Arizona roster as a defensive back, rather than a linebacker. Maldonado has made 28 tackles, a QB hurry and a forced fumble.
Analysis
Looking at the Wildcats’ defensive stats, there is one stat which really stands out. Arizona has eight forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries. If Arizona wants to have a chance to win tomorrow night, they will need to force several takeaways on defense to keep the Bruins from scoring and to affect the momentum in the game.
That said, I don’t expect the Wildcat DBs to pick off any of DTR’s passes considering that they only have two interceptions on the entire season.
Beyond that, I like the way the UCLA offense matches up against the Wildcat defense. The Wildcats are giving up close to 220 yards rushing per game which is bound to go up against the Bruins since they are averaging just over 240 yards per game on the ground. They are also giving up pretty close to what UCLA is averaging in the passing game. Arizona’s passing yards allowed average is 254.33 yards per game while UCLA is throwing for an average of 266.11.
There are even similarites in touchdowns. Arizona has allowed 26 rushing touchdowns and 20 passing TDs while the Bruins have scored 26 and 21, respectively.
So, I think that, as long as UCLA can avoid putting the ball on the ground, the Bruin offense should pretty much be able to have their way with the Wildcat defense.
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.