UCLA Football Preview: Hawai'i Defense is Led by Jamih Otis and Peter Manuma
While Otis led the defense last week, Manuma led the team in tackles last season.
Having already looked at the Hawai’i coaching staff and special teams, let’s take a look at the defense which quarterback Ethan Garbers and the Bruin offense will face on Saturday.
As I wrote the other day, the Rainbow Warriors have a new defensive coordinator in Dennis Thurman who comes to Hawai’i after spending last season as a defensive quality control coach for the Colorado Buffaloes. Thurman had followed Colorado head coach Deion Sanders from Jackson State when Sanders became head coach of the Buffs. Thurman’s defense at Jackson State was ranked in the FCS Top 10 in a dozen different categories. At Hawai’i, he has implemented a traditional nickel defense as the Rainbow Warriors base defense, featuring four defensive lineman, two linebackers and five defensive backs.
Last week, Delaware State ran just 63 offensive plays and ran the ball 54% of the time against Hawai’i. The Rainbow Warriors gave up 104 yards rushing while holding the Hornets to just 156 yards passing with Delaware State quarterback Marqui Adams completing 17 of 29 passing attempts. Those stats aren’t overly impressive, but the fact is that the Hornets are an FCS team playing against team from the Mountain West. So, you’d expect the Hornet offense to have struggled at least a little bit against an FBS team, even if it isn’t a school from a Power Four conference, and I think those stats reflect that to a degree.
That’s not meant as a knock on the Rainbow Warrior defense. It’s simply trying to keep things in perspective.
Of course, I do expect the Bruin offense bigger numbers across the board, and I won’t be a bit surprised if UCLA doubles Delaware State’s production both on the ground and through the air. Ultimately, I believe that UCLA’s final numbers should be the result of working out the kinks in Eric Bienemy’s new offense, which has been called “complicated.” Hopefully, the Bruins don’t have too much difficulty executing it, even if it calling the play is a mouthful.
Let’s take a look at the defensive starters for Hawai’i.
Defensive Line
The Rainbow Warriors will start two defensive tackles along with two defensive ends.
Defensive tackle Ezra Evaimalo is the lone senior on the Hawai’i defensive line. While he may be a senior, Evaimalo has only started five of the 28 games he’s played in including last week’s game against Delaware State. Last week, he had one solo tackle and one assist which was a TFL. Last season, he made a total of 23 tackles in ten games including 5.5 TFLs and 3.5 sacks.
Junior transfer Dion Washington will be playing in his second game at Hawai’i after playing his first three seasons at Nevada. Washington didn’t do a lot last week. He recorded just one assisted tackle against the Hornets.
Junior defensive end Tariq Jones will be starting just the second game of his collegiate career, though he did play in 12 games last season in a reserve role. He made one solo tackle last week against Delaware State. Last season, he made a total of 17 tackles including 4.5 TFLs along with two sacks.
Graduate transfer Elijah Robinson is playing his sixth season of college football. He played two seasons at Louisberg College before transferring to East Carolina for two more. Last year, he joined the Rainbow Warriors and he finished the season second among defensive linemen with 25 tackles and three sacks. Last week, he made four tackles including half of a TFL.
Linebackers
Sixth-year senior Nalu Emerson and sophomore Jamih Otis will be the starting linebackers for the Rainbow Warriors. Emerson had a breakthrough season last year. He made 28 tackles including one TFL and one sack after making just nine tackles in his first four years combined. Despite that, he made just one assisted tackle last week against Delaware State.
Otis looks to be the guy on the front six that UCLA will want to stay away from. That’s because he made a total of 11 tackles including 2.5 TFLs and one sack last week against the Hornets after making a total of eight tackles last year as a true freshman.
Secondary
Moving to the secondary, the Rainbow Warriors will have a pair of seniors as the starting corners. Transfer Cam Stone is in his second season with Hawai’i after playing his first three seasons at Wyoming. In 11 games last year, he made 24 tackles including 1.5 TFLs and intercepted one pass. Last week, he made four tackles including one TFL.
Caleb “C-Bo” Brown is beginning his second year at Hawai’i after playing at Butler Community College in Kansas. Last season, C-Bo made 17 tackles including two TFLs. He didn’t do a whole lot last week against the Hornets. He didn’t have any tackles, though he did deflect two passes.
After starting four games at safety as a true freshman in 2022, Matagi Thompson didn’t start any last season where he primarily played on special teams. This year, he’s starting again as the nickel back in Thurman’s defense. Last week, he made two tackles, meaning he has already surpassed his tackle total for all of last season when he only had one.
The Warriors will start two junior at the safety spots. Kilinahe Mendiola-Jensen began his collegiate career as a wide receiver at UNLV, but switched to corner as a sophomore before transferring to Hawai’i. He only played in three games last year due to a season-ending injury. Last week, he made four tackles in his return.
Last but not least is Peter Manuma who has made 22 consecutive starts at safety since entering the lineup in the fifth game of 2022 when he was a true freshman. Last year, Manuma led the team in tackles with 87 including 5.5 TFLs. Last week, he made four tackles against the Hornets.
Analysis
So, the two studs on the Hawai’i defense are Manuma, based on his team-leading 87 tackles last season, and Jamih Otis, who led the team last week with 11. They are clearly the two guys UCLA will want to stay away from. The third guy the Bruins may want to avoid is Justin Sinclair. Sinclair is a backup safety who is listed on the Hawai’i depth chart behind Mediola-Jensen. He made five tackles last week including one TFL.
Ultimately, though, I think this game should be more of an exercise about how well the Bruins understand Eric Bienemy’s offense, rather than one where they will be up against a particularly challenging defense.
Go Bruins!!!
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