Today, we wrap up this week’s UCLA football previews with a look at the UC Berkeley defense as well as the Bruins’ offense. If you missed yesterday’s look at the Bears’ offense and the Bruin defense, I mentioned that neither team published a depth chart this week in their game notes. So, I may have to make some educated assumptions as to who some of the starters might be. Take them with a grain of salt for that reason. Let’s start today by looking at the Bears’ defense.
One of the biggest questions whenever there are coaching changes is “What scheme will the opponent use?” Of course, when the new head coach of a team used to be a coordinator, it’s safe to assume that he will probably bring the same schemwe he used previously with him.
So, when looking at the Bears’ defense, it’s helpful to look to last season’s Oregon defense because new UC Berkeley head coach Tosh Lupoi was the Ducks’ defensive coordinator last year. With Oregon, Lupoi typically ran a 3-3-5 defense, though he also would sometimes swap in a DE/OLB hybrid for the fifth defensive back. If you consider that the Ducks played against Dean Kennedy’s offense in the first round of the CFP last year, we can get an even better idea as to what Lupoi will do tomorrow. Against JMU last year, Lupoi started a 3-3-5 not the 3-4 with the hybrid edge rusher. So, we should probably expect the same thing tomorrow night. Let’s explore the Bears’ defensive personnel.
Defensive Line
It looks like it may be a defensive line by committee tomorrow night. UC Berkeley lost their top three defensive linemen from last year. So, like so many other positions, it will be a combination of returners and transfers. As far as returners go, BJ Canady, Stanley Saole-McKenzie, and Derek Wilkins are the top guys who are coming back. Of them, Canady seems to be most likely to start while the other two will likely be reserves.
Among the transfers, only Jericho Johnson followed Lupoi from Oregon. He saw action in just nine games for the Ducks last season, making five tackles and breaking up one pass. While his stats aren’t impressive, he knows Lupoi’s system which should make it easier for him to make an impact. Ashun Shepphard arrives at UC Berkeley after spending the past two seasons at Mississippi State. Shepphard only played in two games last season, but played in 12 games in 2024. Jayden Williams is the Bears’ other incoming transfer. He joins UC Berkeley from North Texas.
Linebackers
It looks like UC Berkeley will be relying upon a pair of transfers as their starting inside linebackers. Redshirt sophomore Kamar Mothundi comes to Berkeley from Oregon, where he played in six games last season and made four tackles. The other transfer is redshirt freshman AJ Tuitele who attended Southern Cal. The Bears’ third transfer inside linebacker is Tristan Jernigan. The redshirt sophomore from Texas A&M will probably see plenty of playing time as well. Meanwhile, Aaron Hampton is the returning player most likely to see a lot of snaps.
Over at outside linebacker, Washington transfer Jayden Wayne is the probable starter, but he is fighting three SEC transfers for playing time. Redshirt sophomore Solomon Williams played at Texas A&M last year, while Emanuel Okoye, who is no relation to former Chiefs running back Christian Okoye, comes to Berkeley after playing at Tennessee last season. Missouri transfer Serigne Tounkara is the third SEC transfer outside linebacker.
Secondary
This may be the strongest unit on this side of the ball. The Bears have four returning defensive backs with two transfers figuring into the mix as well. It’s also the most experienced unit defensively.
The most likely scenario will see at least four senior starting. At the corners, look for a pair of senior transfers from the SEC to start. Those guys are Georgia transfer Daniel Harris and Ole Miss transfer Ricky Fletcher. Both of these corners are seniors.
One of the starting safeties is probably senior returner Isaiah Crosby who was limited to just four games last season due to injury while sophomore Aiden Manutai started 11 games last season.
With Tosh Lupoi coming from the Nick Saban coaching tree, it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Lupoi likes to call his nickelback the Star. Legend has it that when Saban worked with Bill Belichick in Cleveland, they would sub in the fifth DB for the Sam linebacker and Saban wanted to keep the S from Sam, and so, the Star was born.
As a result, it would make perfectly good sense to see redshirt senior Cam Sidney start at the Star since he played in 11 games last year and started eight.
Bruin Offense
Of course, Nico Iamaleava is back as UCLA’s starting quarterback. Hopefully, the new coaching staff along with Derek Carr have developed him into a better quarterback than he was last season.
Backing Nico up will be senior transfer Ty Dieffenbach, who could be called the player to be named later to complete the trade of former interim head coach Tim Skipper to Cal Poly. Of course, Nico’s brother Madden also returns
Moving to the backs, Jaivian Thomas returns after a lackluster season last year, which saw him rush for just 294 yards on 81 carries. Anthony Woods is back again too. Like Thomas, Woods also ran for 294 yards last season, though he did it on just 63 carries. Karson Cox is back, too. Last season, he played in just one game and ran for only nine yards.
There are two high-profile transfers joining the running backs room. Wayne Knight became the JMU Duke I am most hopeful about after his performance in the Sun Belt Championship Game where he ran for a career-high 211 yards on 21 carries. When I saw him play in that game, I immediately knew I wanted him in powder blue this year. The other transfer running back on UCLA’s roster is Iowa State transfer Dylan Lee. Lee ran for 117 yards on 25 carries for the Cyclones last year.
Sophomore Noah Fox-Flores is UCLA’s only tight end returning from last season. He has been joined by JMU transfer Josh Phifer and Wake Forest transfer Harry Lodge.
The only starting receiver returning this season is Mikey Matthews. He will be joined by a large group of transfers including Leland Smith, who comes from San Jose State; Aidan Mizell, a senior who played at Florida last season; former South Carolina Gamecock Brian Rowe, Jr.; Michigan transfer Semaj Morgan; Landon Ellis, who followed Coach Chesney from JMU; and Marcus Harris, who played at Washington last year. Bruin fans should expect some of these guys to make their UCLA debut as returners on special teams.
Speaking of special teams, “Money Bags” Mateen Bhaghani is back after flirting briefly with the transfer portal.
UCLA will have a new starting punter this year. Either Oklahoma transfer Chase Barry or Aussie Curtis Gerrand, who transferred from Sam Houston should be the new starting punter.
But, I digress from our discussion of the Bruin offense.
The Bruin offensive line was pretty much trash last season, and this could be UCLA’s biggest challenge this year. Starting center Sam Yoon is back as is guard Eugene Brooks. Returning guard Julian Armella is competing for reps against Arizona State transfer Sean Na’a and JMU transfers Riley Robell and Carter Sweazie. Junior Jensen Somerville should be one of the starting tackles while transfers Jordan Davis, Mack Indestad, Hall Schmidt and Derek Osman could all see playing time.
Outlook
Of course, line wins games, and this year will be no exception. The Bruins will need to control the line of scrimmage in order to be successful on offense. We all saw last year what happens when the offensive line cannot do that. So, the development of the offensive line will likely determine how well the Bruins play both tomorrow and this season. The performance of the line will determine how much Nico has to scramble as well as how well Knight, Woods and Lee are able to run the ball.
As far as tomorrow goes, a work-in-progress offensive line should do ok if not better against a UC Berkeley front six that also has a lot of question marks.
But, it’s the performance of the UCLA offensive line which will determine if the Bruins score more or less than 20 points tomorrow night against an inexperienced UC Berkeley defense.
Go Bruins!!!
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