UCLA Football Preview: Bruin Offense Will Face a Stingy Husky Defense
The Washington defense has been holding opponents to about half what the Huskies' offense has been producing.
While new Washington Huskies head coach Kalen DeBoer may not recruited any of his former players from Fresno State transfer to Washington with him, he did bring along his two co-defensive coordinators and the same defensive scheme that the Bulldogs employed last season.
That scheme is a 4-2-5 defense which uses four defensive linemen, two linebackers, the usual four cornerbacks and a hybrid DB/LB they call a “husky.” There’s no pun intended there. They used the same terminology with Fresno State last season.
Let’s look at the Washington starters.
Defensive Line
Unlike UCLA’s other opponents so far, Washington will play with four defensive linemen. Junior Tuli Letuligasenoa and sophomore Faatui Tuitele will be the starting defensive tackles. Tuitele hasn’t done much statistically yet this season. He has just two tackles including half a sack but he did recover two fumbles against Stanford. Letuligasenoa has contributed a little more. He has six tackles including one TFL and two pass breakups.
Senior Jeremiah Martin will start at one of the Edge positions. Martin has made 12 tackles including 2.5 TFLs and two sacks. He also forced a fumble last weekend against Stanford. Sophomore Bralen Trice is likely to get the start at the other Edge position. Trice has made the biggest impact this season of all the defensive linemen. He’s made 14 tackles including 7 TFLs and 4.5 sacks.
Zion Tupuola-Fetui will split time with Trice and could get the start instead. He’s had the second biggest impact of the defensive linemen. He has 8 tackles including 2.5 TFLs and 1.5 sacks. Tupuola-Fetui also has a forced fumble.
Linebackers
Sophomore Alphonzo Tuputala leads the team in tackles with 23. Of those, 4.5 have been TFLs including three sacks.
The other inside linebacker will be Cam Bright. Bright is third on the team in tackles behind Tuputala and safety Alex Cook. Bright is a grad transfer from Pitt who’s made 19 tackles in Washington’s first four games including 1.5 TFLs and 1.5 sacks (which are the same but just counted in each category).
Secondary
Speaking of Cook, let’s move on to the secondary. Cook will get the start at strong safety. With 22 tackles through just four games, the senior captain from Sacramento is almost halfway to the 46 he made last season. Two and a half of his tackles have been tackles for loss (TFLs).
The starting free safety will be Kamren Fabiculanan who grew up in nearby Camarillo and played at St. Bonaventure and Westlake High in Thousand Oaks. Against Michigan State two weeks ago, he made eight tackles which nearly matched the nine tackles he made in 2020 and 2021 combined. Overall, he has 16 tackles this season and is tied for the team lead in pass breakups with two.
Two more Californians will start at the corners for Washington. Senior transfer Jordan Perryman will look to return to the lineup this week after missing the last three games due to an injury. The UC Davis transfer had two tackles against Kent State. If he can’t go, expect to see Davon Banks get the start. Banks is another Californian in the Husky secondary. Banks has made nine tackles this season including three in each of the past two weeks. He also forced a fumble against Michigan State.
Junior Julius Irvin will start on the other side. He played his high school ball at Servite in Anaheim. While he has only made three tackles so far, he has also picked off a pass and is tied for the team lead in pass breakups with Fabiculanan and several others.
Last but not least, Dominique Hampton is the only player on Washington’s 2-Deep depth chart that isn’t from California. The junior “husky” came to UW from Centennial HS in Glendale, Arizona. Hampton is tied with Fabiculanan for fifth on the team in tackles with 16. That’s already more than halfway to his season total of 30 from last year. Hampton has also deflected two passes.
Analysis
When it comes to the Husky defense, the key ratio is one-half.
That’s because the defense has given up less than half the number of points the Huskies have scored. They’ve also given up just over half the rushing yards and just over half the passing yards.
In other words, through four games, Kalen DeBoer’s defense has been stingy while the offense has been exploding, and only two of their games were against cupcakes. The other two were against Michigan State and Stanford. While Stanford doesn’t look to be as good as it was during the Mora era, it still means that the Bruin offense will need to match the Huskies when it comes to getting the ball into the end zone and no one has been able to do that yet.
One area that seems open to attack is the Huskies’ “husky.” It seems as if the Washington defensive coordinators have adapted two defensive backs to play the “husky” role, unlike South Alabama which seemed to utilize the “husky” position as a bit more of a true hybrid between a linebacker and a DB. That may not be the case in the Huskies’ defense. If the Bruins can catch the “husky” cheating towards the pass, than UCLA can use their running backs to move the ball against Washington’s four-man front and two linebackers. But not having seen tape as to whether the Huskies’ defense does tend to cheat one way or the other.
It makes me nervous and it should make you nervous, too. Tomorrow night will be THE test of where the program is under Chip Kelly. If the Bruins get blown out, Martin Jarmond will need to start building his list of potential replacements because the schedule doesn’t get any easier until the last weekend of October.
Go Bruins!!!
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