UCLA Football Preview: Can the Bruin Offense Breakthrough Against Northwestern's Defense?
At this point, there's just no way to tell for sure.
Once again this week, the UCLA Bruins will face a 4-2-5 nickel base defense. That doesn’t seem to bode well for a Bruin offense which has struggled moving the ball all season so far.
To be fair, which is admittedly tough at this point, Northwestern’s defense is averaging a little more than 21 points per game, but 57 of the 64 points they have allowed came against Tulane and Oregon. They were successful at holding Western Illinois to just a touchdown.
Let’s look at Northwestern’s defensive personnel.
Defensive Line
The good news here is that the Wildcats don’t have much of a pass rush. Through three games, Northwestern has managed to sack opposing quarterbacks just three times. More telling is that none of those sacks came from the Edge rushers.
In fact, the two starting Edges haven’t done much so far. On one side will be redshirt junior Anto Saka. He has just two tackles so far this season. While he hasn’t gotten to the QB yet, he does have two quarterback hurries.
Redshirt junior Brendan Flakes will start at the other Edge and he hasn’t been much better than Saka. He’s made just three tackles this year and broken up a pass.
The defensive line does get better when you move inside to the tackles where you will find a pair of homegrown grad students. Both Carmine Bastone and Aidan Hubbard have made nine tackles each. Bastone has 1.5 TFLs and 1.5 sacks as well as a pass breakup. Hubbard has two TFLs and a sack to go along with two QB hurries. While Bastone was chosen to wear the #1 jersey this season, an honor given to the player who best represents what it means to be a Wildcat, both on and off the field, Hubbard has been named as one of 177 semifinalists for the Campbell Trophy which honors the best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.
Linebackers
The starting linebackers will be redshirt junior Braydon Brus and Mac Uihlein, who is another homegrown grad student. Uihlein is second on the team in tackles with 21 including two TFLs. Not only does Uihlein lead the team in interceptions with two, he is the only Wildcat to pick off a pass this season.
Meanwhile, Brus is fourth on the team in tackles with 12, and he has also broken up two passes.
Secondary
Moving to the secondary, Robert Fitzgerald will be one of the starting safeties. The redshirt junior, who is no relation to former Wildcat head coach Pat Fitzgerald, leads the team in tackles with 27. He also has half a TFL.
The other starting safety will be homegrown grad student Garner Wallace. Wallace is tied with Bastone, Hubbard and backup defensive back Yannis Karlaftis for fifth in tackles with nine. He’s also broken up one pass.
The starting corners will be grad transfer Fred Davis III and redshirt sophomore Josh Fusell. Davis joins the Wildcats from Jacksonville State. He also played at UCF in 2023 and at Clemson for his first three college seasons. He is third on the team in tackles with 13 and he’s second to Fusell in pass breakups with three. While Fusell has only made four tackles, he does lead the Wildcats with four pass breakups.
Finally, the starting nickel back will be redshirt junior Braden Turner. He’s made seven tackles including half a TFL this season.
Analysis
At this point, we know it’s going to be a long season.
The big question is: Will the Bruins be able to win a game at all? This week’s game will go a long way to answering that question.
The Northwestern defense looks like the best opportunity so far (and possibly for the entire season) for UCLA’s offense to perform at a high level. The Wildcats don’t appear to have much of a pass rush. So, Nico Iamaleava should have more time to throw than he has had all season. I don’t know if more time is necessarily going to make him any more accurate. One can hope, but hope is not a strategy.
The Wildcats have been allowing an average of 172 rushing yards per game and an average of 153 passing yards per game while the Bruins have averaged just 122 rushing yards per game and an average of 202 passing yards.
The bottom line here is that we’re three games into a lost season, and the head coach has been fired earlier in the season that at almost any time in UCLA history. The team is being led by an interim head coach and there is no way to know if thing will get any better this week.
As much as I love the Bruins, it’s hard to believe that anything will be much this week.
At least the game on Saturday should have a great view of Lake Michigan. That’s about the only thing we can count on for sure this week.
Go Bruins!
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It all comes down to o-line this week. Is ours going to be better or worse than theirs? The QB can't throw many completions when he's either running for his life or flat on his back...we'll see I guess.