An in-depth look at the UCLA Bruins

by Joel on Aug 29, 2008 6:50 AM EDT in Tennessee Volunteer Football Comment 3 comments

A quick look at UCLA for the sake of comparison to the same sort of look at Tennessee. Caveat emptor: stats are from last year. Depth chart is from the Game Notes, which of course is subject to UCLA's misfortune of losing QBs like Spinal Tap loses drummers.

Schedules

2007			2008
9/1	at	W 45-17	9/1	No. 18	L
9/8		W 27-17		Bye
9/15	at	L 44-6	9/13	at No. 16	L
9/22		W 44-31	9/20		?
9/29	at	W 40-14	9/27		?
10/6		L 20-6	10/4		W
10/13	Bye		10/11	at No. 21	L
10/20	No. 12	W 30-21	10/18		W
10/27	at	W 27-24	10/25	at	L
11/3	at	L 34-27	11/1	Bye
11/10	No. 9	L 24-20	11/8		?
11/17	Bye		11/15	at	L
11/24	No. 9	W 16-0	11/22	Bye
12/1	No. 8	L 24-7	11/28	at No. 15	L
12/22	No. 17	W 17-16	12/6	No. 3	L

Last year, UCLA went 8-5 with two bad losses and two good wins. This year, with a new offensive coaching staff and giving them the benefit of the doubt in what Bruins Nations earlier this summer termed toss-ups, my best guess is that the Bruins go 5-7 in the regular season.

Depth Chart (games/starts)

UCLA FOOTBALL DEPTH BY CLASS
TOTALS FOR PROJECTED STARTERS
Unit	Seniors	Juniors	Sophomores	Freshmen
OFFENSE	4	4	2	1
DEFENSE	5	4	1	1
SPECIAL	1	2	1	0
OFFENSE
Position	Seniors	Juniors	Sophomores	Freshmen
QB		Kevin Craft Osaar Rasshan		Chris Forcier Kevin Prince Nick Crissman
TB	Kahlil Bell	Chane Moline		Raymond Carter Aundre Dean
FB		Trevor Theriot	Tobi Umodu	Tyler Tuiasosopo
WR	Marcus Everett	Terrence Austin	Dominique Johnson	Taylor Embree Nelson Rosario Ryan Graves Antwon Moutra Jerry Johnson
TE	Logan Paulsen	Ryan Moya Adam Heater	Jeff Miller
LT		Micah Kia	Brandon Bennett	Brett Downey
LG		Nick Ekbatani Jess Ward	Darius Savage
C	Micah Reed		Jake Dean
RG	Scott Glicksberg		Sonny Tevaga	Austin Hill
RT				Nate Chandler Mike Harris
DEFENSE
Position	Seniors	Juniors	Sophomores	Freshmen
LE	Tom Blake		Reginald Stokes	Justin Edison
LT	Nathaniel Skaggs	Jerzy Siewierski	Brian Price
RT	Brigham Harwell Chase Moline		Andy Keane
RE		Korey Bosworth	David Carter	Datone Jones
SLB	John Hale	Chinonso Anyanwu		Akeem Ayers
MLB		Reggie Carter		Steve Sloan
WLB	Kyle Bosworth Joshua Edwards		Mike Schmitt	Sean Westgate
LCB	Michael Norris			Aaron Hester Andrew Abbott
RCB		Alterraun Verner		Courtney Viney Andrew Abbott
FS		Aaron Ware	Garrett Rubio	Glenn Love
SS				Rahim Moore Tony Dye E.J. Woods
SPECIAL TEAMS
Position	Seniors	Juniors	Sophomores	Freshmen
PR	Ryan Graves	Terrence Austin
KR		Terrence Austin		Raymond Carter
P	Aaron Perez		Danny Reese
PK			Kai Forbath	Jeff Locke
Projected starters in bold. Returning starts in italics. Numbers in parentheses are games/starts. Redshirt "X" is denoted simply as "X."

Key stats from last year

SOS	PED	RD	3DO	TD	PEO	OPPG	TO	3DD
16	32	14	104	29	115	92	99	3
SOS	PED	RD	3DO	TD	PEO	OPPG	TO	3DD
12	66	69	56	70	29	29	54	72

SOS (strength of schedule), PED (pass efficiency defense), RD (rush defense), 3DO (3rd down offense), TD (total defense), PEO (pass efficiency offense), OPPG (opponents' points per game), TO (total offense), 3DD (3rd down defense)

Observations

Tennessee has two more upperclassmen on offense.
UCLA's defense last year was very respectable in all of the right categories. It appears that eight (five, according to the Game Notes) of their 11 on defense were starters last year, too, so expect them to be good when we have the ball.
The Bruins' 2007 offense, though, was atrocious. Seven starters are back (four, according to the Game Notes), but the QB isn't one of them. He' fresh off a stint at Mt. San Antonio College after having spent two seasons at San Diego State.

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Comments

UCLA's defense will be good.

I expect them to be troublesome to Clawson’s offense, especially as the Vols face their first real live action under the new system. I don’t expect many turnovers, though; I believe the Clawfense is a little bit more of a ball control offense than a go-for-it-all offense, and I imagine he’ll play it safe in the first half and wait for second-half adjustments before really opening anything up.

I’m most curious about how aggressive Chavis will be. With the UCLA O-line brought to you by the Swiss Dairy Council and a QB sponsored by the makers of sodium pentathol, he could try to break their back (figuratively) early on. Or he could play a base scheme and let the talent/cohesiveness edge play out.

by hooper on Aug 29, 2008 9:02 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

With the UCLA O-line brought to you by the Swiss Dairy Council and a QB sponsored by the makers of sodium pentathol

Nice! Here’s hoping for the aggressive. Much more fun.

Go Vols!

by Joel on Aug 29, 2008 9:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think aggressive would work well.

I don’t think their O-line will be as bad as ESPN claims, but they won’t be reliable under a 5-man rush (or maybe even a 4-man rush). If it were me, I’d use a 4-5 man rush that’s intended first to neutralize the running game, then second to pound the QB. That would free the secondary up to play aggressively against a short-medium passing game because the deep pass will likely take too long to set up. And that means Morley/Berry time!

by hooper on Aug 29, 2008 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs