UCLA Football: Re-Examining UCLA’s DB Depth

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In case you’ve forgotten (and we hope you haven’t), UCLA’s depth in the secondary is pretty thin. With the departures of Dietrich Riley and Tevin McDonald (both thought to be the anchors of the defensive backfield), the Bruins will rely rather heavily on young and/or unproven talent. Add this to the fact that the Bruins also lost true freshman Johnny Johnson – a four-star defensive back out of high school – to injury and it’s all a recipe for a rough season in the secondary.

But this unit, depleted though it may be, is still pretty talented, at least based off what we’ve heard this offseason. While spring and fall camps rarely are directly translatable to full-fledged games, they give us insight as to what these teams could look like on Saturdays.

With that, let’s first list what the depth chart looks like, loosely-based off of Rivals’ depth chart (our projected starters in bold):

CB1: Ishmael Adams, Fabian Moreau

CB2: Priest Willis, Brandon Sermons

Safety 1: Anthony Jefferson, Randall Goforth

Safety 2: Tahaan Goodman, Tyler Foreman

First things first: Ishmael Adams and Anthony Jefferson are clear starters at this point, according to various scouting reports across the internet. Adams has had a few fierce encounters with the team’s No. 1 receiver in Shaq Evans (who proved to be the team’s best wide-out in 2012), and to our knowledge, he’s done a damn good job of trading blows. Anthony Jefferson started the offseason with a massive entrance, too, with beat writers raving about Jefferson, whose career has been riddled by injuries up to this point. In essence, the two are locks to start.

Everywhere else? It’s a mystery.

Yahoo!’s Rivals database has Fabian Moreau starting currently, but there’s no indication that the depth chart factors in current performance. It might, and from what we’ve heard (again, from online reports), Moreau has done OK. Willis, though, was the prize of the 2013 recruiting class (at Signing Day, at least; Vanderdoes’s arrival at UCLA changed that), and he’ll likely get a ton of playing time this season due to the Bruins’ depth issues.

The same can be said for Tahaan Goodman, a close friend of Priest Willis who signed with the Bruins as a package deal of sorts. Goodman could upend Goforth in the safety rotation, but again, this is speculation. Goforth proved to be competent last season and has shown some progress this offseason. At the same time, to some, it’s clear that Goodman is the more talented of the two, and if Goforth is tabbed the starter, it’s because he has the experience.

That leaves Tyler Foreman, another highly-touted true freshman slated to play safety. No depth charts currently have him starting and we can’t seem to find much material written on him (although you might want to blame us for our lack of diligence; WE WON’T APOLOGIZE!). That said, this could be for a host of reasons, be they performance-oriented or not.

Thus, this is the crew that’ll be taking care of secondary duties this season. Barring any injuries (knock on every piece of wood around you please), this group has potential to grow and learn well on the job.

Or it could all go horribly wrong, and as a result, the development of each of these players goes straight down the toilet.

We’ll find out on August 31.