Continuing my series of how I believe the UCLA Football defense will look and function in 2017, we move onto the linebacking corps.
With graduation, and the NFL draft, this UCLA Football team will lose 153 total tackles from it’s linebacking corps. That’s a hefty number no matter how you look at it. However closer inspection shows us that 119 of those tackles belong to NFL Draft prospect Jayon Brown.
So while the Bruins will have to replace four contributors among that group, only Brown was a consistent starter. Good news is that the Bruins have a logjam of very talented linebackers on the roster.
The bad news is almost all of them are inexperienced.
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Who’s Gone: Jayon Brown, Deon Hollins, Isaako Savaiinaea, Cameron Judge
Who’s New: Rahyme Johnson, Mique Juarez
BreakDown:
If I had to say where the weakness of this defense is I would have to say it is the linebacking corps. Now this isn’t to say this is a weak unit. The Bruins have a such a stack of talented backers that it makes my mouth drool. They are however for the most part, green.
We could have made the same argument for the defensive line given they lost three out of four starters. However the defensive line returns a number of guys who rotated in last season and will also get a major lift from one of the best defensive talents in the country in Jaelan Phillips.
To find the leader of this group look no further than Kenny Young who should take over in the middle. Young has plenty of starts under his belt from the past two seasons but now will have to be “the” guy after Brown occupied that role the past two seasons. Built like a prototypical MLB, Young has improved his game and I thought the light came on for him midway through the 2016 season. He will need to carry that over into 2017.
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Flanking him on one side will likely be Josh Woods. Woods has developed both physically and mentally during his time. In his snaps last season Woods racked up 26 tackles on the year in six starts and seeing time in 11 games. He’s athletic enough to stick with TE’s and RB’s out of the backfield and is aware in zone coverage underneath. But he isn’t just a coverage LB. Woods has the take on strength to stone and defeat linemen and is more than willing to stick his nose into the trash. He’s my mancrush at the LB position this year.
On the other side the Bruins could see a surprise player emerge after a position change. Dechaun Holiday came in as a very highly regarded player but has really struggled to see playing time in his college career. He’s up to around 225lbs and is still an athlete.
Now I’m of the opinion that just because a guy is a great athlete that doesn’t mean he’s a great football player. Holiday brings a lot of potential to the table. As a former safety we know he has the ability to cover in ways that are rare for linebackers. He can match up with the type of athletic TE’s that are so prevalent in today’s offenses. However there are plenty of questions too.
How will he handle taking on blocks and shedding them? Can he be physical enough at the point of attack? How will he fare reading his keys and attacking down hill? For the sake of this group he will need to answer those in resounding fashion. From all accounts he has looked good in his move during Spring practice.
How the LB Depth Shakes Up
Like I said before the Bruins have tons of functional, athletic, and talented depth but that depth is short on experience.
UCLA only brought in one linebacker in this recruiting class and although he is filled with promise I expect Rahyme Johnson to redshirt this year.
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Krys Barnes, Breland Brandt, and Lokeni Toailoa make up the depth at OLB, OLB and MLB respectively. I honestly have a hard time seeing how UCLA is able to keep them from seeing the field. Toailoa has demonstrated an underrated ability to cover ground and is a major weapon for Tom Bradley’s defense.
Barnes is a an athletic marvel. When he sees it he flat out goes and gets there with intention to do harm. He played in the middle of the defense a ton in high school but has the it factor that would allow him to move to any one of the three positions and in my opinion would thrive as a 3-4 OLB.
Brandt played all over the defense in high school from DL to LB and even FS. His best chance to see the field might be on third down or obvious passing downs although if he continues to carry his solid spring into fall camp, he may push for more playing time.
Toailoa has been impressive from all accounts especially since many had pegged him as a potential thumper and not a guy you’d like to throw out in coverage. However he’s been able to demonstrate he’s not just a two down guy. He’s gonna press Young for time on that defense and will be a really solid rotational player this year barring any injury.
I included Mique in the “who’s new” group because well, he didn’t play last year. After an interesting spring Juarez was seemingly gone from the program. This year he’s returned and looks like he has every intention of playing. He’s also added a bit of weight (putting it kindly) and will need to reshape his body over the next few months to get back to the player he was. A standout freshman year would likely have pushed him into a starting role or even the two deep but right now he’s having a hard time staying in the second group.
A surprising name to add the linebacking corps is Brandon Burton who has been working at LB during spring practice. Reports are positive on the move and he’s a guy that could move down into the box and give the Bruins a little more flexibility defensively a la Holiday.
This group could be crazy good or could see a regression with so many green guys on the field. My money is on pretty darn good.
Next: UCLA Football: Survival of the Defense-Defensive Line
Tune in next time where I’ll be breaking down the defensive backfield and how a surprise transfer out of the program will shake things up.