UCLA Football: KLS becoming a “jack of all trades”

In the UCLA Football win over Oregon last Saturday there were a number of great plays made by both teams. Each squad had players take the opportunity to show off their athleticism and prowess as players. Sometimes though it isn’t about how dominant you are. Sometimes versatility is the name of the game.

There are a number of sayings in the game of football. “Availability is the best ability” or “Jack of all trades, master of none” get thrown around with hardly a second thought. In some instances you bring in a recruit as an athlete and you play him all over the field without a true defined position. Other times injuries and a need for depth force a player into a new role where he can show his versatility. The UCLA Football program was recently the latter.

Against the Oregon Ducks the Bruins sustained a couple of injuries to their linebacker group and were running out of bodies to play.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and the UCLA Football defensive staff grabbed their best option in red-shirt sophomore DE Keisean Lucier-South. Playing him in the WILL LB position, KLS returned to a group that he had been playing in when the Bruins were more of a 3-4 front.

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Not asked to drop into coverage too often the staff seemed to keep his assignments simple and attack down as run defender. It also helped that the Ducks were essentially a run-only offense due to their backup QB situation so KLS didn’t need to have a deep understanding of coverage responsibilities for this game.

It wasn’t something that the staff was completely unprepared for. As reported by Bruinreportonline.com the UCLA Football coaching staff experimented with the move early next week as a contingency plan.

Like I mentioned before, the LB position isn’t completely foreign to KLS who does have some experience as a 3-4 outside linebacker. It wasn’t a position he seemed well suited for though as he failed to make much of an impact standing up. He’s an above average athlete but I do worry about his ability to change direction as it pertains to man coverage if this move becomes permanent.

The Bruins were able to make this move because they’ve had received some good play from younger defensive linemen like Jaelan Phillips, Osa Odighizuwa, Chigozie Nnoruka and Marcus Moore.

Lucier-South brings length and size to a LB group that is going to have it’s hands full against an offense that can run at will on almost anyone in the PAC-12. But it might be his pure speed going forward and ability to bend the edge that make KLS a highly valuable defensive player. How best to utilize his gifts have been the issue.

Next: UCLA Football: Injury update from the Oregon game; Dickerson to have surgery

UCLA Football head coach Jim Mora is hoping to have LB Josh Woods back on the field for Saturday’s game against the Washington Huskies but if he’s unable to go for any reason look for KLS to have a bigger role as an off-ball LB against the deadly efficient Husky offense.