Know Your Opponent: UCLA Football vs. ASU 2017
ASU Defense
Todd Graham likes him some blitzing. That’s no secret to anyone who’s watched ASU in the past. 2017 is giving us a different ASU defense and so far it’s proving to be more effective. Last season the Sun Devils finished 128 out of 128 in terms of passing defenses. They surrendered 33 scores through the air. Although there are three games remaining it seems highly unlikely the Sun Devils will give up 15 more scores to equal that total.
While new defensive coordinator Phil Bennett slowly brings the Sun Devils along, he’s also introducing what feels like a foreign concept to ASU. Getting home with just four guys. You can do that kind of stuff when you have the players they do up front.
Jojo Wicker might have trouble finding a scheme fit in the NFL but he’s a nightmare for college offensive lines. Big and strong enough to over power interior offensive linemen and athletic enough to dip around tackles, Wicker commands extra attention. Tashon Smallwood isn’t built in your typical DT fashion but that’s hasn’t stopped him from clogging up with middle of this defense for what feels like 10 years. On the other side George Lea has come a solid player often taking advantage of the one on one opportunities he see’s because of the attention the other two demand.
DJ Calhoun is a missile of a tackler. Not the biggest guy you’ve ever seen, he wins with anticipation and pre-snap recognition. He’s sticky enough in coverage but makes a living as a downhill run stuffer shooting through gaps. He isn’t alone in the two LB sets that ASU runs either. Christian Sam is rounding back into his 2015 form as a tackle for loss machine with 6.5 TFL and 95 total tackles on the season so far. The two of them form one of the more active LB groups in the PAC-12.
The backend of this defense is still a little bit of a work in progress. Opposing QBs are completing almost 61% against the Sun Devils and will face a UCLA Football QB who so far in 2017 is completing over 63% of his throws. They haven’t been hung out to dry with the defense not blitzing as much but they’re still giving up 7.3 yards per completion on average.
Inexperience still seems to be an issue for this defense that has first year starter Kobe Williams at one end and red-shirt freshman Chase Lucas on the other side. The player to watch here is J’Marcus Rhodes who mans the SPUR position for the Sun Devils. As a DB/LB hybrid Rhodes can come down into the box and gives the DB group a big hitter.
Prediction
The UCLA Football team got a big boost from the news that Josh Rosen would likely suit up for this game and will probably start. He gives the Bruins their best chance to grab a win here and keep their bowl hopes alive. Although ASU has been choosing to rush only four for most of the season they know the Bruins don’t handle the blitzes well and they were able to knock Rosen out of the game last year.
Add into this equation the trouble the UCLA Football defense has had in stopping the run. Ballage and Richard will be able to feast if the Bruins can’t get into the backfield to disrupt plays. Since the Bruins also struggle in getting to the QB quickly they’d be better served getting their hands up to knock passes down. They may not knock down every pass but knowing that Wilkins is a rhythm passer they might be able to force him to double clutch or try to make questionable throws.
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The Bruins have the QB to make this a scorefest that ASU will be hard pressed to keep up in. What they need to find out is do they have the receivers. Still I think the Bruins will be able to find a way to win a curiously low scoring game that has both teams moving the ball but unable to finish drives. UCLA wins 27-24.