It didn’t take a genius to know it was time for a change.
The UCLA defense had been gashed for 38 points and 286 rushing yards in the first half of Sunday’s season-opener against Texas A&M.
So defensive coordinator Tom Bradley and the Bruins decided to go back to the basics. They rolled out their base 4-3 defense, a personnel grouping they hadn’t employed in practice for the last week and a half of preparations for the Aggies.
UCLA spent the first half working almost exclusively with its nickel package, but by halftime, Bradley and the Bruins had a better understanding of the opponent’s personnel and how certain Aggie players were being used.
Sophomore middle linebacker Lokeni Toailoa entered the game in the third quarter and helped provide the thump the Bruins needed to slow down the Aggies’ ground game.
Texas A&M, which averaged 7.9 yards per carry in the opening half, ran for just 3.6 yards per carry and scored just six points after halftime. UCLA recorded five sacks in the second half, including three in the fourth quarter, and held A&M to just 3-of-18 passing after the break.
“We’d seen the personnel they had and the things they were trying to accomplish and we just took advantage of their weaknesses,” said senior weakside linebacker Kenny Young. “Put some new guys in to try to help put some pressure on the quarterback, got some sacks, got some big-time, third-down stops.”
The Bruins stopped the Aggies on their final four third-down attempts, quickly getting the ball back to their red-hot offense in the final quarter by opting for a daring brand of defense that required the defensive backs to hold up in man-to-man coverage without any help over the top.
“We were playing some desperation-style defense,” Bradley said. “To ask those corners and safeties to play man-to-man with no pressure … that’s tough on them; that’s not fair to ask them to do that. We were asking them to do some things that are very tough to do. … Normally you don’t do that. But we didn’t have a choice.”
Once the defense started to pick up, the depleted Rose Bowl crowd began to louden again and the offense capitalized on the opportunities – putting up 28 fourth-quarter points.
“We had to get the ball back to the offense,” Bradley said. “We felt that if we could get the ball back, we had the momentum going. … You could see that Texas A&M, they kind of thought that the game was over, and our kids never quit.”
Fearless freshmen
For the first time in school history, UCLA started two true freshmen on defense: defensive end Jaelan Phillips and cornerback Darnay Holmes.
Up until Sunday, the Bruins had not started even a single true freshman on defense since Rahim Moore in 2008.
Both Phillips and Holmes made mistakes throughout the course of the game. Phillips allowed Aggie ball-carriers to reach the edge against him a couple times, and Holmes was flagged for a late-hit penalty in the first half.
But the freshmen finished with five tackles each, with Phillips adding 1.5 sacks and Holmes breaking up a pair of passes.
“What was most impressive about Jaelan and Darnay … was their demeanors,” said coach Jim Mora. “You don’t see freshmen react the way they did very often in a big-game atmosphere when you are way down. We’ve seen it every day in practice, but I didn’t know how they’d react in a game, and I was pleased with that.”