In Reply to: Did Ucla nail the offseason? 9 of 18 posted by ClockBlocker on May 13, 2025 at 16:10:43
"Connelly's take: That a bad offense got massively overhauled is probably a good thing. That a pretty good defense lost almost every starter is probably a bad thing. Ikaika Malloe has quite a bit of work to do."
So, the things in UCLA's control (the dreadful OC/OL coaching) is hopefully addressed, while the things not in UCLA's control (losing a lot of the defense to graduation) are TBD, but a relatively normal situation, especially as compared to this point last year.
I think we will be better than we were to start the season last year. Will we be better than we finished? That really depends on how quickly all the transfers, especially on defense, take to gel, and if the Coaches can hit the ground running (literally, as well as figuratively, given our dreadful rushing attack last year).
Malloe took almost 2 months to get the defense fully up to speed, especially with regards to the pass rush, last year (seeing how little QB pressures and TFLs we were able to generate until the Rutgers/Nebraska portion of the schedule). The defense was resilient before then, but it didn't really shine until the pressure packages and Femi moved to Edge later in the season. We need to sort those things out much earlier on defense this year.
I think, compared with last year at this time, we are in a much better position to succeed. Time will tell - Utah is just over 3 months away...