In Reply to: Urban Meyer says UCLA has "very good" players posted by TJJ on October 07, 2025 at 14:03:40
We have some very good players, heck, we saw that last year, BUT, we have some serious deficiencies too.
We have not had a pass rush w/o blitzing all year (and that was the case last year until we made Femi a rusher) and rarely get any penetration on run plays.
We also have had serious issues defending the run. A lot of that is that we lost 3 NFL LB's, and our most talented LB (Vaughns) had never been a full-time starter and, while talented, has had to get his read/react up to speed. We also really needed to play Woods more at LB and get out of our nickel, which has been a sieve v. the Run.
We have issues on the Offensive line (at least, until the Penn St game - we will see about that moving forward).
Coaching and experience appears to be addressing the LB's and OL, but we really need to find someone who can rush the passer (yeah, we got a sack last week from a DL, but that was because PSU tried to block him with an RB). Davillier was supposed to be the Edge rusher we needed, but he hasn't played all year. DT's getting more penetration (Smith and Williams have the talent, I'd think, but haven't managed it yet - all the coaching changes might get them there).