WATCH: DC Ikaika Malloe pinpoints UCLA defense’s struggles
The offseason worries about UCLA replacing its entire defense have shown up in a major way through the first two games of the season.
Among the 18 teams in the Big Ten, the Bruins rank last defensively on third down (70.4 %), against the run (217 yards allowed per game), total defense (421.5 ypg) and points allowed (36.5 ppg).
Ikaika Malloe, now in his second season as the Bruins’ defensive coordinator, saw a similar start play out last season. This year, though, there are 11 new starters and fewer players with multiple years of previous experience in the system.
“I feel like we’re finding the pieces to put in better ways. What I thought was we had to kind of make some adjustments to it,” Malloe said of his changes after an 0-2 start.
“Depending on the calls and how they fit, we were really much like last year, we fell into a very specific type of defense, again, where certain guys can only do certain things. So as you look forward to this week, that’s what you’re gonna actually see — a little bit more changes, so we can protect some guys, and then we can probably put them in a better position to make plays.”
Defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe media availability (9/9)
Watch Malloe’s full press conference after Tuesday’s practice below:
